A drop to FCS and I no longer run through a brick wall to watch my Huskies. I would catch the games when they played an FBS team, at best.

The dream is alive with an FBS team!

Would a drop to FBS mean Saturday games?

Go big or go home...

(05-06-2020 07:34 AM)thetachihuskie Wrote:  Go big or go home...

That's what my girlfriend in school told me when we hooked up. I went home a lot.

(05-05-2020 10:46 AM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  Akron is combining colleges not getting rid of them.
Fewer Dean's, etc.

This. They have already dropped a bunch of majors with low interest. The idea is to reduce the number of costly administrators, not students.

(05-05-2020 06:26 PM)HOF 08 Wrote:  As long as we are speculating on many topics/scenarios let me throw this into the mix. If NIU/MAC drops from D1 why do we have to stay with the same MAC schools? I for one would find it much more interesting to combine some Missouri Valley/MAC/Ohio Valley schools and make a very competitive conference with some geographical rivals. NIU-ISU-SIU-Toledo-Miami-CMU-WMU-Missouri State-North Dakota St-Western Kentucky-Ball St. Throw in another school or 2- subtract a school or two use your imagination. Imo it would be very competitive in most sports and with some in state rivals I think you would get more fan interest especially students and have a nice non D1 league. Ok I’ll put my margarita down try to sober up and wish all happy cinco de mayo.

Happy seis de mayo. Agree with you, those regional matchups would do some good things for local attendance, I could see us drawing more than we do now with a few more travelers making the trip from Bloomington, Carbondale, etc... Also, I think the schools you listed would even out competitively and we'd see some pretty good football. Given the covid impact, if your idea came to be, I'd be good with it.

I had similar thoughts and was playing with the facets and details when HOF 08 posted that, so decided to post this and take the heat. Somewhat similar in a kind of if-we-have-to way. Sort of what-if scenario. Posting it here for whatever.

If NIU drops to FCS (since this is speculation) I would expect one of the goals would be to cut travel costs and play people we all know. I played with a "conference" scenario based on the expectation that many Upper Midwest schools about NIU's size/status would have similar problems and be tired of the rat race. (Note: this is playing around only).

I came up with NIU, SIU-Carbondale, IllSt (which might hate this), EIU, WIU, Northern Iowa, Missouri State, Indiana State, Ball State, Drake. That's 10 with football. (9 conference plus 2 o-o-c plus FCS playoffs, no CCG). Take one of those others out and sub in SEMO as needed. Play for a playoff spot (or at-large) and national championship every year.

For added fun, for all other sports, go to 14 members. Add Bradley (already in the pits $-wise), Loyola-Chicago, Evansville and Valparaiso. Sub SIUE as needed. Four states, mostly easy travel (including fans), well-known teams, people from the neighborhoods and hometowns, all-Saturday football. FCS+DI requires 14 sports (not 16). Keeps the MVC and MVFC auto-bids for football playoffs and NCAA tournaments.

Basically, it combines those two affiliated (MVFC and MVC) and adds NIU, EIU, WIU and Ball State for all sports. Can you see some (small) caravans going on the road? In-state rivalries? Better tailgating? No pressure to spend bazillions on facilities?

Now, for the $$. The money MAC schools make from the ESPN-MAC contract has to be going mostly to video production. There is no way ESPN produces all those games. They just provide commentary; the u's do the video work. Payday games still possible, at least 1 per season, maybe 2. ESPN has enough modes (main, U, 2, 3, +) that football and other sports could be on air or live streaming everywhere anytime. (And it's speculated Google and Amazon are gearing up to get in.) ERverybody needs content. That's the future anyway (think of all those made-for-tv bowl games), so get on laptops, pads, computers and TVs, and let the "live" audience have what it wants. Grab a share of that online/streaming ad revenue. Hire an ad agency. Still get shares of NCAA tournament money (via MVC). I can also see enhanced tailgating, bigger cut of vendor revenues.

NIU can still be FBS but only if all the cards fall right, it weathers this storm, and can also weather the coming changes post-coronavirus across the university, not just sports. I hope so.

(Footnote: STF tried to get in-state FCS to come to DeKalb; some didn't like the idea or were already signed on elsewhere)

(Second footnote: Losing NIU and Ball State (outliers in the MAC) still leaves the MAC at 10 schools in Ohio, Michigan and Buffalo).

0% chance those MVC schools, in a basketball league often rated 10th or 11th, are adding NIU, EIU, & WIU.

The next school that league adds is Murray St.

Those are BB-first schools in a BB-first conference. They rejected NIU’s bid to join in the early 90s when NIU was a much better BB school.

NIU is a FB-first school in a FB-first conference. EIU/WIU are also FB-first schools who are each in the only D1 conference that will accept them. Those have never fit the profile of MVC schools.

Well aware of those facts, which is why it was a speculative, sort of what-if scenario, and I noted I was playing around only. Please don't take it too seriously. I am a fan of NIU FBS football.

The MVC maintains a 5-and-5 public-private balance they have been loathe to sacrifice for anything or anyone, and the MVFC was formed to accommodate its football-playing members. The North/South Dakota schools and WIU were added to fill out the fb schedule. There has also been debate on the IllSt fan board about whether they are gradually transitioning to more of a fb school over bball. As for men's bball, except for that Loyola run a couple years back, the MVC hasn't done much in recent years overall. Evansville isn't what it used to be, Indiana State hasn't been really great since Larry Bird, but Northern Iowa is pretty good all around, especially bball attendance (it has a nice dome). As for fb, Missouri State is going to play Missouri (they hired Bobby Petrino), Northern Iowa has its annual games vs. Iowa or Iowa State, several FCS in Illinois have/are playing Illinois from time to time. So they're not in bad shape.

I like Northern's situation in the MAC. Just wish the eastern half was closer for road trips. And I loathe weekday night fb.