(06-22-2016 04:40 PM)Stay Cool Wrote:  

(06-22-2016 08:56 AM)FlyHawk98 Wrote:  1. Yes. I like to remind people the truth about NIU. No way you are ahead of Marshall for any type of move up. Only someone who hasn't truly looked at the numbers would think this.

2. I didn't even know Ohio was included in our market. That's how little they are mentioned. The main newspapers for the entire market/region is dominated by Marshall. Local news stations are dominated by Marshall. I've seen a few news stories from the area, but didn't realize it was because they were in our market.

3. I like Ohio and think we should play them every year in every sport. They do have extremely cheap tickets, but that's ok. They were smart to do it in order to grow the fan base. Plus you cant charge as much for a Tues/Weds game as you can Sat games.

4. I don't want to go back to the MAC because of the midweek games. If we could join the MAC, cut our own TV deal to play on Saturdays then I would be cool with it. As long as they kicked Eastern Michigan out of the conference.

Nobody but you is talking about NIU right now. I said i believe the AAC has other schools they'd prefer to take over Ohio. To name a few, USM and ODU and possibly even Buffalo (they are an AAU school close to New York after all). That was what i was saying, not "huuurrrr duuurrrrr NIU is a lock" like you seem to be implying i am. I offer a bit of opinion to a conversation and you're immediate response is to slam NIU even when they aren't brought up (that's still weird by the way, the obsession). We get it, our fan support sucks and we are underwhelming in post season and bowl games achievements. Now that we got that out, can we go back to the original topic?

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If the goal is to take the school with the best football stadium you'll look at Southern Miss, Rice or Marshall.

If the goal is for the best basketball available you look at ODU, Ohio, UMass.

If the goal is academics then its Rice, Buffalo, Ohio, UMass.

If the priority is FB recruiting then its Rice, SoMiss, ODU and Ohio.

If the priority is big enrollment then UMass, Ohio and Buffalo

Buffalo doesn't have a strong recruiting state in New York. That would be a concern whether they could compete in the AAC as they've only had 2 winning seasons in 15 years of MAC play.

If you look across the 5 categories I listed above Ohio shows up the most.

Ohio 4
UMass 3
Rice 3
Buffalo 2
ODU 2
Southern Miss 2
Marshall 1

I know Athens is the smallest town in FBS but if you are packing it in on Saturdays 25,000 in FB and 10,000 in BB it doesn't really matter. Fans will travel 1, 2 even 3 hours for Bobcat football. Many season ticket holders live in Columbus an hour away.

The biggest knock again on Ohio is that Peden simply is not a P5 level stadium. For a conference like the AAC that wants to be a power conference that's not going to do it. Need at least 32,000 seats for a P5.