(03-06-2024 02:49 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote: MAC schools just aren't of interest to upper G5s.
The feeling is more or less mutual.
A line I've seen a lot this week from Conference USA schools who don't Western Kentucky to leave is: Don't do it. The MAC is a dead end. It's the Hotel California. You can check in, but you can never leave.
The reason the MAC holds together is mutual disinterest in other G5 conferences. The caliber of football in the American Athletic is arguably* a bit better more often than not, but for a current member of the MAC to play in that conference, it would mean flying to just about every away game in every sport. And when it comes to goosing home football attendance and interest, most of the schools that would be paying visits -- Memphis, East Carolina, Tulsa, you name it -- just aren't going to move the needle enough to justify all that added expense while also ending conference rivalries that date back 75 years or more.
I respect the football programs and universities in the AAC, but it just wouldn't make sense for Bowling Green, and I suspect most (if not all) MAC ADs, presidents, and fans would look at it more or less the same way.
In contrast, no one in Conference USA really wants to be there except for maybe the n00bs, and maybe not even them. The point of Conference USA membership seems to be to earn an invitation to the Sun Belt, where members are in position to earn an invitation to the American Athletic**, where members are in position to earn an invitation to the Big 12 or someplace else.
When the MAC looks up aspirationally, we see the Big Ten, not another G5 conference. And since that door probably isn't going to open, we are fairly content where we are.
I imagine the Moutain West has long looked at it the same way, although the emergence of the Pac 2 may soon change things.
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* I mean, the American Athletic isn't *that* much better.
** I realize some Sun Belt schools profess to be content right where they are, but is this true for all of them? If the American Athletic needs to reload, I've got to think the Sun Belt is the first place they will look.