I just looked right now at the MAC Conference website and Hustle Belt and they are not featuring NIU's win over Boston College as the top story? Why are they not highlighting the best story in the MAC conference? A MAC team beating a P5 team is a big deal. A Toledo almost won is not a big deal, neither is Ohio beating Long Island, not impressive, but expected. The Chicago media was very impressed with NIU's win over Boston College, why did Hustle Belt never make it a top story? Also why does the Mid American Conference website not have it as a long term feature story?

Very sad! Horrible marketing!

I saw an interesting factoid that we ended BC's undefeated record vs. MAC opponents.

(09-05-2023 08:34 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  I saw an interesting factoid that we ended BC's undefeated record vs. MAC opponents.

That's not accurate. Ohio U beat Boston College on the road in 1966 and technically, Buffalo is 2-7 vs. Boston College although the two wins came before UB joined the MAC.

The MAC went 1-6 vs. the P5 in Weeks 0+1, and guess who the lone winner was? Overall, the MAC was 4-9, and the other three wins were over FCS teams. This is not a good start for the MAC, with another 35 o-o-c games coming and 14 of them vs. P5s.

So maybe the Husle Belt went with a table scraps menu ... make Toledo feel good about an almost win except for the Illini "miracle," and humongously important wins over Howard, St. Francis U. and LIU.

(09-05-2023 07:51 PM)The Huskie Wrote:  I just looked right now at the MAC Conference website and Hustle Belt and they are not featuring NIU's win over Boston College as the top story? Why are they not highlighting the best story in the MAC conference? A MAC team beating a P5 team is a big deal. A Toledo almost won is not a big deal, neither is Ohio beating Long Island, not impressive, but expected. The Chicago media was very impressed with NIU's win over Boston College, why did Hustle Belt never make it a top story? Also why does the Mid American Conference website not have it as a long term feature story?

Very sad! Horrible marketing!

IMO simply confirms that the MAC is an Ohio/Michigan conference and the biased coverage (or lack of coverage) that goes with that.

(09-06-2023 08:06 AM)NILAW Wrote:  IMO simply confirms that the MAC is an Ohio/Michigan conference and the biased coverage (or lack of coverage) that goes with that.

No doubt. You have people suggesting Youngstown St as expansion member for MAC. I'm sure ESPN would give more money for a 7th Ohio school in a state that is dominated by Ohio State. [Sarcasm]

If MWC or Pac-12 (if the two remaining members try to keep it going) expand, I think NIU should be making some calls to join. Obviously we don't fit the geographical profile but as we've seen by ACC and Big18 expansion, coast to coast conferences are the new thing.

(09-06-2023 08:27 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(09-06-2023 08:06 AM)NILAW Wrote:  IMO simply confirms that the MAC is an Ohio/Michigan conference and the biased coverage (or lack of coverage) that goes with that.

No doubt. You have people suggesting Youngstown St as expansion member for MAC. I'm sure ESPN would give more money for a 7th Ohio school in a state that is dominated by Ohio State. [Sarcasm]

If MWC or Pac-12 (if the two remaining members try to keep it going) expand, I think NIU should be making some calls to join. Obviously we don't fit the geographical profile but as we've seen by ACC and Big18 expansion, coast to coast conferences are the new thing.

Big West part 2.

We won against a P% team and it really is not a big deal. That is what we do. The story to me is, we won and did not really play that well. Our stars did not show and we still got it done. That is a good sign. Toledo looked much better than we did and against a much superior team than BC. Sept 30 @ Toledo. Go Huskies!

A win over a Power conference school is always a positive but I'm not doing cartwheels over this win.

IMO, we beat a team we should have beat.

(09-05-2023 07:51 PM)The Huskie Wrote:  I just looked right now at the MAC Conference website and Hustle Belt and they are not featuring NIU's win over Boston College as the top story? Why are they not highlighting the best story in the MAC conference? A MAC team beating a P5 team is a big deal. A Toledo almost won is not a big deal, neither is Ohio beating Long Island, not impressive, but expected. The Chicago media was very impressed with NIU's win over Boston College, why did Hustle Belt never make it a top story? Also why does the Mid American Conference website not have it as a long term feature story?

Very sad! Horrible marketing!

Marketing? Do you really think that marketing influences what a sportswriter decides to write about a game? The article is after the fact. Marketing has nothing to do with it.

