What if the MAC could schedule home non-conference games with SB teams at the beginning of the season; and away games at SB teams at the end of the season. The SB teams could get away for the scorching heat at the beginning of the season, and we could get away from the bitter cold at the end of season. We always get much better attendance in the early season because of the weather, and it would seem SB teams attendance would also benefit.

(07-29-2022 06:56 PM)AllBronco Wrote:  What if the MAC could schedule home non-conference games with SB teams at the beginning of the season; and away games at SB teams at the end of the season. The SB teams could get away for the scorching heat at the beginning of the season, and we could get away from the bitter cold at the end of season. We always get much better attendance in the early season because of the weather, and it would seem SB teams attendance would also benefit.

Many years ago, Bowling Green seemed to try to do this. Looking at some old schedules:
-- In 1972, Bowling Green finished at Tampa.
-- In 1974, Bowling Green finished at San Diego State.
-- In 1975, Bowling Green finished at Texas-Arlington.
-- In 1976, Bowling Green finished at Chattanooga.
-- In 1977, Bowling Green finished at Long Beach State.

Part of the challenge today may come from how many nonconference home-and-homes MAC schools want to schedule. Some are only doing one per year, I think.

In baseball, if schedules rolled around evenly... id be cool with this. "Hey Detroit Tigers, go play on the West coast and in Florida during April and have an abundance of those squads escaping the heat in mid summer for your home games."

I WANT THESE PURSY A$$ SOUTHERN KIDS UP HERE IN NOVEMBER. Thats why I want northern out door bowl games. So they can do what we have to, all year long.

South Alabama plays in one temp, two types of percipitation. Laughable.

(07-29-2022 06:56 PM)AllBronco Wrote:  What if the MAC could schedule home non-conference games with SB teams at the beginning of the season; and away games at SB teams at the end of the season. The SB teams could get away for the scorching heat at the beginning of the season, and we could get away from the bitter cold at the end of season. We always get much better attendance in the early season because of the weather, and it would seem SB teams attendance would also benefit.

Not a bad idea except teams (coaches and players) don't like non-conference games at end of season, i.e. after MAC schedule is over.

Unless a bowl bid is on the line or they're playing a rival of some sort (Miami-Cincinatti for ex.) it's too anti-climactic, kids don't get fired up to play them.

Big reason why most are in first month of season.

(07-29-2022 06:56 PM)AllBronco Wrote:  What if the MAC could schedule home non-conference games with SB teams at the beginning of the season; and away games at SB teams at the end of the season. The SB teams could get away for the scorching heat at the beginning of the season, and we could get away from the bitter cold at the end of season. We always get much better attendance in the early season because of the weather, and it would seem SB teams attendance would also benefit.

Doing it regularly would require MAC scheduling support, since it would require basically giving a school a bye during the following week of MACtion ... and so (1) only really fits comfortably if two schools are doing it with the same away November date in the same year and (2) it could really only be two schools away in one year, so the following week's MACtion has three games on Tuesday and two on Wednesday.

Also, Kent State schedules three P5 buy games away and one FCS buy game home for our OOC, so we couldn't participate.

So it would have to be a "voluntary" scheduling agreement, where a pair of SB schools and a pair of MAC schools can schedule games so they are home at the MAC school in September and home at the Sunbelt school in the same Saturday in November. A maximum of four MAC and four SB schools could be involved in any given year ... two home on each side.

It's not clear to me that the whole "escape the heat for one Saturday in September" inducement for the Sunbelt schools would be enough to make them want to schedule a pair of home OOC games during the middle of their race to the conference championship.

As Bruce points out, it would definitely mess up November MACtion.

(07-30-2022 08:45 AM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  As Bruce points out, it would definitely mess up November MACtion.

Is that a bad thing lol

(07-29-2022 11:19 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  In baseball, if schedules rolled around evenly... id be cool with this. "Hey Detroit Tigers, go play on the West coast and in Florida during April and have an abundance of those squads escaping the heat in mid summer for your home games."

I WANT THESE PURSY A$$ SOUTHERN KIDS UP HERE IN NOVEMBER. Thats why I want northern out door bowl games. So they can do what we have to, all year long.

