ESPNU came out and rated the conferences

The MAC was #10

Behind:
#1 SEC

# 6 Big Ten (the we can't count)

# 7 CAA (The new American)

# 8 Sun Belt

# 9 CUSA

Well, we do have WMU, EMU, Akron, Miami, UMass, Buffalo.... Other than that we're pretty average at best except for NIU, with their two "huge" wins vs unranked BCS teams.

You can't realistically have much of an argument against that spot when the lower half of your conference is consistently makes up a nice chunk of the Bottom 10 every week, year after year, and your conference record vs ranked competition is what it is.

Moving to a the new American Conference would be great as far as I'm concerned, one step behind the Big Ten. Trying to think outside the box here.

(10-08-2013 01:47 PM)Rockketdork Wrote:  Moving to a the new American Conference would be great as far as I'm concerned, one step behind the Big Ten. Trying to think outside the box here.

It's time to go somewhere.

(10-08-2013 01:37 PM)Carolina Rocket Wrote:  Well, we do have WMU, EMU, Akron, Miami, UMass, Buffalo.... Other than that we're pretty average at best except for NIU, with their two "huge" wins vs unranked BCS teams.

You can't realistically have much of an argument against that spot when the lower half of your conference is consistently makes up a nice chunk of the Bottom 10 every week, year after year, and your conference record vs ranked competition is what it is.

Don't put Buffalo on that list. By the time we play them, I expect they'll be pretty good. They beat UConn worse than Michigan did.

It really is a shame how big of a step backwards the MAC is taking this year after how great the conference did last year. Ball State losing to North Texas is one of the biggest let downs so far.

(10-08-2013 03:00 PM)timxlydon Wrote:  It really is a shame how big of a step backwards the MAC is taking this year after how great the conference did last year. Ball State losing to North Texas is one of the biggest let downs so far.

Then they go and rip apart Virginia this past weekend.

Ball St. losing to North Texas killed their chances at a potential BCS berth. How do you start the season off at 5-1 but oh by the way, lose to North Texas? There are 4 MAC teams with respectable records, NIU (5-0), Ball St (5-1), Ohio (4-1), and bgsuCKS (4-1). That's not bad...but then there are the bottom dweller teams. There are 5 teams with either 1 or 0 wins. Umass is the biggest disgrace to this conference, maybe perhaps all of college football. They've only scored 35 points through 5 games!!!

I would love if Toledo moved to a different conference, any conference, simply for the matter of change at this point. I'm tired of playing the Emu's and the Akron's. It could be good for the university and the city as a whole.

We have the usual better teams, NIU, Ball State, UT, OH and BG. Buffalo and Kent State are okay. Problem is there are more bottom feeders this year with half the West - WMU, CMU and EMU all being bottomfeeders plus UMass, Miami and Akron. More bad teams than usual. Most years a few of those are middle of pack teams.

To echo what others have said, this year the MAC has four of the worst teams in football in Eastern, UMass, Miami, and WMU, and two others that are only marginally better in CMU and Akron---that is almost half the conference. To make it worse, NIU is the only "top" tier team in the conference who has built any sort of decent resume in out of conference games so far----sure Ball State's win over UVa was very nice, but it does not erase their terrible loss to North Texas. BG's win over Tulsa looked good at the time, but despite all their pre-season hype Tulsa has proved to be pretty mediocre this year as the season has unfolded and the luster is definitely off BG's rout of them.

Unfortunately for the MAC "moral victories" are pretty much considered as just another loss by everyone except the team claiming a moral victory, so the MAC's collection of those don't count when it comes to rating conferences.

Terry, I know you hate the MAC... But this ESPNU ranking proves absolutely NOTHING !!!

At the end of the season when all the bowls have been played I can see the MAC standing head & shoulders above CUSA and the Sunbelt... I would also wager that Toledo, Ball State, Ohio, and NIU would hold their own with most of the AAC Conference...
LOP off six or seven of the pretenders and the MAC is still a pretty damn good conference....

(10-08-2013 01:47 PM)Rockketdork Wrote:  Moving to a the new American Conference would be great as far as I'm concerned, one step behind the Big Ten. Trying to think outside the box here.

I am not sure that wanting to move to a new conference is "thinking outside the box" on this board----for years the hope was for the Big East, so of course now that hope has been transferred to its football successor the American Athletic Conference. For awhile, CUSA was an also a more realistic hope but it has now lost most of the members that made it attractive.

