I posted this in our team's board, just thought I'd share my thoughts here too.

The MAC signed the deal with ESPN back in 2014 for a 13 year deal of midweek games which provided each MAC school more than 800k annually. This deal expires in 2026-2027.

In 2014 streaming was at its infancy at best. I remember some schools offering a streaming service, some didn't. Sometimes you'd have to listen to the game on the radio. Often times games weren't even on TV. You'd have to actually go to the game if you'd want to see it. At the time, getting our games on national TV seemed like a good deal at the expense of lower attendance. Have these midweek games done anything positive besides the 800k/year for each school?

Clearly having a midweek game in the late fall/early winter makes attendance drop. Local fans don't want to sit outside at night and watch 2 crappy teams go at it. Corporate sponsors aren't going to have pre-game parties. Local schools, groups, etc aren't going to come to the games on a school night. Alumni that live further than a 30 minute drive aren't going to make it.

While the actual fans of the MAC HATE the midweek games, apparently the entire nation loves them? See this article from The Ringer. Personally I think the MAC has just become the laughing stock of college football. "Oh that's cute, they have to play during the week just to get on TV" "LOL look at how crazy this game is, these teams suck!" "MACtion baby!" People only watch the games because they have nothing better to do. They don't become fans of the schools, buy merchandise, come to the games, care about outcomes, etc. Very casual viewership which leads to nothing. Not to mention the lack of student support. Students have better things to do during the week than go to a football game. Their schedules are already jam packed with deals at the bars. Saturday morning football tailgating is part of the college experience! Who cares if they leave by halftime, at least more will show up to start.

The time to renegotiate the contract was several years ago. Lets make it happen now. The streaming capabilities have increased and the amount of people with cable/typical tv services have dropped significantly. It is time to give MAC football back to the alumni, local communities, and fans. I think making each team play 1 midweek game a year while ensuring all rivalries are on weekends seems like a good compromise.

I would LOVE to just have a MAC Network. Stream it on WatchESPN, Prime TV, Apple TV, etc. Let journalism/communication students run it with support of these companies or networks. Make the streaming services UNIQUE. Offer a virtual reality viewing experience from a suite, sidelines, or 50 yard line. Have the best games nationally televised. Let the fans come back to the stadiums. Bring ALCOHOL sales to the stadiums. Make the game an EXPERIENCE again. Bring alumni back together. Make MAC football great again!

/rant

(12-01-2022 12:32 PM)Nacho Wrote:  I posted this in our team's board, just thought I'd share my thoughts here too.

The MAC signed the deal with ESPN back in 2014 for a 13 year deal of midweek games which provided each MAC school more than 800k annually. This deal expires in 2026-2027.

In 2014 streaming was at its infancy at best. I remember some schools offering a streaming service, some didn't. Sometimes you'd have to listen to the game on the radio. Often times games weren't even on TV. You'd have to actually go to the game if you'd want to see it. At the time, getting our games on national TV seemed like a good deal at the expense of lower attendance. Have these midweek games done anything positive besides the 800k/year for each school?

Clearly having a midweek game in the late fall/early winter makes attendance drop. Local fans don't want to sit outside at night and watch 2 crappy teams go at it. Corporate sponsors aren't going to have pre-game parties. Local schools, groups, etc aren't going to come to the games on a school night. Alumni that live further than a 30 minute drive aren't going to make it.

While the actual fans of the MAC HATE the midweek games, apparently the entire nation loves them? See this article from The Ringer. Personally I think the MAC has just become the laughing stock of college football. "Oh that's cute, they have to play during the week just to get on TV" "LOL look at how crazy this game is, these teams suck!" "MACtion baby!" People only watch the games because they have nothing better to do. They don't become fans of the schools, buy merchandise, come to the games, care about outcomes, etc. Very casual viewership which leads to nothing. Not to mention the lack of student support. Students have better things to do during the week than go to a football game. Their schedules are already jam packed with deals at the bars. Saturday morning football tailgating is part of the college experience! Who cares if they leave by halftime, at least more will show up to start.