South Alabama plays in one temp, two types of percipitation. Laughable.

Alabama never even leaves the Southeast.

(07-30-2022 09:03 AM)cmufanatic Wrote:  

(07-30-2022 08:45 AM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  As Bruce points out, it would definitely mess up November MACtion.

Is that a bad thing lol

If you want the MAC Presidents to continue subsidizing FBS football, sabotaging one of their principle media exposure paybacks for those subsidies would seem to be counter-productive.

You really only have about 6-7 options: TXST, South Alabammy, USM, GaSo, Louisiana, GaSt, and hit and miss with Coastal.

(07-30-2022 06:52 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  You really only have about 6-7 options: TXST, South Alabammy, USM, GaSo, Louisiana, GaSt, and hit and miss with Coastal.

Toledo used to play some late games in florida. usf, ucf, tampa? it would make sense, but so little in college football makes sense to me right now. so, i don't see it happening.

(07-29-2022 06:56 PM)AllBronco Wrote:  What if the MAC could schedule home non-conference games with SB teams at the beginning of the season; and away games at SB teams at the end of the season. The SB teams could get away for the scorching heat at the beginning of the season, and we could get away from the bitter cold at the end of season. We always get much better attendance in the early season because of the weather, and it would seem SB teams attendance would also benefit.

I've said this before, love it. All conferences should just be north-to-south for this reason.

(07-30-2022 06:52 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  You really only have about 6-7 options: TXST, South Alabammy, USM, GaSo, Louisiana, GaSt, and hit and miss with Coastal.

There's no particular reason to think that more than 6-7 MAC schools would want to pursue the strategy, so that could well be the basis for a voluntary scheduling agreement, similar to the scheduling agreement that the MAC once had with Army where, IIRC, Army had the option to schedule up to three MAC schools in the middle of the MAC conference schedule, and the MAC agreed to work the games into their scheduling. It helped Army with their later season scheduling, which can be challenging for an Independent, and the MAC liked having the Army games.

I don't recall the exact period that the scheduling agreement ran -- obviously it would have been sometime after Army's run in CUSA ended -- and I don't know why the agreement was allowed to lapse ... maybe it turned out that at the frequency that Army ended up needing the games, it wasn't actually necessary to have a formal agreement.

But if the two conferences work out a framework within which schools are guaranteed to have the conference work the late OOC gamed into the schedule, and leave it up to the schools how much they want to exercise the option, that seems like the kind of scheduling agreement that fits this idea best.

(07-31-2022 09:29 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(07-30-2022 06:52 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  You really only have about 6-7 options: TXST, South Alabammy, USM, GaSo, Louisiana, GaSt, and hit and miss with Coastal.

There's no particular reason to think that more than 6-7 MAC schools would want to pursue the strategy, so that could well be the basis for a voluntary scheduling agreement, similar to the scheduling agreement that the MAC once had with Army where, IIRC, Army had the option to schedule up to three MAC schools in the middle of the MAC conference schedule, and the MAC agreed to work the games into their scheduling. It helped Army with their later season scheduling, which can be challenging for an Independent, and the MAC liked having the Army games.

I don't recall the exact period that the scheduling agreement ran -- obviously it would have been sometime after Army's run in CUSA ended -- and I don't know why the agreement was allowed to lapse ... maybe it turned out that at the frequency that Army ended up needing the games, it wasn't actually necessary to have a formal agreement.

But if the two conferences work out a framework within which schools are guaranteed to have the conference work the late OOC gamed into the schedule, and leave it up to the schools how much they want to exercise the option, that seems like the kind of scheduling agreement that fits this idea best.

Oh, I agree with ya. I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all.

Army can pick up games with independents UMass and UConn, so that's two right there, and if you check Army's future football schedules, they do. They also still play a MAC team or so now and then.

Also ... don't know if mentioned or not ... SBC teams are looking for P5 payday games same as MACs.

(07-31-2022 01:33 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  Army can pick up games with independents UMass and UConn, so that's two right there, and if you check Army's future football schedules, they do. They also still play a MAC team or so now and then.

