I think a lot of us would, at least at some point in the near-ish future. Unfortunately, it may not be so until for a long time...

NIU/IL St. rivalry would fill Huskie Stadium.. 28K+ book it

I think everyone at NIU would love to see ISU make the jump, but that's pretty clearly not on the near term agenda for them.

I would welcome the likes of James Madison/Delaware/UMass and Stony Brook is intriguing, although the more paranoid Huskies who think the MAC is some sort of Ohio conspiracy are likely to hate it (just guessing).

I just wish someone in the MVC footprint were looking upwardly mobile.

Army would be a tasty addition, they have "alumni" in every city

Army would be a tasty

(10-21-2010 08:55 PM)DSniu41 Wrote:  NIU/IL St. rivalry would fill Huskie Stadium.. 28K+ book it

Until they stopped playing one another on an annual basis in the mid-80's, NIU and ISU had one of the longest continuous rivalries in college basketball. Back in the early 70's there were classic battles between Jim Bradley and Billy Harris of NIU and Doug Collins and Bubbles Hawkins of ISU. The game in 1977 was unofficially the most attended home game in NIU history. We jammed 7000 folks into the Evans Field House which seated only 6000, with kids sitting on the floor between the bleachers and the court. The DeKalb fire marshal was not happy that night.

UMass is once again looking to move up.

(10-26-2010 11:49 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  UMass is once again looking to move up.

But the key paragraph is...

Quote:“In this economic environment, I don’t see any governor or legislator willing to roll the dice on a $100 million bet on’’ the Football Bowl Subdivision, Karam (vice chairman of the UMass board of trustees who had led the task force on elevating football) said. “You hear alumni saying they’d love to do it, but when you do a survey on the checks people are willing to write to support it, they don’t match up.’’

He also said:

Quote:UMass should focus on rebuilding its once-renowned basketball program to national prominence...

Besides, they would only consider a move straight into the Big East or stay FCS, which is where they will be for the foreseeable future. They certainly would not risk the investment to move into a midwest conference they have no connection to. It's just not happening.

They are not in Temple's situation who had to move to the MAC out of desperation to keep it's FBS status alive.

If expansion is in fact on the table, since most of the mentioned programs offer little that would help the MAC rpi or computer rankings, the idea of adding the more prestigious academic institutions makes sense. They help enhance our overall academic reputations, while we help their athletic profiles. As for media exposure, it does help to have members in majors markets, however, if we all do not recruit better players and compete (with wins) with higher profile programs, the media will ignore us no matter where we are.

I think the idea is to go after "sleeping giant" programs. Schools in a good position to improve greatly when they move to the FBS. Large schools with good academic profiles fit the bill. They are already well known because of their academics and they have a student population large enough to support athletics at a MAC level. A past history of supporting athletics is important, as well.

(10-27-2010 04:19 AM)axeme Wrote:  Besides, they would only consider a move straight into the Big East or stay FCS, which is where they will be for the foreseeable future. They certainly would not risk the investment to move into a midwest conference they have no connection to. It's just not happening.

They are not in Temple's situation who had to move to the MAC out of desperation to keep it's FBS status alive.

From another perspective, they are increasingly becoming a geographic outlier in CAA football. Although the league remains attractive #1 in FCS they will soon be left with Maine and NH in the Northeast while the league shifts further South. The CAA adding a Fordham or SBU would help. But if not, and they could receive the funding and wish to improve their program's annual football revenues, the MAC could be their prime option for FBS. They've asked the BE what it would take but nothing came of it.

Since they (or SBU) would only need be an affiliate MAC football member there is much less risk than any other FCS member moving up. Having near-institutional peers in Buffalo and Temple (plus A-10 rivalry) is a plus, and the Ohio schools they'd face are about as far from Amherst as the VA CAA schools.

UMass and Temple to the MAC for all sports. 8 game MAC football schedule with 2 crossover games. basketball would have 20 game MAC conference schedule with 8 cross over games and 12 division games. 2 division winners get byes to quarters with 6 first round games. With less byes that means more games for the MAC to make some money. Having 6 first round games would alllow the MAC to play the first round on campus and perhaps generate some extra money. This format would reward the division winners for being regular season division champs with byes into the quarters.

MAC East
UMass
Temple
Buffalo
Akron
Kent St
Ohio
Miami

MAC West
Bowling Green State
Toledo
Eastern Michigan
Central Michigan
Western Michigan
Ball State
Northern Illinois

There isn't enough in IA football in the MAC to justify UMass also dropping down to play hoops in our one-bid conference.

(10-21-2010 09:03 PM)DogTracks Wrote:  I think everyone at NIU would love to see ISU make the jump, but that's pretty clearly not on the near term agenda for them.

I would welcome the likes of James Madison/Delaware/UMass and Stony Brook is intriguing, although the more paranoid Huskies who think the MAC is some sort of Ohio conspiracy are likely to hate it (just guessing).

I just wish someone in the MVC footprint were looking upwardly mobile.

Agree on all counts.

IL State apparently has zero interest in going I-A.

Agree also about JMU, Delaware, UMass and Stony Brook (if they can build a program and are needed to replace Temple).

I'd like a large footprint conference - midwest and mid-Atlantic.

I could see the MAC East being Akron, Kent, Ohio, UB, Temple, JMU, Delaware, and UMass.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5753330

North Dakota and Southern Utah have just announced that they are joining the Big Sky Conference. It appears that South Dakota is also preparing to announce.

This would shake up NDSU and SDSU.

(11-01-2010 05:52 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5753330

North Dakota and Southern Utah have just announced that they are joining the Big Sky Conference. It appears that South Dakota is also preparing to announce.

This would shake up NDSU and SDSU.

How so? It won't affect the MVFC line-up, and with Centenary and now SUU gone the Summit League's footprint shrinks to more managable travel. Closer non-football members could be added to the Summit more easily as well.

The Virginia Tech AD went on the radio today and said he "expects big things out of the Big East" within the next 48 hours coming out of the meetings that are taking place tomorrow.

If this happens: Big East News Rumor
Could open the door for Temple all sports if you can add Rutgers, UMASS and Delaware.

MAC East
Temple
Buffalo
Rutgers
UMASS
Delaware
Ohio
Kent State
Akron

MAC West
CMU
EMU
WMU
Toledo
BGSU
Ball State
Miami
NIU

http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=460601

The Big East will expand to 10 teams. One of them will almost certainly be Villanova. The other is strongly rumored to be TCU, but we'll see.

(11-02-2010 08:46 AM)mpurdy22 Wrote:  If this happens: Big East News Rumor
Could open the door for Temple all sports if you can add Rutgers, UMASS and Delaware.

MAC East
Temple
Buffalo
Rutgers
UMASS
Delaware
Ohio
Kent State
Akron

MAC West
CMU
EMU
WMU
Toledo
BGSU
Ball State
Miami
NIU

Quit dreaming