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Post by 00hmh on Jan 27, 2024 10:18:16 GMT -6
Agreed One thing that does give the MAC some leverage if Money does become the end all say all of conference shake ups is we have remained regional. All the other conferences have branched out much further than us staying regional is one of the few wise choices the MAC has made This makes us a great conference on the cost side, saving money for the athletic department on travel, giving us a decent recruiting footprint, an identity to sell. But on the revenue side we have no real potential to compete in the FB TV game, or for that matter in a BB TV package.
You are right 100%, that it looks like a TV and NIL money game in the revenue sports.
The big FB schools can fund their little brother BB programs far better than we can from big FB TV and huge gate, and we don't have either conference gate or TV market, even in BB. Local advertising and media or alumni base doesn't give us much cash for NIL in that arena.
The MAC can be an attractive mid major at lower competitive levels because of that cost advantage, but to be competitive with the top G5 in FB or BB is looking doubtful.
Now, we are who we are. Maybe a potentially competitive FCS in FB, and a declining conference in BB mostly to develop talent for big time BB programs, with some chance to occasionally have a good MAC team get to the round of 16 in BB.
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Post by sdacardinal on Jan 27, 2024 11:10:51 GMT -6
In the early 60s Ball State had some really decent basketball teams that could never beat Butler. They and other teams looked down upon BSU at that time Ball State Teachers College. I think "Teachers" in the name of the school had something to do with the disrespect of the school as teachers then as they are now looked down upon. "Those who can do. Those who can't teach". One night we had a game at Butler and BSTC had a really good team but was beaten by Butler. They had a bell and kept ringing it to rub it in. Somehow we got a hold of it and took it back to Muncie later returned it to them. Disrespect? In a recent survey Indiana ranked 42nd in teacher pay. Revenge came to Ball State when we beat the livin shit out of them in football in the first game in the new stadium. I still have a problem with Butler. I thought the Ball jar and Barbed wire idea was great and represented well the contributions made to the development of the West. Barbed wire in 1873 fenced off the West and farmers moved in planting stuff and the Ball Jar came along and gave them something to put their stuff in. I really didn't give a sit about a corn stock and still don't. However the NIU/BSU rivalry is a good one . Love their Husky mascot.
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 27, 2024 12:00:07 GMT -6
BSTC!
I haven't thought about that for a long time
In 60's maybe a few thousand students, had to be majority coeds.
TC was really big then. Indiana teachers had more requirement to get a master's degree, too. So big summer enrollment on campus.
Dave Letterman days! No business school, no architecture, no Bracken Library, Cooper Science being built, state of the art...
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Post by JacksonStreetElite on Jan 27, 2024 15:03:04 GMT -6
As one who did some of the forcing I can explain. When I was a sophomore I thought it was a bummer we didn't have any heated rivalries. Miami had OU, Toledo had BGSU, and the Michigans had each other. So I went to the NIU message board and talked to them about it, and one of their moderators, HuskieMobileMan, was on board. I asked Brady about it at an event and he was very lukewarm, basically said "yeah but we aren't rivals." Undeterred, HuskieMobileMan and I both agreed to reach out to our respective AD's and propose the plan, so I emailed Tom Collins a suggestion that we start a trophy with NIU. To my surprise he emailed back and copied Matt Wolfert and asked Matt to meet with me. So I made a stupid little presentation explaining my reasoning and met with Matt. My recollection is that Matt was also kind of lukewarm about it, but they weren't opposed. The idea HuskieMobileMan and I proposed was the "founders trophy" which was to be some form of a Ball jar wrapped in barbed wire (NIU was founded by Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire). I didn't hear anything else after that until they publicly announced the bronze stalk trophy. For the first few years clearly nobody cared, but I think the trophy can take some of the credit for the heat between us and NIU for the past few years. This is a great story hope you dont mind if I share it sometime when needed? Haha I’m not sure when it would be needed, but by all means, feel free to share. |
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