Also ... don't know if mentioned or not ... SBC teams are looking for P5 payday games same as MACs.

You're right, it would interfere with payday games and MACtion games. But it is still not a bad idea in theory. And I am sure MAC schools would like to see home games of Coastal Carolina or Southern Miss than St. Francis U, Wagner or Presbyterian.

(07-31-2022 11:50 PM)Schaefer Beer Wrote:  

(07-31-2022 01:33 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  Army can pick up games with independents UMass and UConn, so that's two right there, and if you check Army's future football schedules, they do. They also still play a MAC team or so now and then.

Also ... don't know if mentioned or not ... SBC teams are looking for P5 payday games same as MACs.

You're right, it would interfere with payday games and MACtion games. But it is still not a bad idea in theory. And I am sure MAC schools would like to see home games of Coastal Carolina or Southern Miss than St. Francis U, Wagner or Presbyterian.

Nit picking but here I go.
Hear me out... Coastal is one of the most unintriguing home games I can think of... To me this is like ODU or any team who has made the jump as a new University in a populated spot. The difference is luck of coaches so far. They dont have a ton of fans, and the Carolinas have a lot more to offer tbh. Theyve taken on a Bills Mafia mantra... but i think it will be short lived and theyll be has beens pretty quick. Some coach will fail to reel in the beach bros and theyll fall behind the many schools in those two states who rely on tradition as a recruiting model.

Id rather have Southern Miss or App, or anyone with a storied past. But the new schools like FIU, Charlotte and Coastal dont move the needle IMO.

(08-01-2022 12:47 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Nit picking but here I go.
Hear me out... Coastal is one of the most unintriguing home games I can think of... To me this is like ODU or any team who has made the jump as a new University in a populated spot. The difference is luck of coaches so far. They dont have a ton of fans, and the Carolinas have a lot more to offer tbh.

Their fanbase did seem small since they were way outnumbered by NIU fans at the Cure Bowl this past December. I was expecting to see at least 3-5k of their fans at the game since they were much closer than NIU.

(08-01-2022 12:47 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(07-31-2022 11:50 PM)Schaefer Beer Wrote:  

(07-31-2022 01:33 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  Army can pick up games with independents UMass and UConn, so that's two right there, and if you check Army's future football schedules, they do. They also still play a MAC team or so now and then.

Also ... don't know if mentioned or not ... SBC teams are looking for P5 payday games same as MACs.

You're right, it would interfere with payday games and MACtion games. But it is still not a bad idea in theory. And I am sure MAC schools would like to see home games of Coastal Carolina or Southern Miss than St. Francis U, Wagner or Presbyterian.

Nit picking but here I go.
Hear me out... Coastal is one of the most unintriguing home games I can think of... To me this is like ODU or any team who has made the jump as a new University in a populated spot. The difference is luck of coaches so far. They dont have a ton of fans, and the Carolinas have a lot more to offer tbh. Theyve taken on a Bills Mafia mantra... but i think it will be short lived and theyll be has beens pretty quick. Some coach will fail to reel in the beach bros and theyll fall behind the many schools in those two states who rely on tradition as a recruiting model.

Id rather have Southern Miss or App, or anyone with a storied past. But the new schools like FIU, Charlotte and Coastal dont move the needle IMO.

I wasn't trying to elevate Coastal's program, I used them as an example because they were on the radar the past couple of years. My point of my post, would you rather have home games against a SBC team, or St. Francis U or Presbyterian U? You can insert any SBC team that you would prefer for the analogy lf that will makes you feel better.

According to fbschedules, MAC and SBC games scheduled ...

Opponents (years)

Ball State -- GaSouthern (22, 23)
Bowling Green -- Marshall (22, 27), ODU (24, 31), SoAlabama (28)
Buffalo -- Coastal (22), ODU (23)
Central Michigan -- SoAlabama (22, 23)
Eastern Michigan -- Louisiana (22, 25), GaSouthern (27, 29)
Miami-O -- JMU (23, 26)
Ohio -- SoAlabama (24, 26), Marshall (25, 27)
Toledo -- AppState (25, 28)
Western Michigan -- Marshall (24, 25)

None: Akron, Kent State, NIU