With all due respect, this talk of expansion is nonsense right now.

I'm sorry, but discussing wether or not James Madison, Delaware, ISU, UMASS, etc...would join our conference is extremely premature and wishful thinking.

It's no different than building an addition to your house before you address the water leak in your foundation.

Frankly, our conference would probably get turned down IF we were to invite other schools as all sports members.

We need to work on becoming a much stronger bball conference. Once that happens, our stability will be desirable and a move to the MAC won't necessarily be a "downgrade" to others. Until that happens, I don't see anyone wanting to join us with open arms.

Your points are true, but if we were strong enough in bball would we want to add any of these schools? If we were a multi bid league, we would have football and basketball to offer. As it sits now, we can offer access to FBS football in exchange for helping our basketball side, which needs help.

I don't favor expansion right now, but if the MAC were to consider adding anyone it should be all sports only.

Access to FBS football is secondary in their minds. They aren't necessarily looking at the long term picture.

Their thought process is "hmmm, FBS football is nice, however our school no doubt would struggle for 4-8 years before we can really build the program and increase a fan base....so, is it worth sacrificing our bread and butter, which is basketball?"

Their answer is gonna be "no" right now. Once we can improve our bball, the cards will fall into place and more importantly, we will hold the chips. Until then, we are reaching.

If we get our bball going, why would we add any of these schools? If they don't want to add now, it wouldn't make sense to add schools when revenues go up. Several listed schools would add something to the MAC currently and the MAC can offer something to them on the football side if they are interested. If the MAC can rebound to a top ten basketball conference, then we would have no need to add anyone trying to move from FCS to FBS.

Agreed!

The problem with adding the schools mentioned is that none of them have a rich tradition in bball and immediately provide a boost to our brand. The schools that carry the name recognition in bball are too stuck up to consider the MAC.

Also, all 12 schools need to improve. Some of them have a long way to go, a few seem to be right on the edge of national respect. IMO adding 2-4 more schools only makes it harder to gain that respect and it dilutes our football product in the meantime.