(11-17-2015 03:01 PM)HP-TBDPITL Wrote: In theory this is correct...I wonder why so many are not practicing it. Marshall, for example, continues to schedule out of conference to the point where they would be overlooked even if they win CUSA. I know they want to recruit in Ohio, but scheduling two MAC programs (along with an FCS) isn't going to ever give them the nod.
And that's why I say in theory, because in reality you are going to have to have a strong enough schedule to justify the spot...and is the Sun Belt winner going to have that? Is the MAC winner going to have that?
Go5 conferences will continue to have "up" and "down" years going ahead. The number of OOC games that define whether a conference is "up" or "down" are just too few in number for the results as they happen to cluster tightly around what would have been the "expected" results if those games were replayed 10 times each.
And we know that the MAC winner certainly
could have the SOS to be in the mix ... since one of the MAC schools was in the mix until it lost in conference. Setting to one side all of the (now moot) arguments about what was "likely" and who had their future "in their hands", the fact remains that Toledo got themselves into the mix.
And some MAC schools will be scheduling one buy game rather than two, try to schedule a more respected Go5 program H&H, and be in a position, with a "strong enough but not too strong" schedule (because they got lucky in catching a P5 schools in a down year or, even better, a down game in a decent year) to get into the mix if they run the table.
Now, the odds are for any
given year that either the AAC, the MWC or both will have an up year, and one of those two champions will then likely play in the NY6, but there's a real chance at the start of any given year, somewhere in the 1:3 to 1:7 range, that both the AAC and MWC will have a down year at the same time, and the door will be open for the MAC or CUSA champion at the end of that year.
But even in the years when the MWC, AAC or both have a strong inside track, some of the MAC schools will always have a "strong enough but not too strong" schedule that they could be in the mix if they run the table ... and so be in the conversation until they lose.
Now, its still very much in the nature of winning a lottery. But having people who are not close followers of a Go5 conference seeing one or more of your teams in the CFP rankings, and talking about one or more of your teams with a shot at a big bowl game ... that's going to be good news for #MACtion viewership.
Which is, for the schools involved, a marketing win. And, after all, the boost to their profile in their target student markets is why the Go5 schools pay the money to continue to compete at the FBS level. That may be listed as a cost of the "athletic department" expense, but in strategic terms, it certainly isn't spending "so their students have opportunities to compete in high level varsity sporting competition to develop as well-rounded scholar-athletes" ... its a marketing spend.
/
Financial Difficulties and the future of the Mid-Major
