EMU is and always will be a bad football program. They are the fifth best FBS school in their state and also have to recruit against the rest of the MAC. I know they won't drop to FCS and wish them the best of luck but they will always bring down the MAC.

(03-15-2013 11:32 AM)timxlydon Wrote:  EMU is and always will be a bad football program. They are the fifth best FBS school in their state and also have to recruit against the rest of the MAC. I know they won't drop to FCS and wish them the best of luck but they will always bring down the MAC.

Unless the NCAA enforces the 15k minimum attendance thing.

Well I haven't heard about that yet. That would definitely hurt them, and more than a few other schools I'm sure.

EMU has funding issues like many state schools and in Michigan where budgets are especially tight at some point the administration will have to decide if the large bracketed red number for sports is worth it. I believe they currently have the largest reliance on institutional support and student fees to fund athletics in the MAC with north of 80% of the their athletic budget coming from these sources (10% increase over last 5 years so trending wrong way..). This coupled with the fact they support more sports than any other MAC team and have made decisions in the past to cut academic programs and staff in lieu of athletics makes you wonder when they will realize what they are and stop flushing the money and focus on a more balanced approach to maintaining a budget.

(03-15-2013 11:24 AM)HuskieBowWow Wrote:  

(03-15-2013 10:55 AM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  

(03-15-2013 10:18 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  Any immediate move the MAC makes should center around 1.) Getting rid of EMU or at least forcing them to drop football 2.) Forcing UMass all sports. Their value to the conference is on the hoops side and really doesn't do the MAC much good when hoops play elsewhere.

Wait for it... someone is going to come in and say don't forget the days where we had a 20game or something long losing streak. College football didn't revolve around money then like it does today. I'm all for EMU getting the boot.

By that logic, NIU should become a FB only member of the MAC. The rest of our sports pretty much suck. Despite EMU's poor FB program, its still better than NIU's wretched BB program.

Weren't we the MAC champs in Soccer and Vball last year? Ultimately football drives all athletic departments unless you are teams from basketball conferences.

(03-15-2013 11:24 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(03-15-2013 11:22 AM)HuskieFan84 Wrote:  EMU was just .500 in conference play just a year ago. You don't have to talk about where we were 20 years ago.. you can talk about where they were just recently.

They did play 2 FCS teams that year.

I said .500 in conference play. They were 4-4 in the MAC.

While others may believe MAC teams are in the FCS, that is not the case.

(03-15-2013 01:17 PM)HuskieFan84 Wrote:  

(03-15-2013 11:24 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(03-15-2013 11:22 AM)HuskieFan84 Wrote:  EMU was just .500 in conference play just a year ago. You don't have to talk about where we were 20 years ago.. you can talk about where they were just recently.

They did play 2 FCS teams that year.

I said .500 in conference play. They were 4-4 in the MAC.

While others may believe MAC teams are in the FCS, that is not the case.

Gotchya.

LOL I didn't know until my SO year (2000) that NIU was in FBS.

ya'll are crazy

ULL and Ark St are better than a lot of MAC teams

i wish they would kick out Eastern Michigan, Akron, UMASS, and Buffalo

(03-15-2013 02:13 PM)yesman815 Wrote:  ya'll are crazy

ULL and Ark St are better than a lot of MAC teams

i wish they would kick out Eastern Michigan, Akron, UMASS, and Buffalo

+1

(03-15-2013 02:13 PM)yesman815 Wrote:  ULL and Ark St are better than a lot of MAC teams

ULL was brutal until the past two seasons. Their first 10 seasons in the Sun Belt (2001-2010) they were 44-73 overall. I'm not saying they wouldn't beat the hell out of EMU, UMASS, etc. right now...but it's not like they've been a top non-aq program.

ASU, WKU, and ULL are certainly much better options than many of the 1-AA programs that have been discussed (Liberty, Illinois State, Stony Brook, etc.).

If we are going to add multiple teams in the future i'd rather us add programs that already have established themselves at the 1-A level rather than 1-AA programs that will have to work their way up to get to that level. 16 years later and Buffalo is still struggling in football.

The problem is UMass, we invited them based on the fact that we thought Temple would still be in the conference. I don't think we "owe" anything to UMass as far as allowing them to stay for football-only. In this current state of flux and instability, conferences need schools who are committed to being a member of the conference. If UMass wants to play football in the MAC then they need to show us they are committed to the conference by joining for all sports. If they aren't then we need to cut them loose and stay at 12 or add schools who will commit for all sports. If ASU, ULL, and WKU are willing to do that then i have no problem adding them.

Get all these punks in the MAC, set them up and NIU knocks them down. Adding schools to the MAC will strengthen our conference. I have no issues adding them. Bring new blood in!

I actually like this.

(03-15-2013 04:25 PM)MileHighHuskie Wrote:  Get all these punks in the MAC, set them up and NIU knocks them down. Adding schools to the MAC will strengthen our conference. I have no issues adding them. Bring new blood in!

