With the MAC officially back to 12 members is it time to consider putting Toledo and Bowling Green in the same division?

Having a fixed cross division game every year messes up the schedule rotation, which wasn't a big deal with an uneven 13 teams, but at an even 12 it would be nice to getting back to playing everyone in your division every year and everyone in the cross division every other year. For example, Toledo and Ohio haven't played since 2010.

What are your thoughts?

East. West. East. West. I feel like Istanbul.

I don't even remember what that looks like anymore but i remember Bowling Green being in the West division.

If you are talking about a West division stacked with NIU, BG, Toledo, and WMU then that is one tough division. Even BSU and CMU have their good seasons.

If you are talking about sending Toledo over to the East division and the East sending over a team to the West, who would it be?

Would be nice, but who would you flip?
-EMU would have a much easier time in the East, but that would screw up the Michigan MAC Trophy.

I think that BSU would be best in the East. They could then have yearly games against Miami who is the closest school to them. Further, they would be very competitive in the East.

The big problem though is that the West is the power side of the conference with BGSU dominating the East. If we moved them to the West then the divisions would be even more lopsided in power. It would even things out better if we could figure out how to put Toledo in the East, I cannot think of who to move to the west that would make any sense or not completely disrupt another rivalry.

BGSU to the West, EMU to the East!

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a switch, but the competitive balance is screwed up enough as it is that sending BG to West messes things up even more. Then again, the East was on top for a while when Marshall and Miami were in their prime, so maybe the pendulum is ready to swing back in a few years as Miami finally gets good again, Akron stays a winning program, and the West keeps getting its coaches poached by the P5.

(11-28-2015 03:10 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  BGSU to the West, EMU to the East!

Bring BG back to the West and send NIU to the East. We have no rivalries to mess up.

(11-28-2015 03:10 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  BGSU to the West, EMU to the East!

That's the only thing that would sort of make sense geographically, though it would make the West even tougher and the East even shittier.

BG was, and was going to be, in the West when the conference had 14 teams. After Marshall & UCF left, they moved to the East so it would be even. When Temple was still part of the MAC and UMASS was coming in, the plan was for BG to go back to the West, but Temple left before it could be implemented.

(11-28-2015 02:57 PM)Rightupinthere Wrote:  East. West. East. West. I feel like Istanbul.

You mean Constantinople.

Here's my thought process-

- in the short term if you move the current 3X East champ to the West you're going to increase the imbalance of power.
- however, if you move to Toledo to the East then you would help bring balance between the divisions.
- but if you move Toledo to the East, who goes to the West?
- geographically BG or Miami would be the closest teams but the whole point of realignment is to preserve rivalries and the Ohio/Miami rivalry is just as important as the BG/Toldeo rivalry.
- Akron/Kent is another East rivalry to preserve so that would leave Buffalo as odd man out.
- moving Buffalo to the West would create an all-Ohio division which would be neat for those 6 teams but would really suck for Buffalo.
- ultimately I think the best move would be to switch Ball State and Bowling Green.

They should just start from scratch and screw geographics. It doesn't need to be "East" and "West"

(11-28-2015 04:09 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  Here's my thought process-

- in the short term if you move the current 3X East champ to the West you're going to increase the imbalance of power.
- however, if you move to Toledo to the East then you would help bring balance between the divisions.
- but if you move Toledo to the East, who goes to the West?
- geographically BG or Miami would be the closest teams but the whole point of realignment is to preserve rivalries and the Ohio/Miami rivalry is just as important as the BG/Toldeo rivalry.
- Akron/Kent is another East rivalry to preserve so that would leave Buffalo as odd man out.
- moving Buffalo to the West would create an all-Ohio division which would be neat for those 6 teams but would really suck for Buffalo.
- ultimately I think the best move would be to switch Ball State and Bowling Green.

(10-28-2014 07:39 AM)Motown Bronco Wrote:  

Adding to the intrigue of this weekend's matchup...

