Prototypes for Missouri State's new turf coming next year. Yuck to the first column, though some of the others are alright.

Maxpower: When I said ISU "looked like many a MAC school" I was referring to student population, academic ranking, type of environment (small town), and athletic funding, etc. ISU is arguably the second best undergraduate State school in Illnois (behind U of I) based on caliber of incoming freshmen (ACT's and GPA), although I suspect the NIU'ers might disagree.

(10-26-2013 12:46 AM)exCincy Kid Wrote:  Maxpower: When I said ISU "looked like many a MAC school" I was referring to student population, academic ranking, type of environment (small town), and athletic funding, etc. ISU is arguably the second best undergraduate State school in Illnois (behind U of I) based on caliber of incoming freshmen (ACT's and GPA), although I suspect the NIU'ers might disagree.

They can disagree but the ACT/GPA numbers favor Illinois State.

There's more to an academic profile than ACT score. They only very recently jumped NIU and EIU in terms of ACT and I question their grip on it, but even then it's woefully behind most of the MAC in other academic measurables, such as graduate and professional offerings, and research. It's in Champaign's shadow so that's no mistake. Because of this, it's a different type of school with a different mission. I'm not suggesting it's better or worse, but it's different. They share a small market with a B1G school, they rarely make the playoffs in football and Dance in basketball and their attendance rivals only EMU. I live nearby so personally it would be fun sparring with ISU fans, but most NIU fans live in Chicago and I'm pretty sure ISU has a minimal presence. Stony Brook would be the best add IMO. If you want go west, SIU, UNI and NDSU are better. But the best option is probably just to drop UMass.

(10-25-2013 08:52 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  ISU adds ZERO new market interest. Zero. We already have an Illinois school, much closer to the Chicago market. MO State brings a new state into the footprint, as did Umass, as Would JMU....

There's the challenge ~ any schools that is genuinely convenient to travel to from either the new MAC West or the new MAC East is going to overlap existing markets, as with ISU. The same applies to an Indiana school or Youngstown State (not that Youngstown is in any financial position to step up from FCS).

The Northeast Corridor is growing more rapidly than Missouri, but the concentration of population also implies lots of markets heavily dominated by pro-sports.

And while the MAC includes one of the best football recruiting grounds outside of the Southeast in its footprint in Ohio, it would be good to give regular conference trips into some other strong football recruiting ground.

That's why if the set of schools interested in joining the MAC includes JMU, I'm inclined to favor JMU. Its in Mom & Dad driving distance to large, growing east coast population centers with a strong recruiting pool, and located on the western side of Virginia, seems less likely to be wooed by higher tier conferences looking for larger media markets.

The theory I've heard as to why the ACT and GPA scores of the incoming frosh is coming up at Illinois State schools like ISU is that it's so difficult to get into U of I (partly due to the fact that they are taking more out of state and foreign students than historically), and thus some very good students who can't afford a private school are "settling" for ISU or NIU when U of I was their first choice.