William and Mary + Miami makes great sense. I wouldn’t mind a JMU in that equation as well.
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B1G and SEC are never going to leave the Indianas and Mississippi States behind for a variety of reasons. Plus, it would cause a huge legal shitstorm to either kick out or subjesct to relegation a founding and century plus member of a conference.
I have said numerous times over the years the MAC should add WKU. I would also look to add Marshall again, but if not them, perhaps MTSU. For “east coast” additions, I think W & M, James Madison or UMASS.
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I think the MAC is smart to stand pat for now unless they can reach into the South and pull WKU and MTSU in as a pair. Delaware is probably more likely to want to go FBS than William and Mary. I think JMU and Marshall are completely comfortable in the Fun Belt.
Marshall? I don’t even feel like I know you anymore.
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I think Delaware would be a decent addition with UMass. Marshall is in CUSA and not the Fun Belt. I avoided mentioning JMU because once they got picked up by the Sun Belt, there’s not a solid chance to get them again.
Here’s where things do get interesting though, adding UMass, Marshall, WKU, and one of Delaware, W&M, JMU, MTSU, etc, would actually take the viewership of the MAC close to AAC levels without the Big 12 teams. And media deals are all about viewership. Of note, Akron didn’t even make the list, which should tell you everything you need to know about their viewership.
IMO, college sports is now a business devoid of regionality. Expanding your footprint now gets you more eyes, and more eyes mean more money. Expand or be left as the irrelevant Ohio/Michigan conference.
EDIT: w/r/t Marshall, rivalries bring eyes. There’s a lot of eyes that would be interested in the three way rivalry between OU, Marshall, and Miami.
Marshall joined the Sun Belt either last year or this year. And JMU has a natural in-state rival in the Belt - ODU.
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Whoops! You’re right. My fault. Forgot that move happened to backfill who they lost to the AAC. Still wish we could’ve landed them and it feels like a short sighted move to just stick with the same teams indefinitely with the direction CFB is headed. With football driving everything, putting our faith in the likes of Akron and EMU feels dangerous.
Ironically, Marshall thinks it’s a “southern team”, not a Midwest program. They always resented being the only “southern” team in the MAC.
Marshall and Miami had a nice little rivalry going in both football and basketball when they were in the MAC.
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But the Herd really only liked it during the era in which they dominated - with Pennington and Moss. The rest of the time all they ever did was bitch.
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45-6.
Sadly, we were 1-9 in the last 10 games against them.
Marshall can go down in flames for all I care. Don’t need them, don’t want them.
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I would like to say, that I was present at Old Miami Field when Miami beat Marshall 66 to 6, and that it could have been 99 to 0 if Miami didn’t play all 60 players that were allowed to dress.
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What did we used to say about Marshall? It was a half-way house with a semi-pro football team?
Down in flames?
1966 - Yet they fantasized that Bo was throwing deep on every down in the fourth quarter. It became their central piece of anti-Miami propaganda.If you analyze the play by play chart, we started running between the tackles on almost every play starting in the third quarter and did indeed play about everyone we dressed.
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Yep but accounting for Miami playing everyone who dressed would require Marshall players to count into the higher end of double digits. That was never happening.
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Yes.