(11-28-2015 09:03 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(11-28-2015 07:20 AM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  MAC football is now a made for TV sport. The NCAA and the MAC do not care about attendance.

But the NCAA had never cared about attendance as such ... it has never had any philosophical commitment to having large numbers of people come to view every NCAA athletic contest. The mission statement is all about "student athlete participation."

The NCAA only ever cared about attendance as in indicator of the resources available to a school ... the attendance requirement was dreamed up to relegate the 1980's era MAC and their like from the ranks of the top FB subdivision.

But actually enforcing it in terms of people coming to games would have relegated some incumbent members of power conferences. So the NCAA came up with the two alternatives of either counting the numbers of people coming to games or else counting the numbers of tickets sold, where smaller stadium incumbent schools in power conferences could all find some donors to make sure that the tickets were bought to allow them to continue to meet whatever the standard was.

But having amended the rule to protect incumbents of power conferences, they can't prevent the smaller budget schools that they were originally trying to relegate from making use of the rule.

And then the evolution of 12 game schedules and 8 conference games meant that the big stadium schools needed buy games every year, often multiple buy games, in order to have seven or more home games, and the appeal of relegating schools like those in the MAC faded. For a conference like the Big Ten that is not scheduling any more FCS games going ahead, in pursuit of better TV contracts, they need schools like the MAC schools more than ever.

Agree, I'd love to have BSU in the East. Miami is close and a fun game.

(11-28-2015 03:25 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(11-28-2015 03:10 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  BGSU to the West, EMU to the East!

Bring BG back to the West and send NIU to the East. We have no rivalries to mess up.

Come on.

Haven't we made it easy enough for you guys to win Division titles and get to the MACC game? Now you want to go to the East? I say put my Rockets in the East and send BG to the West for a few seasons. Might win a Division title then.

(11-28-2015 04:16 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  They should just start from scratch and screw geographics. It doesn't need to be "East" and "West"

Could do North and South and still keep all of the rivalries.

North : CMU, EMU, WMU, UT, BGSU and UB
South : OU, MU, BSU, NIU, KSU, UA.

(11-28-2015 04:57 PM)westernwilly Wrote:  

(11-28-2015 04:16 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  They should just start from scratch and screw geographics. It doesn't need to be "East" and "West"

Could do North and South and still keep all of the rivalries.

North : CMU, EMU, WMU, UT, BGSU and UB
South : OU, MU, BSU, NIU, KSU, UA.

Isn't Dekalb north of Toledo?

Reese - UB, CMU, EMU, WMU, Akron, Kent
Jacoby - NIU, BSU, Miami, Ohio, TOL, BGSU

(11-28-2015 03:10 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  BGSU to the West, EMU to the East!

Not if you want competitive divisions.

(11-28-2015 05:11 PM)utpotts Wrote:  

(11-28-2015 04:57 PM)westernwilly Wrote:  

(11-28-2015 04:16 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  They should just start from scratch and screw geographics. It doesn't need to be "East" and "West"

Could do North and South and still keep all of the rivalries.

North : CMU, EMU, WMU, UT, BGSU and UB
South : OU, MU, BSU, NIU, KSU, UA.

Isn't Dekalb north of Toledo?

Yes, but it is the only way to do it without spiting rivalries.
On second thought, we should just make an Ohio Division and an Everyone Else Division.

(11-28-2015 04:09 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  - ultimately I think the best move would be to switch Ball State and Bowling Green.

This is the one that makes the most sense to me. I'd keep the Michigans together.

(11-28-2015 04:42 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(11-28-2015 03:25 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(11-28-2015 03:10 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  BGSU to the West, EMU to the East!

Bring BG back to the West and send NIU to the East. We have no rivalries to mess up.

Come on.

Haven't we made it easy enough for you guys to win Division titles and get to the MACC game? Now you want to go to the East? I say put my Rockets in the East and send BG to the West for a few seasons. Might win a Division title then.

But we're tired of losing to Central Michigan and their voodoo magic!