The MAC always seems to favor it's Michigan/Ohio core, at least a bit here and there.

1 - If you had time to sample from the MAC website and all associated media accounts overt the last 120 months, I'm guessing NIU gets slightly less than it's fare share (< 1/12) of the promotion provided by the conference to its teams over time. We're the outlier, as such our recent semi-domination of football is probably not exciting to the core brass either.


2 - Also, no NIU (only MAC team to upset a P5) week 1 players of the week per the conference brass.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2023/9/4...-week.aspx

Only players from Ohio and Michigan schools are named, shocker. (maybe we had no single player with outstanding stats? Still, NIU left on the outside looking in after the lone upset on behalf of the conference).

(09-06-2023 11:48 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  The MAC always seems to favor it's Michigan/Ohio core, at least a bit here and there.

1 - If you had time to sample from the MAC website and all associated media accounts overt the last 120 months, I'm guessing NIU gets slightly less than it's fare share (< 1/12) of the promotion provided by the conference to its teams over time. We're the outlier, as such our recent semi-domination of football is probably not exciting to the core brass either.


2 - Also, no NIU (only MAC team to upset a P5) week 1 players of the week per the conference brass.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2023/9/4...-week.aspx

Only players from Ohio and Michigan schools, shocker. (maybe we had no single player with outstanding stats? Still, NIU left on the outside looking in after the lone upset on behalf of the conference).

Since you are a film maker, picture this:
Setting: MAC Conference office, Mid-December 2013 on a cold evening. MAC Commissioner Steinbrecher is pounding his desk

Commissioner Steinbrecher: "Why couldn't it be Toledo that went to the Orange Bowl?"

I don't think that ever happened. As long as the money is rolling in to justify their bloated paychecks, the MAC brass don't care who is successful.

(09-06-2023 11:48 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  The MAC always seems to favor it's Michigan/Ohio core, at least a bit here and there.

1 - If you had time to sample from the MAC website and all associated media accounts overt the last 120 months, I'm guessing NIU gets slightly less than it's fare share (< 1/12) of the promotion provided by the conference to its teams over time. We're the outlier, as such our recent semi-domination of football is probably not exciting to the core brass either.


2 - Also, no NIU (only MAC team to upset a P5) week 1 players of the week per the conference brass.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2023/9/4...-week.aspx

Only players from Ohio and Michigan schools are named, shocker. (maybe we had no single player with outstanding stats? Still, NIU left on the outside looking in after the lone upset on behalf of the conference).

Correct. The MAC definitely favors its Ohio teams. (Hey, someone in this country needs to favor the state of Ohio!) Trust me, the MAC officials in Cleveland all wear their MAC shirts, but underneath each one is a Toledo T-shirt.

(09-06-2023 01:19 PM)Schaefer Beer Wrote:  

(09-06-2023 11:48 AM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  The MAC always seems to favor it's Michigan/Ohio core, at least a bit here and there.

1 - If you had time to sample from the MAC website and all associated media accounts overt the last 120 months, I'm guessing NIU gets slightly less than it's fare share (< 1/12) of the promotion provided by the conference to its teams over time. We're the outlier, as such our recent semi-domination of football is probably not exciting to the core brass either.


2 - Also, no NIU (only MAC team to upset a P5) week 1 players of the week per the conference brass.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2023/9/4...-week.aspx

Only players from Ohio and Michigan schools, shocker. (maybe we had no single player with outstanding stats? Still, NIU left on the outside looking in after the lone upset on behalf of the conference).

Since you are a film maker, picture this:
Setting: MAC Conference office, Mid-December 2013 on a cold evening. MAC Commissioner Steinbrecher is pounding his desk

Commissioner Steinbrecher: "Why couldn't it be Toledo that went to the Orange Bowl?"

I don't think that ever happened. As long as the money is rolling in to justify their bloated paychecks, the MAC brass don't care who is successful.

They can't be bothered with that. They're too busy arranging Toledo's bowl game for the end of the year and designing Toledo's "#1 in recruiting" banner.

(09-06-2023 11:36 AM)sportsfan Wrote:  

(09-05-2023 07:51 PM)The Huskie Wrote:  I just looked right now at the MAC Conference website and Hustle Belt and they are not featuring NIU's win over Boston College as the top story? Why are they not highlighting the best story in the MAC conference? A MAC team beating a P5 team is a big deal. A Toledo almost won is not a big deal, neither is Ohio beating Long Island, not impressive, but expected. The Chicago media was very impressed with NIU's win over Boston College, why did Hustle Belt never make it a top story? Also why does the Mid American Conference website not have it as a long term feature story?

