RE: Some Expansion Thoughts
The authors' comment about the academies losing non-conference opportunities is the ultimate deal-breaker to their joining the MAC. Army can already count on scheduling Navy and Air Force, and nearby Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic FBS and FCS teams. Army also plays Texas teams (i.e. Rice, N. Texas, A & M) often for demographic reasons: Texas' high number of military bases creates a key segment of people who would be drawn to see Army play. C-USA's Texas and Southern teams certainly are what drew Army to join the conference. Navy also plays Texas and Southern schools for the same reason, I believe. I'm not saying Northerners do not support service academies. For political and climatological reasons, the South has the majority of military bases and personnel.
Western Kentucky..blah. They are a better fit in the Sun-Belt, and their fans see Belt football as on the rise at a faster clip than the MAC.
Onto the list of non-football, small-profile Horizon, Summit, and OVC teams. Why would the MAC add 1-AAA basketball schools? Or more Ohio schools? Or Western Illinois when there are Illinois State and SIU, who have higher profiles but aren't gonna move up anyway? Just because WIU would be the only one certain to say yes to the MAC? As a former UAlbany student, and UB grad, I can say Albany is decades away from FBS. They win in the sub-standard NEC, hand out only 40 scholarships, have high school-quality facilities, can't even get good FCS teams to come to Albany, don't have the political strength to get a new stadium, would be the smallest school in the MAC, and Albany shows no signs of being a college football market. Stony Brook is more prepared, and even that school is years away from being ready for an FBS move. Stony Brook 2009 looks like UB 1994, except for a smaller stadium and no nearby FBS league that would suit them.
Other than that, slim pickin's. UMass researched FBS but can't afford it now if ever, and the fans are all "Big East for all sports or bust!" anyway. Delaware would be great but they like their CAA rivalries and are likely gonna live it up in FCS like App. State, Montana, and JMU. Only other schools that have mentioned looking at FBS are Jacksonville State, Charlotte, Georgia State, Texas State, and UT-San Antonio. Ick. Let C-USA and the Belt fight over them.
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