I'm curious what the prevailing school of thought on this is.

With Temple and UMASS both having been football only in the MAC and all other sports in the A10, my first thought was just find another A10 school that plays football, I doubt that Fordham or Rhode Island have a real shot at moving up to FBS, so that leaves Richmond and UNC-Charlotte, the former has been one of the more successful FCS programs of the last ten years and the ladder has made it very clear that they intend to move to FBS as early as possible.

Then I found myself wondering if perhaps the MAC and A10 could work together to both find a replacement for Temple, the first school that came to my mind was University of Deleware. I didn't even realize it until I looked it up, but Newark is only like fifty miles from Philly, so it's an even better fit than I initially thought.

Anyway, good luck moving forward, I'm sure most of you aren't too broken up about Temple, especially considering they've been linked to C-USA, then the Big East, then back to C-USA, then to the Alliance, and ultimately back to the Big East, but I do imagine that it's a bit frustrating that you were finally headed to 14 and now you're stuck back at 13.

(03-07-2012 06:26 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  I'm curious what the prevailing school of thought on this is.

With Temple and UMASS both having been football only in the MAC and all other sports in the A10, my first thought was just find another A10 school that plays football, I doubt that Fordham or Rhode Island have a real shot at moving up to FBS, so that leaves Richmond and UNC-Charlotte, the former has been one of the more successful FCS programs of the last ten years and the ladder has made it very clear that they intend to move to FBS as early as possible.

Then I found myself wondering if perhaps the MAC and A10 could work together to both find a replacement for Temple, the first school that came to my mind was University of Deleware. I didn't even realize it until I looked it up, but Newark is only like fifty miles from Philly, so it's an even better fit than I realized.

Anyway, good luck moving forward, I'm sure most of you aren't too broken up about Temple, especially considering they've been linked to C-USA, then the Big East, then back to C-USA, then to the Alliance, and ultimately back to the Big East, but I do imagine that it's a bit frustrating that you were finally headed to 14 and now you're stuck back at 13.

It is a little frustrating but not too surprising. Delaware has been mentioned in several of the 8,764,268 expansion threads on this site. Most of us want a university for all-sports, not just football. That limits the options more, but it is what it is. I'll let others respond regarding the relative merits of whatever schools are available.

(03-07-2012 06:34 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(03-07-2012 06:26 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  I'm curious what the prevailing school of thought on this is.

With Temple and UMASS both having been football only in the MAC and all other sports in the A10, my first thought was just find another A10 school that plays football, I doubt that Fordham or Rhode Island have a real shot at moving up to FBS, so that leaves Richmond and UNC-Charlotte, the former has been one of the more successful FCS programs of the last ten years and the ladder has made it very clear that they intend to move to FBS as early as possible.

Then I found myself wondering if perhaps the MAC and A10 could work together to both find a replacement for Temple, the first school that came to my mind was University of Deleware. I didn't even realize it until I looked it up, but Newark is only like fifty miles from Philly, so it's an even better fit than I realized.

Anyway, good luck moving forward, I'm sure most of you aren't too broken up about Temple, especially considering they've been linked to C-USA, then the Big East, then back to C-USA, then to the Alliance, and ultimately back to the Big East, but I do imagine that it's a bit frustrating that you were finally headed to 14 and now you're stuck back at 13.

It is a little frustrating but not too surprising. Delaware has been mentioned in several of the 8,764,268 expansion threads on this site. Most of us want a university for all-sports, not just football. That limits the options more, but it is what it is. I'll let others respond regarding the relative merits of whatever schools are available.

Not being completely familiar with all your schools and all their situations, wouldn't adding a full member give you 13 in a lot of sports, with UMASS being the lone football only member?

(03-07-2012 06:48 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(03-07-2012 06:34 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(03-07-2012 06:26 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  I'm curious what the prevailing school of thought on this is.

With Temple and UMASS both having been football only in the MAC and all other sports in the A10, my first thought was just find another A10 school that plays football, I doubt that Fordham or Rhode Island have a real shot at moving up to FBS, so that leaves Richmond and UNC-Charlotte, the former has been one of the more successful FCS programs of the last ten years and the ladder has made it very clear that they intend to move to FBS as early as possible.

Then I found myself wondering if perhaps the MAC and A10 could work together to both find a replacement for Temple, the first school that came to my mind was University of Deleware. I didn't even realize it until I looked it up, but Newark is only like fifty miles from Philly, so it's an even better fit than I realized.

Anyway, good luck moving forward, I'm sure most of you aren't too broken up about Temple, especially considering they've been linked to C-USA, then the Big East, then back to C-USA, then to the Alliance, and ultimately back to the Big East, but I do imagine that it's a bit frustrating that you were finally headed to 14 and now you're stuck back at 13.

It is a little frustrating but not too surprising. Delaware has been mentioned in several of the 8,764,268 expansion threads on this site. Most of us want a university for all-sports, not just football. That limits the options more, but it is what it is. I'll let others respond regarding the relative merits of whatever schools are available.

Not being completely familiar with all your schools and all their situations, wouldn't adding a full member give you 13 in a lot of sports, with UMASS being the lone football only member?

Yes but as an NIU fan I don't care about the other sports.

Seriously, I don't think we need divisions in the other sports, so that wouldn't be a problem. Not sure about the other MAC fans opinions on that. If we add another football team, then whenever the next football-only team decides to leave, we'll once again be stuck with 13 teams and 1 football-only team. We'll never get rid of that situation.