Very sad! Horrible marketing!

Marketing? Do you really think that marketing influences what a sportswriter decides to write about a game? The article is after the fact. Marketing has nothing to do with it.

Sportswriters have absolutely no say if or where their story is published. Editors and webmasters are the ones who make those decisions. Also, those decisions are usually made on stories that generate the most reads or views which is marketing. Also the MAC website is or should be set up to generate the most positive publicity for the conference. What is a more positive story for the conference an NIU victory or a Toledo loss?

No one cares, work harder

Talk about Hustle Belt biased coverage! https://www.hustlebelt.com/2023/9/7/2385...ember-2023

According to this group, Toledo is the second coming, NIU has the best chance of loosing to an FCS team this week and the best chance for another MAC win over a P5 is EMU beating Minnesota.

The Huskies win over BC was talked about like it was nothing. I agree that the win over BC doesn’t answer the question of whether the Huskies are “back”. However, it wasn’t meaningless – BC is a P5/ACC team and we have the only win over a P5 team so far this year, whether this group likes it or not! The Minnesota/Nebraska game was very close and we have as good of a chance of beating Nebraska as EMU does of beating Minnesota (and IMO a better chance if Rocky is back to the Rocky we know by that game). The NIU/Nebraska game wasn’t even mentioned in that part of the article - it was all EMU upsetting Minnesota.

IMO, completely biased article (with Ohio and Michigan teams getting all the praise) and complete lack of respect for NIU in this article!

(09-08-2023 07:12 PM)NILAW Wrote:  Talk about Hustle Belt biased coverage! https://www.hustlebelt.com/2023/9/7/2385...ember-2023

According to this group, Toledo is the second coming, NIU has the best chance of loosing to an FCS team this week and the best chance for another MAC win over a P5 is EMU beating Minnesota.

The Huskies win over BC was talked about like it was nothing. I agree that the win over BC doesn’t answer the question of whether the Huskies are “back”. However, it wasn’t meaningless – BC is a P5/ACC team and we have the only win over a P5 team so far this year, whether this group likes it or not! The Minnesota/Nebraska game was very close and we have as good of a chance of beating Nebraska as EMU does of beating Minnesota (and IMO a better chance if Rocky is back to the Rocky we know by that game). The NIU/Nebraska game wasn’t even mentioned in that part of the article - it was all EMU upsetting Minnesota.

IMO, completely biased article (with Ohio and Michigan teams getting all the praise) and complete lack of respect for NIU in this article!

I read that today. None of them believe NIU is "back".

Everyone thinks Toledo is the best ever because they lost to Illinois which is losing 14-0 to Kansas powerhouse right now.

(09-08-2023 07:46 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(09-08-2023 07:12 PM)NILAW Wrote:  Talk about Hustle Belt biased coverage! https://www.hustlebelt.com/2023/9/7/2385...ember-2023

According to this group, Toledo is the second coming, NIU has the best chance of loosing to an FCS team this week and the best chance for another MAC win over a P5 is EMU beating Minnesota.

The Huskies win over BC was talked about like it was nothing. I agree that the win over BC doesn’t answer the question of whether the Huskies are “back”. However, it wasn’t meaningless – BC is a P5/ACC team and we have the only win over a P5 team so far this year, whether this group likes it or not! The Minnesota/Nebraska game was very close and we have as good of a chance of beating Nebraska as EMU does of beating Minnesota (and IMO a better chance if Rocky is back to the Rocky we know by that game). The NIU/Nebraska game wasn’t even mentioned in that part of the article - it was all EMU upsetting Minnesota.

IMO, completely biased article (with Ohio and Michigan teams getting all the praise) and complete lack of respect for NIU in this article!

I read that today. None of them believe NIU is "back".

Everyone thinks Toledo is the best ever because they lost to Illinois which is losing 14-0 to Kansas powerhouse right now.

We’ll…..everyone KNOWS that Toledo is the greatest ever - even if they lose every game. The world loves Toledo, and rightfully so! If Toledo lost all their games, they’d still be ranked higher than us no matter how many wins we have.

Make that Kansas powerhouse 28 and ILLness 7 at halftime.