MAC - Conference of Consistently

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Only on ESPN+ Except for playoffs.

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But the landscape is changing, it won’t stay as it is. Michigan is opening at home vs. East Carolina this year. They won’t be on TV. They’ll be on Peacock only, the pay for Peacock. In the future, what would stop networks from showing non-Power Autonomous football programs on just streaming services, keeping the prime power autonomous football programs on the networks? That makes financial sense to me.

And once the networks get their deal, what’s to stop them from showing Illinois/Iowa on a Wednesday? The universities won’t object once they see the big $$$$$.

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They already charge us to see Miami and other G5 games on ESPN+. The choice we’ve had in recent years has been to subscribe or don’t watch and wait for their linear TV networks to put us on TV during MACtion. I’ll gladly pay ESPN $9.99 a month to watch Miami football, hoops, softball and baseball. I just wish hockey was on the ESPN platform.

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You’re 100% correct.

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I’m not privy to the Networks’ business models and long-term strategic plans but I’m pretty certain the Power 60-70 - their BIG whatever and SEC partners -don’t want to jeopardize their universities’ huge Weekend revenue streams (most stadiums nearly sold out and dollars flying all over Columbus, Iowa City, Ann Arbor, etc,) to move games to Tuesday-Wednesday when the networks have CUSA and MACtion to use as midweek filler at a far lesser cost.

The financial impact of moving weekend games to midweek - especially in the Midwest November weather - is not nearly as harsh for MAC teams as it would be on most Power programs.

The cultural, financial and brand identity impact of MACtion is probably a net positive for the three November games. It’s the only time the MAC gets its games on national non-subscription TV in prime time.

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Absolutely nothing. I mentioned either on this thread or the “changing landscpes” thread it wouldn’t surprise me if the MAC got supplanted on weekday MACtion games with P5 games. But for now, and per my comment above, we are still on. Maybe the MAC could get a deal with Paramount+, who owns 247Scout as well. Or I should say CBS does, which also owns Paramount+ and 247Scout.

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We should buy the old Voice of America tower and put the games on the radio. I’m not paying these tv grift machines one more penny for ruining everything.

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Nixon says different

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1.How will tuition increases fly for the BIG 60-70?
“ Hey, what’s this extra 3,000/year for my kids room and board when you guys are raking in millions?”
2. How are they going to show 30-35 games on a typical Saturday?

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I don’t know about EWU other than what Nescadad said, but you are wrong about NDSU, they want to get into a D1 league ( including the MAC). Geography has prevented them from getting there.

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EWU is located in rural Cheney, about 35 miles west of Spokane. They have a very small campus and student body compared to other Big Sky schools. Roos Field seats 8,600 with no plans for expansion.

UC Davis, Montana and Montana State - and possibly Weber State - are the only Big Sky schools that are anywhere close to FBS ready.

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35 miles is pretty extreme. They’re about 6ish exits west of downtown. Now….from Coeur d’alene 35 miles sounds about right.

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Literally the exact same amount of times I see the MAC other than maction. Both MAC and FCS are basically only available on ESPN+ on Saturdays.

We also get 2 FCS schools on local channels since they’re the only D1 schools in the state….but does Cincy even get Miami on locals anymore?

While I agree with the overall money from their ESPN deal, I do not agree with the exposure argument.

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Also…facility/infrastructure. I feel like an FCS booster here (maybe I am), but I’ve been to 3 FCS stadiums (SIU, Montana State, and the best venue in FCS, faaaar better atmosphere than any in the MAC, Washington Grizzly Stadium) that are nicer than Yager. The IPF is nice, but these are popping up all over the FCS landscape too (MSU is fundraising for one now).

All of this to say: the gap between the FCS and the MAC is microscopic compared to the gap between the MAC and the P5. A G5/FCS merger of some kind seems inevitable in the next decade, if not sooner.

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You’re right. Actually 17 miles from downtown - 25 minutes. It seems longer when you drive it. EWU is actually 50 miles from CdA.

But nobody ever confused Cheney for Missoula or Roos Field for Washington Grizzly Stadium. IMO, EWU is definitely not a candidate for an FBS conference.

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The Gap between the MAC and FCS is only narrow when it comes to a few schools. While Montana’s stadium is very nice (I’ve been in it) and Montana State’s has been enhanced tremendously in the past 20 years (been to Bobcat Stadium, too) the other football facilities in the Big Sky pale in comparison to Yager, the Glass Bowl, the Doyt, Infocision and even Scheumann.

And the Sky is one of three premier FCS conferences. There are far more 8,000 -12,000 seat stadiums in FCS than 25,000 seat stadiums. Ball State’s is the smallest in the MAC and it is now over 22,000 seats.

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The past few seasons we’ve pretty consistently been getting one or two games per weekend on either CBS Sports or ESPNU prior to MACtion starting. Miami just usually hasn’t been involved in those games.

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Last year Miami had 5 non conference games including the bowl game. They played on ESPN, ESPNU, SEC Network regional, Big 10 regional and ESPN 3

We played 5 conference Saturdays on Espnu, cbs sports net and 3 on ESPN plus

We played 3 Maction games on Espn2, cbs sports net and ESPN plus

I get directv and both the Sec and big 10’games were on my tv

So including those Miami played 8 games on national tv last year and only 2 were Maction.

So I disagree that our tv exposure is the same as fcs if you take out maction

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Plus our games against SEC or B1G teams get carried on their conference networks.

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But the D1 they want to get into over the last 25-30 yrs isn’t going to be what they’re actually entering. That ship sailed long ago. I’d like to see the MAC, and FCS, and whomever else, create a division that makes sense financially, offers a good product, and crowns a champion through a tournament. To me, and just my opinion, that would be more fun to follow than seeing if we’re going to Bahamas, Detroit or Mobile for a single game that doesn’t really mean much beyond the event itself.

Just my $0.02

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