?

Regional universities in the Great Lakes area.

For all the other squacking about schools graduating out of the conference, it's still about providing ADs an organization that will support most of their sports with stable, inter-collegiate environments

Because after all, that's the main customer of the MAC - the Athletic Directors. And for each fan that says that their school is supporting too much of the load in Football, or Basketball, the ADs look at the big picture with 10-15 sports teams to support, and the MAC looks great to them.

Think about a school like Marshall in the CUSA - how much does it cost them to send the Baseball, Women's Soccer, and Women's Volleyball teams to places like Florida Atlantic, Texas-San Antonio, and Louisiana Tech? Their closest road trip is 300 miles. Huntington to El Paso is 1,600 miles.

With the MAC, the longest road trip is Buffalo to DeKalb, which is 600 miles. Kent's only trip longer than 300 miles is Northern Illinois. What do you think the bill is to fly Marshall's football team to El Paso? When Kent's AD gets the bill for the Akron road trip, I'm sure he smiles.

And the other thing that really works for the MAC is the cross-promotion. We're all similar schools - public universities with 20-30,000 students. We're all competing for the same students. So if you live someplace like Toledo, or your parents were Toledo graduates, but Toledo doesn't offer the degree you want, then there's 11 similar schools that you're familar with that you can check for the program. For the MAC fans, you'd think about Eastern Michigan quicker than someplace like Wright State or Southern Illinois

There's also a comfort in the stable relationships for sports. Your teams can stay at the same hotels. You learn what style of team you're playing. You can promote stable rivalries. That's all real important for fans that travel with you to away games. And these are the fans that are solid at home games. And you get to know what to expect from the other school's ADs, sports information guys, broadcast partners, facilities, etc

Another thing that makes the MAC attractive to the 12 schools is that the sports budgets are similar. I hear we're all in the $30-$35 million range. If one school supports Football extra hard, another supports Baseball, their other sports are supported less. I'm sure that each AD goes into each school year hoping for at least 1 championship in any sport. With 15 sports, it's possible. A school might have horrible Football and Basketball teams, but if I can bring home a championship in Women's Tennis, that's a success to print in the school paper, and a banner to hang in the gym. I would be willing to bet that a conference like Conference USA has a winder range of budgets. If my budget is $30 million, and another school has a athletic budget of $60 million, it's not a level playing field

Dear Slinkin Street Flash,
A very well thought out statement of the MAC. It's really too bad that others on this board can't accept what you have laid out as positives for being a MAC member. Other conferences used to have some of your philosophies, but dropped them for money. People will say, but that's what makes the world go round (money), and that's too bad.

Success in many different sports. Kent is strong in Men's Golf, Women's Gymnastics, Baseball and Indoor Track, Akron in Men's Soccer, CMU in Wrestling & Women's Gymnastics, Western Michigan & Miami in Ice Hockey, Ohio is strong in Wrestling and NIU has made some noise. The MAC is also strong because collaborating means more than just within the 12 conference members who have football and their major sports in the MAC it is the wisdom to allow programs who don't play MAC football to affiliate in other sports and build relationships with those institutions like WVA(men's soccer) Mizzou(Wrestling) Northern Iowa (Wrestling) Missouri State (Swimming & Field Hockey) Evansville(Swimming) Hartwick College(Soccer, also where the National Soccer HOF is located) Old Dominion(Wrestling) & SIU Carbondale(Swimming)

Going back to "I'm sure that each AD goes into each school year hoping for at least 1 championship in any sport"...9 of 12 core MAC schools were able to pull out a championship in at least one sport. Only Toledo, Northern Illinois, and Bufffalo were shut out in 2013-2014
Baseball ……………………Kent State
Basketball……………………Western Michigan
Field Hockey ……………………Miami
Football……………………Bowling Green
Gymnastics ……………………Central Michigan
Men’s Cross Country ……………………Eastern Michigan
Men’s Golf ……………………Kent State
Men’s Swimming & Diving ……………………Missouri State
Men’s Tennis ……………………Ball State
Men's Indoor Track and Field……………………Akron
Men's Outdoor Track & Field……………………Eastern Michigan
Men's Soccer……………………Akron
Softball ……………………Ohio
Volleyball ……………………Ohio
Women’s Cross Country ……………………Miami
Women’s Golf ……………………Kent State
Women’s Tennis ……………………Miami
Women's Basketball ……………………Akron
Women's Indoor Track & Field ……………………Kent State
Women's Outdoor Track & Field ……………………Kent State
Women's Soccer……………………Western Michigan
Women's Swimming & Diving……………………Akron
Wrestling ……………………Missouri