(07-13-2016 02:39 AM)NickleCity Wrote: If the MAC dropped divisions in BBall and UB didn't get Kent, Akron and Ohio both home and away every season it would suck. We don't care about who we play in the west. I remember Coach Dambrot being upset the Zips @ Bulls game last year was scheduled before students got back on campus. The coaches enjoy the rivalries as much as any of us. Divisions help build these rivalries.
That's why I don't think you'll see the MAC go away from divisions in basketball.
Akron: Wants to play Kent, Buffalo and Ohio every year at home.
Buffalo: Wants to play Kent, Akron and Ohio every year at home.
Kent: Wants to play Akron, Buffalo and Ohio every year at home.
Ohio: Wants to play Akron, Kent and Miami every year at home.
Miami: Wants to play Ohio every year at home.
BG: Wants to play Toledo at home every home.
I think the fact that three of those schools are lockstep with each other (Akron, Kent, Buffalo) on who they want to play twice every year gives them a pretty good base to fight any changes.
Then you add in Ohio, who definitely wants to play Akron and Kent at home every year (but, I'm assuming, doesn't feel as strongly about Buffalo as the other two due to the Miami rivalry), that still gives you four schools (and the top four recent basketball schools in the league) who are almost all on the same page.
Miami probably doesn't care too much either way, outside of Ohio, but when push comes to shove, would rather play Akron and Kent at home every year over any other alternative. So that's team No. 5 on board with the current divisional setup.
On the west, I'm guessing the Michigan schools want to also all have a guaranteed home game against each other. So now that's eight teams who are relatively happy.
If there is a way to ensure Toledo-BG play twice every year, that makes 10 ... with only NIU and Ball State on an island (though I guess you could try to turn that into a rivalry).
Football is a different animal since there is no way you could think about trying to guarantee a home game every year against a rival. And unlike most other conferences, that is why I think the MAC could go the opposite direction (in keeping divisions in hoops and going to no divisions in football)... All you have to do is protect one annual rivalry for most schools ...
Akron-Kent
Miami-Ohio
Toledo-BG
WMU-CMU
Those are the four big ones.
NIU-Ball State (just as it is in hoops, is kind of forced, but makes some sense.)
That leaves Buffalo-EMU as the only real bastard "rivalry" ... kind of like Penn State-Michigan State was in football in the Big Ten for a couple of years. But EMU, unfortunately, just has to go along, and Buffalo is on the football island.
Plus, you could create some sort of "Customs Cup" trophy to try to give a EMU-Buffalo series some more meaning (I'm assuming the schools go through Ontario on road trips to get to each other instead of going around Lake Erie on the Ohio side).
We are not going to go there.