Back in the heyday of UT football attendance 10-15 years ago, UT consistently put more fans in the stands and provided a better product on the field than did the University of Cincinnati, yet when the Big East expanded in 2005 Cincinnati was one of those invited. Why? Because leading up to that period, Cincinnati was in CUSA--a power basketball conference with Louisville and Memphis---and sent its MBB team to NCAA tournament almost every year for about 15 years which represents a BIG bundle of money while Toledo had not made an appearance in the NCAA in 25 years at that time (which has now grown to 33 years since UT was in the Tourney!!)

So everyone who hopes for a new conference had best hope that: 1) men's BB starts making some noise in the NCAA tourney over the next few years, and hopefully make at least one "sweet 16" or better run to generate some attention, and 2) the FB teams get back into the habit of defeating BCS-AQ teams on a more or less regular basis and winning 2-3 MACC in FB every decade which might be enough to get attendances back to near what they were in 2001. Until that time, IMO it is going to be difficult to get an invitation to a "better" conference such as the AAC (Note: with their membership changes I am not sure that CUSA is still a better conference than the MAC w/r to performance on the field and on the court).

I was putting in a level of sarcasm. I to have been up for moving to a new conference for a long time. At some point UT has to stick it's neck out, make a move somewhere. Always saying no means the sports world will look in other directions. The first move may be not work out. But your name is in the mix.

six weeks into the season and the bottom 5 teams in the MAC are 2-2 vs FCS and 0-23 vs FBS. that's just awful.

(10-08-2013 06:13 PM)Rockketdork Wrote:  I was putting in a level of sarcasm. I to have been up for moving to a new conference for a long time. At some point UT has to stick it's neck out, make a move somewhere. Always saying no means the sports world will look in other directions. The first move may be not work out. But your name is in the mix.

Sorry---sarcasm doesn't always come across that well without the voice intonations and I missed it. After the way the MAC catered to Marshall with all those home field MACC games (that probably cost UT one and maybe two championships in football) and the way they went out of their way to pile on the MBB team last year, I don't feel much loyalty to the MAC, but in order to appeal to a new conference and get a ticket out of here UT needs to continue to invest in facilities and coaches but even more importantly they need to start dominating the conference especially in the revenue sports and that means winning championships and getting to the NCAA tourney in BB which of course also also builds the fan base which in turn grows the revenue stream. Build it and they may come knocking; don't built it and they definitely will look elsewhere when they look to expand.

True sarcasm does not come through sometimes. May bad. I agree with all you said. UT needs to continue positioning it's self to move forward. Great strides have been made. More work needs to be done.

However, as we have been reminded, "wanting" to move to a new conference means nothing if another conference doesn't "want" you...right now, we aren't very attractive to any other conference. As pointed out above, men's bball = conference revenue, and I was much younger the last time UT was in the NCAA Tournament. Football has taken a slight step backwards this year with the losses (not entirely unexpected, but let's face it, an upset of Florida or Mizzou would have been pretty big). The media market, while decent sixed, has to share exposure with OSU and UM. Location would make travel--particularly for "non-revenue" sports--pretty challenging for some of the other conference options (American, Sun Belt, CUSA). And who knows, in a few more years, maybe only the American is even left as an "FBS" division league. For the time being, we are all "family" in the MAC, and need to make the MAC stronger. Just my five cents.

Toledo has a chance to be one of the teams that doesn't lose to a fub team and we have the strongest SOS in the conference. BG beating Miss State and Toledo beating Navy are key for the conference. If we drop both, the MAC loses credibility.

Moving to a new conference is not the key.

Look at Marshall...boy I bet they wished they would have stayed in the MAC. Also, Boise did just fine in the WAC. They dominated and made a name for themselves.

GO ROCKETS!!! GO MAC!!!

(10-08-2013 07:02 PM)Rockketdork Wrote:  True sarcasm does not come through sometimes. May bad. I agree with all you said. UT needs to continue positioning it's self to move forward. Great strides have been made. More work needs to be done.

Tell me, after the wins over Penn State and Pitt (00 and 03) , what have we done since to be better than those wins? Those, in my opinion, are our signature wins in the last 15 years. I think we're looking through midnight blue and gold colored lenses if we think we're ahead of that curve. I wish I didn't feel that way. Look at the points against from 2000 and tell me that we're better off now.