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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2017 16:17:19 GMT -6
These teams (Liberty, James Madison) routinely draw 20,000/game as FCS schools. Moving to FBS in the MAC conference would not be pushing their attendance numbers upward. The Sunbelt conference has been aggressively targeting the successful FCS football schools to enhance their conference football image. Look at their attendance levels and their success in last year's bowl season as opposed to the MAC, who appears to have NO vision as to what it wants to be as a conference. Maybe the vision is to be a Great Lakes states conference, like we are. We have survived where other regional conferences could not, there is something to be said for that. Temple and Buffalo represented attempts to go East, and we had an experiment with Central Florida and Marshall that went nowhere. Buffalo is working OK it appears, not sure these wide area conferences are really a great idea for the MAC to emulate. Not sure how we would even be able to do try something analogous to the Sunbelt if we wanted. Those schools are gambling FBS football can be maintained, maybe easier in the South. I don't see the lower level schools in the Midwest lined up to move to FBS or where we find partners to expand. Attempts? Buffalo has worked out fine, mainly because Buffalo joined for ALL sports. Temple, UMass, UCF were destined for failure due to a lack of commitment to be 100% MAC. They joined the MAC already with their eye on someplace else. If they had committed, we could have picked up complimentary schools to build out regional rivals, and move the conference's geographic centroid further east. UCF would've been a stretch due to their southeastern proximity, and UMass would've been a stretch due to their northeastern proximity, unless a UNH or Vermont came with them. With five schools in Ohio, additions to the East Division based near the East Coast are not a stretch, and not travel prohibitive since the West would not be playing these teams each year. A couple of the western Ohio schools would shift to West Division. From Indiana, it's easier to get to Virginia (8 hours, than it is to the Dakotas, 12 hours). There are no schools in Western PA, or West Virginia suitable to jump to FBS level. Virginia is a rapidly growing state. While Kentucky could offer EKU, and Illinois could offer ISU or SIU, neither state is encountering growth like Virginia. Illinois has budget issues that need to be resolved. Don't rule out WIU or EIU having to close, and NIU, SIU and ISU having to pick up the pieces. Quite frankly, conferences' goals are to be 16 teams, with eight teams per division. I am not sure how the MAC gets on parity. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2017 17:22:57 GMT -6
Most other conferences have aggressive plans and are leaving the MAC in the Great Lakes dust.
At the rate we're going, ESPN will have us playing at noon on Thursdays and the MAC will sign on the dotted line. 😏
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Post by bsu0 on Feb 20, 2017 17:25:36 GMT -6
The answer to the question at hand in NO.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2017 17:50:06 GMT -6
Screw it. Let's really go Great Lakes. We're adding:
University of Windsor - 14,700 undergrads
University of Western Ontario - 29,500
University of Waterloo - 30,000
University of Toronto - 60,600
International baby. Road trips to Windsor and Toronto, eh?
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Post by cardfan on Feb 20, 2017 18:06:22 GMT -6
Screw it. Let's really go Great Lakes. We're adding: University of Windsor - 14,700 undergrads University of Western Ontario - 29,500 University of Waterloo - 30,000 University of Toronto - 60,600 International baby. Road trips to Windsor and Toronto, eh? Nice!! |
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Post by bsu0 on Feb 20, 2017 18:47:59 GMT -6
OOOOOO CANADA, Our home and native land......
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Post by 00hmh on Feb 20, 2017 19:43:56 GMT -6
Hockey in Worthen?
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Post by bleadingcardwhite on Feb 20, 2017 19:56:55 GMT -6
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