The time to renegotiate the contract was several years ago. Lets make it happen now. The streaming capabilities have increased and the amount of people with cable/typical tv services have dropped significantly. It is time to give MAC football back to the alumni, local communities, and fans. I think making each team play 1 midweek game a year while ensuring all rivalries are on weekends seems like a good compromise.

I would LOVE to just have a MAC Network. Stream it on WatchESPN, Prime TV, Apple TV, etc. Let journalism/communication students run it with support of these companies or networks. Make the streaming services UNIQUE. Offer a virtual reality viewing experience from a suite, sidelines, or 50 yard line. Have the best games nationally televised. Let the fans come back to the stadiums. Bring ALCOHOL sales to the stadiums. Make the game an EXPERIENCE again. Bring alumni back together. Make MAC football great again!

/rant

We had 16k and 20k for MACtion home games. Suit yourself. Its cold in November. Thats the problem
Day of the week? Secondary. Ill take my 452k viewers on ESPN. Cute product? Well we suck. We dont suck because MACtion. Get better squads and its not cute. CUSA isnt following the midweek structure for cuteness. ESPN gives us the dollars.

(12-01-2022 01:07 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(12-01-2022 12:32 PM)Nacho Wrote:  I posted this in our team's board, just thought I'd share my thoughts here too.

The MAC signed the deal with ESPN back in 2014 for a 13 year deal of midweek games which provided each MAC school more than 800k annually. This deal expires in 2026-2027.

In 2014 streaming was at its infancy at best. I remember some schools offering a streaming service, some didn't. Sometimes you'd have to listen to the game on the radio. Often times games weren't even on TV. You'd have to actually go to the game if you'd want to see it. At the time, getting our games on national TV seemed like a good deal at the expense of lower attendance. Have these midweek games done anything positive besides the 800k/year for each school?

Clearly having a midweek game in the late fall/early winter makes attendance drop. Local fans don't want to sit outside at night and watch 2 crappy teams go at it. Corporate sponsors aren't going to have pre-game parties. Local schools, groups, etc aren't going to come to the games on a school night. Alumni that live further than a 30 minute drive aren't going to make it.

While the actual fans of the MAC HATE the midweek games, apparently the entire nation loves them? See this article from The Ringer. Personally I think the MAC has just become the laughing stock of college football. "Oh that's cute, they have to play during the week just to get on TV" "LOL look at how crazy this game is, these teams suck!" "MACtion baby!" People only watch the games because they have nothing better to do. They don't become fans of the schools, buy merchandise, come to the games, care about outcomes, etc. Very casual viewership which leads to nothing. Not to mention the lack of student support. Students have better things to do during the week than go to a football game. Their schedules are already jam packed with deals at the bars. Saturday morning football tailgating is part of the college experience! Who cares if they leave by halftime, at least more will show up to start.

The time to renegotiate the contract was several years ago. Lets make it happen now. The streaming capabilities have increased and the amount of people with cable/typical tv services have dropped significantly. It is time to give MAC football back to the alumni, local communities, and fans. I think making each team play 1 midweek game a year while ensuring all rivalries are on weekends seems like a good compromise.

I would LOVE to just have a MAC Network. Stream it on WatchESPN, Prime TV, Apple TV, etc. Let journalism/communication students run it with support of these companies or networks. Make the streaming services UNIQUE. Offer a virtual reality viewing experience from a suite, sidelines, or 50 yard line. Have the best games nationally televised. Let the fans come back to the stadiums. Bring ALCOHOL sales to the stadiums. Make the game an EXPERIENCE again. Bring alumni back together. Make MAC football great again!

/rant

We had 16k and 20k for MACtion home games. Suit yourself. Its cold in November. Thats the problem
Day of the week? Secondary. Ill take my 452k viewers on ESPN. Cute product? Well we suck. We dont suck because MACtion. Get better squads and its not cute. CUSA isnt following the midweek structure for cuteness. ESPN gives us the dollars.

It works for some of the schools that have no gate to speak of. For Toledo and WMU I would think you get 50% more people on a Saturday. That's a lot of money for a moderate increase for playing on a Tuesday instead. The higher fanbased teams get punished, while the empty venues get rewarded. They should exempt the 2-3 highest attended fanbases from weeknight games as an incentive to draw more people.

