I think the writer forgot about Temple and UMass stopping in for a cup of coffee for football
https://twitter.com/benscottstevens/status/1687886463059304448?s=46&t=6o6QN4eHhEVbIIqyNNUj5g
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Don’t forget UCF as a MAC school. With UC and UCF, we’ve become the “cradle of Big 12 programs”.
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As a conference, the MAC has had two programs win national championships (Akron in soccer, Growling Bean in hockey) Miami finish 2nd in hockey, Ohio make it to the college Workd Series and I believe finish 3rd, and two football programs bust the BCS. And of course MU has finished the season ranked top 10 in football. Ps, I think a couple hoops programs won the NIT back in the day. I’d have to check. It may be a boring conference with a terrible podium, but it’s remarkably successful over the last 50 years
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The podium was property of the House of Blues in Cleveland. Not ours. I think Kent State and Western Michigan have been to the CWS, too.
Since I can no longer yell at live horses, I choose to kick dead ones. The podium is my dead horse.
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Interesting history!
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The MAC is the “Rust Belt Junior League”. SI ranked us 10th out of the 10 conferences in Division I football a few years ago.
Click here or Eddie will trade your liver for a better set of golf clubs.
The MAC is abysmal.
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I think the MAC would be more interesting as an FCS football conference. Can still play OOC games vs P5, league play stays the same, and then there’s an actual tournament at the end of the season for the conference winner and maybe one or two at-larges.
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Until the Big Sky and MVC roll over the newly-FCS MAC teams.
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Remember MAC teams in FCS will have FCS budgets. There is no reason to think they would dominate if they only had 63 scholarships and less resources
Some years the MAC is the 10th best conference. Sometimes it is the 7th best. Sometimes 9th beet….what is it in basketball? Way worse
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The new Super conferences are going to start playing 10 conference games and only two OOC games. Those two OOC games are going to be against two G5 teams or 1 G5 and 1 non conference P5.
FCS teams are not going to be getting those big paydays anymore from the likes of Auburn, Washington and Iowa. They’ll have to get their buy games from Kent State, Tulsa, Coastal Carolina and Fresno State. In addition, there is no MACtion payday for FCS teams. ESPN+ streaming is all they’ll get for TV coverage until the 16 team playoff.
Keep our seat at the damned table!
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We haven’t had a seat in decades, if we’re being honest. It’s all play-acting.
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That’s a-ok by me
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I had no idea of the history of WM baseball!! 6 college World Series appearances and one national runners up.
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I want no part of FCS. Anybody who is any good spends all their time and money trying to get out of it. Financially and exposure wise it is much worse than where we are now. If we are the 8th or 9th Best conference that is great for us. And periodically we have achieved great things.
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I don’t think FCS will be FCS per se, but the tea leaves suggest there will be a Power Division and everybody else. I wouldn’t mind everybody else, Miami included, merging with the current FCS to create a division that makes sense financially for member institutions while also providing an end-of -year tournament to crown a national champion.
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Like No Dakota St.? Eastern Washington? There are schools in which FCS works just fine for their needs and wants. And there are others chasing the golden calf.
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I am not going to take a side one way or the other on this FBS v. FCS debate. But I want to raise a question or two for consideration. Do you enjoy watching MAC games on TV? Assuming that stays at least as is, would you continue enjoying it? Now another question, how often do you see FCS games on TV?
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I only knew about it because Wake Forest talked about it being their only title during the last CWS.
If NDSU had a conference willing to take them they’d jump in a heartbeat. As for EWU, their isolation plus their 8,600 seat stadium keeps them out. Meanwhile, schools like Coastal, JMU, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State and a few others have strategically put themselves in the position to move up. We have far too much invested in infrastructure to even consider moving down to FCS. And I like going to bowl games.
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