Sun Belt has midweek in October
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Good to know, never watched it.
Better weather for November night games.
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I thought that was CUSA.
Yeah, they play a few each week on weekdays, but CUSA plays every October game on a weekday:
This marks the third season of “Weekday CUSA,” which will see all October league matchups played on midweek evenings. CUSA’s broadcast partners will share the October weeknight football games on linear television across CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.
CUSA down to 10.
Would REALLY like to see the MAC try to add WKU and someone else (MTSU, Delaware, etc.) while CUSA is down…
MTSU and WKU are likely a package deal. It was widely reported a couple of year’s ago that both institutions were considered for MAC membership and that WKU was enthusiastic but Middle Tennessee was not.
Akron & Kent out. 2 new in.
I wish we could keep Akron and Kent for BB and boot them for FB!! Except they are generally easy wins!!
I would love to add WKU. Such a perfect fit geographically.
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As my high school algebra teacher used to say, “Somebody’s got to be on the bottom; otherwise the curve doesn’t work.”
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In a perfect world at least one Ohio state school would not merely drop FBS football but cease operations. The students and dollars would migrate to the other state institutions and solve the persistant underenrollment and underfunding of everone else.
Of course then we get to the issue of what school gets the axe and the real fun begins…
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Ohio State. Done.
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iirc, the athletic department wanted the move, but the administration didn’t want to pay the exit fee.
EDIT: more context, the admin didn’t just want to not pay, they wanted to collect the windfall from the exit fees of the schools leaving for greener pastures. Sitting in a (potentially) dying conference to collect some one-off checks sounds like a lack of long-term administrative support. If that’s the case, I think there are better alternatives.
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Those have been our two best basketball programs.
If we had to lose one MAC program, I do think I would have chosen NIU. What we lose with them is their football program has been a top MAC program in the MAC for most of the last 25 years. They brought the Chicago tv market into play.
Other than that, they have been a real drag in men’s basketball in particular and all other MAC sports and they were a bit of a geographical outlier in the conference. With the m leaving and UMass entering I think the future of the MAC is as a league stretching from Michigan to the East coast and future adds might come from Pennsylvania, New York New England area. Culturally we would seem to fit better going East than South.
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Gosh, I rarely disagree with Dick but I do on this. The downside of the MAC in the modern conference landscape is the presence of 9 schools in only two states. Obviously the 6 located in Ohio being particularly problematic. It severely limits our desirability for television contracts and all the revenue that can derive.
NIU has over 9 million people located within a one hour and 10 minute drive. It is one of only 3 FBS schools in the state of Illinois. In Ohio, a state with a lower population, we have 8. It helped all conference schools to recruit the area. Something Miami, in particular, took advantage of. How NIU was that consistently bad in basketball is a mystery. They had a fertile recruiting ground and more than reasonable facilities. I think the odds are against them being that incompetent going forward whatever conference they are in.
If I had a choice to “cull the herd” it would be one of our two NE Ohio schools (Kent or Akron) and Bowling Green leaving Toledo alone in NW Ohio.
I do think Dick is correct, however, that the future may be in the northeast.
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That’s a net strength. Moving to another G6 league would not materially increase Miami’s income from media rights, and it would likely add significant additional travel costs that outweigh any revenue gains.
Just to take a quick comparison, Marshall has less revenue from conference distributions, media rights, and postseason football than Miami does – and roughly double the travel expenses.
It’s okay to be in a bus league that’s still in FBS, particularly since we finance this program on the backs of our students through activity fees.
https://knightnewhousedata.org/fbs/sun-belt/marshall-university
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