+1000

(03-15-2013 09:06 AM)NorthHuskie Wrote:  There was a stretch where we played Arkansas State for 6-7 years in a row for football (90s).

You do realize that for three years (1993-94-95) we were in the same football conference (The Big West) with ASU and ULL (known then as Southwestern Louisiana)? That football only arrangement included Louisiana Tech, Pacific, and Nevada with Utah State and San Jose State replacing Pacific and New Mexico State in 1995 right before we exited in 1996. We had started playing those schools after we left the MAC and were desperate for home and away scheduling. That was the same time frame when all of the other NIU programs initially joined the Mid-Continent Conference (forerunner to what is now the Summit League) which then was dropped in favor of forming the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now known as the Horizon League).

While it's obvious many on this board only care about football, NIU's administration has always considered an all-sports league to be best for the school's athletic program. If that is the case, Western Kentucky is one thing, but adding Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette is a very expensive prospect when it comes to others sports.

(03-15-2013 12:54 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote:  Weren't we the MAC champs in Soccer and Vball last year?

Unfortunately, no.
NIU was tied for second with West Virginia behind Akron in men's soccer (eight schools with affiliate members WVU, Hartwick and Florida Atlantic), and then the Huskies lost the post-season tourament title match to Akron.
Huskie women's volleyball was second in the MAC West Division and lost the conference post-season tournament title match to Bowling Green to finish second.

The season before (fall of 2011) was when we won in those two sports along with football. Regrettably, we have yet to be even remotely considered contenders in any other sports in the last half decade.
When the MAC took us back into the league, one of the reasons cited was because of the strength of our total sports program. We basically had been dominant -- as in multiple league championships --- in the Mid-Continent and even Midwestern Collegiate conferences when it came to women's volleyball, men's and women's soccer, women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men's tennis, and softball, not to mention NCAA berths for men's basketball in the Mid-Continent (under Molinari) and the MCC (under Hammel).

(03-15-2013 10:18 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  Any immediate move the MAC makes should center around 1.) Getting rid of EMU or at least forcing them to drop football 2.) Forcing UMass all sports. Their value to the conference is on the hoops side and really doesn't do the MAC much good when hoops play elsewhere.

Be careful, what goes around comes around and at one time NIU was the laughing stock of the MAC for football. We will revisit the depths again some day and ya know what; someday our basketball program will rise again. I do not support kicking anyone out of the conference, particularly a school that supported allowing NIU back in when we needed their support.

NIU has had its rough times, but EMU hasn't done anything in 25 years. They won the MAC and a bowl in 1987, but since then nothing. NIU has come a long way as a football program and they won't be on top forever, but I don't see a 25 year post season drought happening. Now I don't want to kick EMU out of the MAC, but I am tired to them being rated towards the bottom of FBS almost every year. Like I said earlier, I wish them the best of luck. I'd rather see a turnaround, but they need to do something.

(03-15-2013 05:50 PM)bikechuck Wrote:  

(03-15-2013 10:18 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  Any immediate move the MAC makes should center around 1.) Getting rid of EMU or at least forcing them to drop football 2.) Forcing UMass all sports. Their value to the conference is on the hoops side and really doesn't do the MAC much good when hoops play elsewhere.

Be careful, what goes around comes around and at one time NIU was the laughing stock of the MAC for football. We will revisit the depths again some day and ya know what; someday our basketball program will rise again. I do not support kicking anyone out of the conference, particularly a school that supported allowing NIU back in when we needed their support.

I didn't realize EMU was in our corner when we wanted back into the MAC. Regarding expansion, I like adding WKU and Arkansas St., but not so sure about ULaLa. Think about travel budgets.
But the bigger question, as mentioned in earlier posts, .....how many NIU fans will travel to these games??

(03-15-2013 06:37 PM)bigdhuskie Wrote:  

(03-15-2013 05:50 PM)bikechuck Wrote:  

(03-15-2013 10:18 AM)HuskieTap22 Wrote:  Any immediate move the MAC makes should center around 1.) Getting rid of EMU or at least forcing them to drop football 2.) Forcing UMass all sports. Their value to the conference is on the hoops side and really doesn't do the MAC much good when hoops play elsewhere.

Be careful, what goes around comes around and at one time NIU was the laughing stock of the MAC for football. We will revisit the depths again some day and ya know what; someday our basketball program will rise again. I do not support kicking anyone out of the conference, particularly a school that supported allowing NIU back in when we needed their support.

I didn't realize EMU was in our corner when we wanted back into the MAC. Regarding expansion, I like adding WKU and Arkansas St., but not so sure about ULaLa. Think about travel budgets.
But the bigger question, as mentioned in earlier posts, .....how many NIU fans will travel to these games??

Huskiebob and huskiebob