At the conclusion of the ESPN contract I'd let it end and look for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Peacock, or any other streamer to do our games on Saturdays.

The "exposure" has done nothing for recruiting. The MAC probably had its weakest season in some time. Where are all the great recruits? The money isn't worth it since the schools have to use that money to pay for production costs. The exposure is barely better than FCS schools who already get their games broadcast on ESPN3/+.

(12-01-2022 01:28 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  At the conclusion of the ESPN contract I'd let it end and look for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Peacock, or any other streamer to do our games on Saturdays.

The "exposure" has done nothing for recruiting. The MAC probably had its weakest season in some time. Where are all the great recruits? The money isn't worth it since the schools have to use that money to pay for production costs. The exposure is barely better than FCS schools who already get their games broadcast on ESPN3/+.

whomever pays the most i'm down with

“I would LOVE to just have a MAC Network. Stream it on WatchESPN, Prime TV, Apple TV, etc. Let journalism/communication students run it with support of these companies or networks. Make the streaming services UNIQUE. Offer a virtual reality viewing experience from a suite, sidelines, or 50 yard line. Have the best games nationally televised. Let the fans come back to the stadiums. Bring ALCOHOL sales to the stadiums. Make the game an EXPERIENCE again. Bring alumni back together. Make MAC football great again!”

I’ve also thought a lot about having our own network like the Big10 and SEC, etc for the MAC.
But I realize it probably doesn’t garner enough viewers on a weekly basis to justify. So I’ve often wondered why the MAC doesn’t partner with another FBS conference and show, for example,
Sunbelt and MAC games? Or Sunbelt, MAC and Mountain West? Perhaps that would get a large enough viewership to make it worth the investment?

(12-01-2022 05:37 PM)Warhawks222 Wrote:  Bring ALCOHOL sales to the stadiums

Wait, you guys don't sell alcohol at games?

(12-01-2022 05:43 PM)kreed5120 Wrote:  

(12-01-2022 05:37 PM)Warhawks222 Wrote:  Bring ALCOHOL sales to the stadiums

Wait, you guys don't sell alcohol at games?

Ball State teamed up with a local brewery (Guardian) a few years back where if you buy the ticket though their FB page, you get a ticket and two beers at the game for $20. Great deal….

(12-01-2022 01:24 PM)MUther Wrote:  

(12-01-2022 01:07 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(12-01-2022 12:32 PM)Nacho Wrote:  I posted this in our team's board, just thought I'd share my thoughts here too.

The MAC signed the deal with ESPN back in 2014 for a 13 year deal of midweek games which provided each MAC school more than 800k annually. This deal expires in 2026-2027.

In 2014 streaming was at its infancy at best. I remember some schools offering a streaming service, some didn't. Sometimes you'd have to listen to the game on the radio. Often times games weren't even on TV. You'd have to actually go to the game if you'd want to see it. At the time, getting our games on national TV seemed like a good deal at the expense of lower attendance. Have these midweek games done anything positive besides the 800k/year for each school?

Clearly having a midweek game in the late fall/early winter makes attendance drop. Local fans don't want to sit outside at night and watch 2 crappy teams go at it. Corporate sponsors aren't going to have pre-game parties. Local schools, groups, etc aren't going to come to the games on a school night. Alumni that live further than a 30 minute drive aren't going to make it.

While the actual fans of the MAC HATE the midweek games, apparently the entire nation loves them? See this article from The Ringer. Personally I think the MAC has just become the laughing stock of college football. "Oh that's cute, they have to play during the week just to get on TV" "LOL look at how crazy this game is, these teams suck!" "MACtion baby!" People only watch the games because they have nothing better to do. They don't become fans of the schools, buy merchandise, come to the games, care about outcomes, etc. Very casual viewership which leads to nothing. Not to mention the lack of student support. Students have better things to do during the week than go to a football game. Their schedules are already jam packed with deals at the bars. Saturday morning football tailgating is part of the college experience! Who cares if they leave by halftime, at least more will show up to start.

