Mac's Attendance

Yep, it is very ugly.

Eastern Michigan only average 4,897
Ball State only average 7,974

The rest are above 10,000. The MAC is in desperate need of new leadership, or disbanded if they continued this trend. It brings the overall attendance of the whole FBS down which makes it look like FBS is losing fans attending games. There is a time that the rest of the conferences will force some of these teams to step down back to the FCS levels, and bring the deserving schools who can keep an FBS attendance up from the FBS.

Though the numbers would still be disappointing I would like to know the average without the midweek games. Those games are a joke attendance wise.

The MAC, as a conference, really ought to consider FCS. If they moved as a conference, they could maintain the rivalries and the other assets they have established.

Eastern Michigan just needs to drop FBS or football completely. Michigan is just so close and they take 100,000 fans each game EMU just can't compete.

Isn't there supposed to be a minimum attendance rule for D-I football? I thought it was 15,000...

(12-21-2015 08:23 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Isn't there supposed to be a minimum attendance rule for D-I football? I thought it was 15,000...

They gave up on enforcing it.

Actually, its not that bad a year for the MAC. Akron is usually down there with Ball ST. and EMU.

There would be a gap if the MAC weren't there. There is the P5 spread across the country, then among the G5, the MWC is in the west, the MAC in the Midwest, the AAC in the east and south and then 2 more conferences, CUSA and Sun Belt also in the south.

Since 1999 there have been 15 schools move up. Only UMass and UConn weren't in the south. If you look at 1979-1999 there were 12, with 7 in the south, 3 in the west, 1 (Buffalo) in the east and 1 (Akron) in the Midwest. The south is overrepresented now.

(12-21-2015 08:01 AM)otis campbell Wrote:  Though the numbers would still be disappointing I would like to know the average without the midweek games. Those games are a joke attendance wise.

Eastern Michigan's average attendance, sans their one Thursday game, was 5,169.
Ball State's average attendance, sans their one Thursday game and one Tuesday game, was 8,042.
UMass's average attendance, with no midweek games, was 11,124.
Kent State's average attendance, sans their one Wednesday game and their one Thursday game, was 14,061.
Northern Illinois's average attendance, sans their one Tuesday game and one Wednesday game, was 15,925.

(12-21-2015 09:17 AM)bullet Wrote:  Since 1999 there have been 15 schools move up. Only UMass and UConn weren't in the south. If you look at 1979-1999 there were 12, with 7 in the south, 3 in the west, 1 (Buffalo) in the east and 1 (Akron) in the Midwest. The south is overrepresented now.

But the south also has a massive population from Virginia to Texas. The south alone has 101,532,336 people in it. That is a third of the total US population. Doesn't it sort of make sense to have quite a few FBS teams form the region that represents that many people?

(12-21-2015 07:25 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  The MAC is in desperate need of new leadership,

No, it isn't.

(12-21-2015 07:25 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  or disbanded if they continued this trend.

No, it won't.

(12-21-2015 07:25 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  It brings the overall attendance of the whole FBS down which makes it look like FBS is losing fans attending games.

No, it doesn't.

(12-21-2015 07:25 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  There is a time that the rest of the conferences will force some of these teams to step down back to the FCS levels.

No, they wont.

(12-21-2015 07:25 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  and bring the deserving schools who can keep an FBS attendance up from the FBS.

No, they can't.

Anything else I can help your trolling with today?

Nobody will be disbanding the MAC.

The scoreboard is where it matters. If you look there, you will see that Bowling Green went 2-0 against the Big Ten, one of MAC's less prestigious schools beat Arkansas, and the Mighty Boat Rowers of Kalamazoo even got Sparty to come play at their place. A lot of good is happening in this league, at least outside of Ypsilanti.

Why should anyone outside the MAC care what their attendance numbers are? If they are OK with them, it doesn't hurt anybody else. These are schools that consider it important that they play on the same level as the Big Ten, with whom they share all of their footprint. They are competing with those schools for students, and the loss of Big Ten schools as opponents would likely negatively impact that.

For the Big Ten, which is dropping FCS opponents entirely, the relationship with the MAC is a symbiotic one. There is nothing wrong with that.