Let me suggest Louisiana Tech. They wont get an alliance invite, and frankly SBC fans want nothing do with them.

(03-07-2012 11:34 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Let me suggest Louisiana Tech. They wont get an alliance invite, and frankly SBC fans want nothing do with them.

WAAAAYYYYY out of our footprint. UB and UMass would love the trip to Ruston.

(03-07-2012 06:26 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  Then I found myself wondering if perhaps the MAC and A10 could work together to both find a replacement for Temple, the first school that came to my mind was University of Deleware. I didn't even realize it until I looked it up, but Newark is only like fifty miles from Philly, so it's an even better fit than I initially thought.

I don't like Delaware at all.

-The school plays in a tiny state that can't supply a decent recruiting base to a CAA level football squad. The problem will only be worse at the FBS level.

-Delaware's enrollment is in the mid teens and isn't going up.

-Their football stadium would be among the bottom of the MAC. They do have plans in place for a 30k upgrade but they aren't there yet.

-Their basketball program is terrible and plays in a small time gym.

JMU has a lot more potential on the field than Delaware and I would even take Charlotte and their upstart football program with a brand new football facility first.

The idea popularized of a JMU/ODU/Delaware combo pack to the MAC sucks. Its alright for JMU who would have two natural rivals but both ODU and Delaware are another 4-5 hours away and in completely opposite directions.

As an Ohio fan I would much rather have JMU and Charlotte both within a 4-5 hour drive of Athens then try to mess around with ODU which is an ADDITIONAL 4-5 hours beyond those schools. Unless the MAC is talking about fully building out a 3rd division it doesn't make any sense.

(03-07-2012 11:41 PM)CMUprof Wrote:  

(03-07-2012 11:34 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  Let me suggest Louisiana Tech. They wont get an alliance invite, and frankly SBC fans want nothing do with them.

WAAAAYYYYY out of our footprint. UB and UMass would love the trip to Ruston.

Honestly, any team that the MAC adds to the West division (LaTech is west of NIU) is a non-issue for UMass. We'd only fly there once every 7 years. LaTech, San Jose State, Utah State... pick whichever you want. Pick all 3. Not a problem for us. We're either going to fly there or fly somewhere else. We might even fly to Buffalo. The conventional wisdom about tolerable travel gets thrown out the window in a single sport affiliation with only a 4 game travel commitment. If there was a single-sport football conference, you'd be an idiot not to stretch it across the entire nation once you're free of the shackles of having to ship non-revenue sports too.

La Tech wouldn't be a bad addition for football only. It would a lot better than the WAC for La Tech. They have been FBS for a long time. That would be a plus.

I haven't been able to really take the time to do extensive research on this, but what about Lehigh??? They have solid football and basketball programs along with a 1 billion dollar endowment. The football stadium would need expanded (16,000), but it fits in the MAC geographical footprint.

I don't even know if they're even looking to expand, but it would seem to be a good fit maybe down the road.

Has anyone ever thought of Illinois State? Wonder what they've been up to?

(03-08-2012 10:39 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Has anyone ever thought of Illinois State? Wonder what they've been up to?

Or what about Southern Illinois???

Maybe a long, detailed thread about adding Illinois State and Southern Illinois is in order?

(03-08-2012 10:53 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Maybe a long, detailed thread about adding Illinois State and Southern Illinois is in order?

That would be a refreshing change of pace..

(03-08-2012 11:15 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(03-08-2012 10:53 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Maybe a long, detailed thread about adding Illinois State and Southern Illinois is in order?

That would be a refreshing change of pace..

But certainly a value-added aspect of any realignment thread is the chance to yell out one’s heated advice about the entire shebang, no?

(03-08-2012 12:09 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(03-08-2012 11:15 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(03-08-2012 10:53 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Maybe a long, detailed thread about adding Illinois State and Southern Illinois is in order?

That would be a refreshing change of pace..

But certainly a value-added aspect of any realignment thread is the chance to yell out one’s heated advice about the entire shebang, no?

Well maybe we need a bunch of 'unofficial' threads for each candidate...

(03-08-2012 09:33 AM)THUNDERGround Wrote:  I haven't been able to really take the time to do extensive research on this, but what about Lehigh??? They have solid football and basketball programs along with a 1 billion dollar endowment. The football stadium would need expanded (16,000), but it fits in the MAC geographical footprint.

I don't even know if they're even looking to expand, but it would seem to be a good fit maybe down the road.

I believe Lehigh would find the MAC to be a real step down academically. Also, their game with Lafayette is a pretty big deal and it's hard to believe they would do anything to jeopardize that.

(03-08-2012 10:53 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Maybe a long, detailed thread about adding Illinois State and Southern Illinois is in order?

Maybe we could go just one week without mentioning Illinois State here? They're not a possibility for the MAC now anyway, so let it go.

Time for MAC to "stand pat" until we see if the Minutemen bolt..if they get the eventual BE invite, they are very likely to take it.

(03-08-2012 04:35 PM)exCincy Kid Wrote:  Time for MAC to "stand pat" until we see if the Minutemen bolt..if they get the eventual BE invite, they are very likely to take it.

There's no doubt they'll take it, especially if it were for all sports. Question is, should the MAC tell UMass that it's invoking the two-year term clause in the contract? Because if we add one new member and UMass bolts, then we're at 13 members again.