Someone proposed this question to The Athletic on Monday.

https://theathletic.com/2343968/2021/01/...oach-hires

Quote:Instead of midweek MACtion, what if the MAC played televised games at 9 or 10 ET on Saturday mornings. Saturday IS college football. Why not play on the holy day as the “undercard”? Three hours of “College GameDay” is about two hours too long. Give the fans a game, give the conference some national uncontested exposure. Thoughts? — Scott S.

I don’t hate the idea of a game like that every once in a while — like when a college football game takes place in Ireland — but it doesn’t make much sense for either party from a business standpoint. The television ratings won’t be as good on a Saturday morning as they are for a midweek primetime game. It’s just not as much exposure. It would also create a situation where ESPN is competing against itself by taking away or going up against its “GameDay” broadcast. I’m someone who enjoys watching English Premier League soccer on Saturdays before college football, but that works because of the time difference.

Now, would teams like it? Maybe. Midweek MACtion has its own issues with taking players out of classes, sometimes having short turnarounds for games and limiting the crowd by virtue of the time. We’ve seen the Pac-12 start playing 9 a.m. local times games, and it’s a lot to put on a team, with wake-ups around 4 or 5 a.m. But the purpose of that is for more exposure, by playing at noon ET. I’m not sure 9 a.m. ET MAC games would bring more attention than midweek primetime.

Coaches would hate it. Think how long it takes to prepare for a game. Taping. Meals. Heck Candle complains about Noon starts


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I'd prefer this over midweek games.

Ditch the selfish pr*cks at ESPN ASAP, lets play Saturday afternoons like the rest of the FBS leagues, and let the other chips fall as they may. We need crowds back in our stadiums.

(01-27-2021 10:49 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  Ditch the selfish pr*cks at ESPN ASAP, lets play Saturday afternoons like the rest of the FBS leagues, and let the other chips fall as they may. We need crowds back in our stadiums.

Sorry you can't
I want the money as it may fall. My university also has a decent field product and can sustain itself with its location.

Bad idea - no fans would tailgate at 7am. Fans also need to have time to drive to games in AM.
Plus, that competes with Saturday morning cartoons!

would be less of an academic disruption that the midweek games, but not much better for fans. the answer is simple. stop gutting the entire back half of the mac schedule and making us a mid week league. craft a schedule that gives ESPN 2 mid week games each week likely to contain at least 1 top mac team and use preserve a couple more saturdays. for example, instead of the typical

week 1 Sat
week 2 Sat
week 3 Sat
week 4 Sat
week 5 Sat
week 6 Sat
week 7 Sat
week 8 bye
week 9 Tues/Wed
week 10 Tues/Wed
week 11 Tues/Wed
week 12 Tues/Wed
week 13 Wed/Fri

have every team fit into 3 week stretch into the backend of their schedule with 2 mid-week games (1 home 1 away) plus a bye. you play 3 of your 4 league home games on saturday and only have to travel once in the middle of a school week. ESPN still gets their games. the MAC still gets prime time exposure and the better teams sacrifice an espn2 or espnu midweek game for 2 more saturday games.

(01-28-2021 01:00 PM)JHVMU19 Wrote:  Bad idea - no fans would tailgate at 7am. Fans also need to have time to drive to games in AM.
Plus, that competes with Saturday morning cartoons!

7am? Were talking about good old fashioned Saturday afternoon/eve football. (oh, you're responding to the original Sat. a.m. concept, sorry)

The MAC wouldn't need the money from weeknight games if they invested in Dogecoin, AMC, Blockbuster or Gamestop this week

Weeknight games aren't an issue for me as long as you schedule major rivalries for Saturdays earlier in the season (the original 2020 schedule actually did this pretty well) and minimize the number of games only broadcast on ESPN3 (trickier). Saturday mornings might have better attendance from being on a weekend, but with being so early we won't get many viewers outside EST.

Too much criticism for the midweek games.

If they are limited to late in the season (when it is cold and attendance isnt going to be good even if the game was played on a Saturday afternoon), I like having midweek games. The MAC gets center stage for the evening, and good college football fans will watch MAC games midweek, just to get their fix of college football. I really look forward to the WMU midweek games when I am at work earlier in the day. It also leaves the weekend open to do other things, or watch other games. I also like how a midweek game can be scheduled instead of an "off week", so you really dont have to wait 14 days, like a normal off week would do.

The only real drawback to the midweek games is that it is incredibly inconvenient to attend those games for most working people. For me to attend a midweek WMU game it effectively requires that I take at least a half day off, as it is 3.5 hours to get to Kalamazoo, and then the following day is shot too. So I understand some resistance. But I think each MAC school could do two midweek games per season, with the understanding that big rivalry games be played on a Saturday, earlier in the season to accommodate fan attendance.