(12-21-2015 09:31 AM)rknj8993 Wrote:  

(12-21-2015 09:17 AM)bullet Wrote:  Since 1999 there have been 15 schools move up. Only UMass and UConn weren't in the south. If you look at 1979-1999 there were 12, with 7 in the south, 3 in the west, 1 (Buffalo) in the east and 1 (Akron) in the Midwest. The south is overrepresented now.

But the south also has a massive population from Virginia to Texas. The south alone has 101,532,336 people in it. That is a third of the total US population. Doesn't it sort of make sense to have quite a few FBS teams form the region that represents that many people?

Just doing very quick (and probably very inaccurate) math, they would have about 1/3 of the population and well over half of the teams in all of division 1 (the SEC, CUSA, Sunbelt, and most of the ACC and AAC, half of the Big XII). So from a population balance perspective, it is still a bit off in that regard.

(12-21-2015 09:58 AM)ken d Wrote:  Why should anyone outside the MAC care what their attendance numbers are? If they are OK with them, it doesn't hurt anybody else. These are schools that consider it important that they play on the same level as the Big Ten, with whom they share all of their footprint. They are competing with those schools for students, and the loss of Big Ten schools as opponents would likely negatively impact that.

For the Big Ten, which is dropping FCS opponents entirely, the relationship with the MAC is a symbiotic one. There is nothing wrong with that.

Pretty much sums up my perspective as well...

Well, somebody asked the questions why the MAC had not been pillaged during realignment and this is one answer.

And NIU thinks they are in line to move up to a better conference. They also try the claim Chicago market.

Can you claim any market when your football team averages 13,000 per game and your basketball team only averages 1,000 per game?

They need to add some teams...they need some teams in the conference that aren't so regional, and push the conference southward some....

Losing UCF, Temple, and Marshall has hurt them....

Western Kentucky and Southern Miss would be good additions, but I don't know if the MAC could pry them away....

If Western Kentucky and Southern Miss said no, Texas State and Appalachian State would be good targets

Another thing that might help is moving Eastern Michigan to the EAST Division and splitting up the Michigan teams, who seem to always be bad...

A Couple of new southern-based teams would help solidify the MAC's place in expansion and add some good teams and variety to the conference, and hopefully make the conference worthwhile for NIU and Toledo to stay

(12-21-2015 11:30 AM)EvilVodka Wrote:  They need to add some teams...they need some teams in the conference that aren't so regional, and push the conference southward some....

Losing UCF, Temple, and Marshall has hurt them....

Western Kentucky and Southern Miss would be good additions, but I don't know if the MAC could pry them away....

If Western Kentucky and Southern Miss said no, Texas State and Appalachian State would be good targets

Another thing that might help is moving Eastern Michigan to the EAST Division and splitting up the Michigan teams, who seem to always be bad...

A Couple of new southern-based teams would help solidify the MAC's place in expansion and add some good teams and variety to the conference, and hopefully make the conference worthwhile for NIU and Toledo to stay

MAC East
Ohio
Bowling Green
Akron
Buffalo
Miami OH
E. Michigan
Appalachian State

MAC West
Toledo
C. Michigan
W. Michigan
NIU
Ball St.
Kent St.
Texas State

(12-21-2015 11:32 AM)EvilVodka Wrote:  

(12-21-2015 11:30 AM)EvilVodka Wrote:  They need to add some teams...they need some teams in the conference that aren't so regional, and push the conference southward some....

Losing UCF, Temple, and Marshall has hurt them....

Western Kentucky and Southern Miss would be good additions, but I don't know if the MAC could pry them away....

If Western Kentucky and Southern Miss said no, Texas State and Appalachian State would be good targets

Another thing that might help is moving Eastern Michigan to the EAST Division and splitting up the Michigan teams, who seem to always be bad...

A Couple of new southern-based teams would help solidify the MAC's place in expansion and add some good teams and variety to the conference, and hopefully make the conference worthwhile for NIU and Toledo to stay

MAC East
Ohio
Bowling Green
Akron
Buffalo
Miami OH
E. Michigan
Appalachian State

MAC West
Toledo
C. Michigan
W. Michigan
NIU
Ball St.
Kent St.
Texas State

Are you sure EvilVodka isn't just an alias for DavidSt?