The time to renegotiate the contract was several years ago. Lets make it happen now. The streaming capabilities have increased and the amount of people with cable/typical tv services have dropped significantly. It is time to give MAC football back to the alumni, local communities, and fans. I think making each team play 1 midweek game a year while ensuring all rivalries are on weekends seems like a good compromise.

I would LOVE to just have a MAC Network. Stream it on WatchESPN, Prime TV, Apple TV, etc. Let journalism/communication students run it with support of these companies or networks. Make the streaming services UNIQUE. Offer a virtual reality viewing experience from a suite, sidelines, or 50 yard line. Have the best games nationally televised. Let the fans come back to the stadiums. Bring ALCOHOL sales to the stadiums. Make the game an EXPERIENCE again. Bring alumni back together. Make MAC football great again!

/rant

We had 16k and 20k for MACtion home games. Suit yourself. Its cold in November. Thats the problem
Day of the week? Secondary. Ill take my 452k viewers on ESPN. Cute product? Well we suck. We dont suck because MACtion. Get better squads and its not cute. CUSA isnt following the midweek structure for cuteness. ESPN gives us the dollars.

It works for some of the schools that have no gate to speak of. For Toledo and WMU I would think you get 50% more people on a Saturday. That's a lot of money for a moderate increase for playing on a Tuesday instead. The higher fanbased teams get punished, while the empty venues get rewarded. They should exempt the 2-3 highest attended fanbases from weeknight games as an incentive to draw more people.

LOL 24K FOR BALL AND 30K FOR BG IN NOVEMBER Thats over capacity.

(12-01-2022 01:07 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(12-01-2022 12:32 PM)Nacho Wrote:  I posted this in our team's board, just thought I'd share my thoughts here too.

The MAC signed the deal with ESPN back in 2014 for a 13 year deal of midweek games which provided each MAC school more than 800k annually. This deal expires in 2026-2027.

In 2014 streaming was at its infancy at best. I remember some schools offering a streaming service, some didn't. Sometimes you'd have to listen to the game on the radio. Often times games weren't even on TV. You'd have to actually go to the game if you'd want to see it. At the time, getting our games on national TV seemed like a good deal at the expense of lower attendance. Have these midweek games done anything positive besides the 800k/year for each school?

Clearly having a midweek game in the late fall/early winter makes attendance drop. Local fans don't want to sit outside at night and watch 2 crappy teams go at it. Corporate sponsors aren't going to have pre-game parties. Local schools, groups, etc aren't going to come to the games on a school night. Alumni that live further than a 30 minute drive aren't going to make it.

While the actual fans of the MAC HATE the midweek games, apparently the entire nation loves them? See this article from The Ringer. Personally I think the MAC has just become the laughing stock of college football. "Oh that's cute, they have to play during the week just to get on TV" "LOL look at how crazy this game is, these teams suck!" "MACtion baby!" People only watch the games because they have nothing better to do. They don't become fans of the schools, buy merchandise, come to the games, care about outcomes, etc. Very casual viewership which leads to nothing. Not to mention the lack of student support. Students have better things to do during the week than go to a football game. Their schedules are already jam packed with deals at the bars. Saturday morning football tailgating is part of the college experience! Who cares if they leave by halftime, at least more will show up to start.

The time to renegotiate the contract was several years ago. Lets make it happen now. The streaming capabilities have increased and the amount of people with cable/typical tv services have dropped significantly. It is time to give MAC football back to the alumni, local communities, and fans. I think making each team play 1 midweek game a year while ensuring all rivalries are on weekends seems like a good compromise.

I would LOVE to just have a MAC Network. Stream it on WatchESPN, Prime TV, Apple TV, etc. Let journalism/communication students run it with support of these companies or networks. Make the streaming services UNIQUE. Offer a virtual reality viewing experience from a suite, sidelines, or 50 yard line. Have the best games nationally televised. Let the fans come back to the stadiums. Bring ALCOHOL sales to the stadiums. Make the game an EXPERIENCE again. Bring alumni back together. Make MAC football great again!

/rant

We had 16k and 20k for MACtion home games. Suit yourself. Its cold in November. Thats the problem
Day of the week? Secondary. Ill take my 452k viewers on ESPN. Cute product? Well we suck. We dont suck because MACtion. Get better squads and its not cute. CUSA isnt following the midweek structure for cuteness. ESPN gives us the dollars.

Meanwhile the Western/Central game gets stuck on ESPNU to an emptier stadium and no viewers beacuse it is on a D tier cable network.

I'd love to bail on ESPN and most/all of the weekday games for any money remotely close to what we get now. One weekday game later in the season for each team is fine, but tanking the entire latter part of our season so ESPN can afford to retile their executive bathrooms is a train wreck of a concept.

I love MACtion and hope it stays around forever!!! it's awesome!

I love MACtion too. I think we should embrace it and equip our stadiums and courts with overhead sky cameras on cable like the XFL used to.

(12-01-2022 12:32 PM)Nacho Wrote:  At the time, getting our games on national TV seemed like a good deal at the expense of lower attendance.

A small expense. Attendance has always been lower in this conference in November.

Looking at 2010 (for example), Western Michigan drew:
-- 12,136 for a Saturday afternoon rivalry game against Eastern Michigan on Nov. 13.
-- 8,763 for a Saturday afternoon game against Kent State on Nov. 20.

Quote:Have these midweek games done anything positive besides the 800k/year for each school?

Yes. They expose MAC football to casual fans help our brand by putting us on national television in primetime.

Quote:Clearly having a midweek game in the late fall/early winter makes attendance drop.

Not as much as some seem to think.

MACtion is good. The money is good and so is the exposure. I'd rather have an extra 100,000 watching November MACtion on TV than an additional 1,000 people in the stands.

Quote:The "exposure" has done nothing for recruiting.

Whatever brings more $$, brings more recruiting. However, yeah, that's up to us. Mid-week MACtion is good -- but only hardcore football fans are going to watch. Mainly it just feeds addicts, and the drug dealer ESPN is giving us a cut of the drug money so we can recruit, so it's indirect.

Quote:The MAC probably had its weakest season in some time. Where are all the great recruits?

The MAC having it's weakest season in ages doesn't have to do with Tues/Wed. This isn't a new gig. Better recruits? I know WMU's had them. We had tons of talent last year, but they all graduated or went NFL for the most part. The portal hurts. It's not low attendance on Tues.

Quote:The money isn't worth it since the schools have to use that money to pay for production costs.

Ya make the $$ by TV over coming to the games. We get more money than if we had a non-big but meh crowd on Saturday to say the least. But if it's a big crowd, you're getting more exposure on there as people would actually tune in on Tues/Wed.

Quote:For Toledo and WMU I would think you get 50% more people on a Saturday. That's a lot of money for a moderate increase for playing on a Tuesday instead. The higher fanbased teams get punished, while the empty venues get rewarded.

I think when the team's good (WMU took a hit this year) -- as a theme, I agree that on Nov Saturdays we'd get more fans, and it'd be better. If the team can have fans and aren't reliant on the extra $$ for MACtion, I agree that it'd be good. I think the MACtion Tues/Wed is a quick fix for $$. Not good for rivalry games or when a team is pretty good. That said, it Is good when you have a standout team like NIU was back in the day -- people everywhere will watch.

MACtion providing students some distrACtion.

After talking about the other conference championship games and showing video footage of those teams on college gameday this morning about 7 mins later they finally barely mentioned the MAC Championship and just quickly showed a 2 second clip of an empty Ford Field. No highlights of the two MAC teams playing like the other championship games.

ESPN couldn't care less about the MAC.

(12-03-2022 09:18 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  ESPN could care less about the MAC.

If they could care less, I would hate to see what that looks like.

If you read the Toledo board, you’d get the idea they couldn’t care less about the game either. As football games go today, it’s pretty low on the interest level this year, I have to admit. It’s not just ESPN. It’s pretty much everyone except Bobcat fans and some fraction of Toledo fans who have a big interest in it.

(12-03-2022 09:28 AM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  

(12-03-2022 09:18 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  ESPN could care less about the MAC.

If they could care less, I would hate to see what that looks like.

I fixed it for you. But let's ignore the issue here.

Akron/UB game was on ESPN+ on a Friday early afternoon with nothing else going on and last week's Miami/BSU game was relegated to ESPN+ on a Tuesday.