(04-13-2024 06:35 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote: Adding one more school, say, WKU...
Some Conference USA fans will be taken aback if this happens. They really seem stuck on the fact that Conference USA was slightly better on the football field and the basketball court last season. Of course, this has very little to do with these decisions. (Most of us are old enough to remember when the Big Ten added Rutgers, for example.)
It's also clear that some Western Kentucky fans prefer to play a schedule laden with Southern schools. And I guess I do understand that. I like what the MAC is about for the same reason: Our Michigan-Ohio-heavy schedule -- that tight Middle American focus -- is a real throwback concept for a conference.
That said, if we put the hat on of Western Kentucky's president for a moment, a shift to the MAC would sure seem to have some appeal.
In Conference USA, Western Kentucky's three closest conference rivals are Middle Tennessee, Jacksonville State, and Kennesaw State. If you are Western Kentucky's president, do you want those schools as peer schools or would you prefer Miami, Ohio, and Ball State?
The choice here favors the MAC. All three of those MAC schools have stronger academic reputations per U.S. News.
If you are Western Kentucky's president, would you rather be in a conference with Liberty, or would you rather be in a conference without Liberty?
Again, the choice here favors the MAC.
If you are Western Kentucky's president, would you rather be in a conference with two schools in metropolitan El Paso, one near Houston and one near Miami, or would you rather be in a conference where most of your conference rivals are within driving distance?
The choice here favors the MAC. A shift to the MAC would likely free up resources for Western Kentucky by reducing travel costs.
And that's before we start getting into the question of ESPN revenue.
(04-13-2024 06:35 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote: the addition of two schools does create the opportunity for a new negotiation and, highly likely, more money.
This was the case in the fall of 2021 when the MAC was close to adding MTSU and WKU, rumored to be for a nice bump in money with a GOR attached to it.
I don't have your sources, but this makes sense to me. Indeed, there are hints that the MAC may be an inherently more valuable television property than Conference USA.
So: All those other advantages to shifting to the MAC, plus a bump in TV revenue? If you are Western Kentucky, what's not to like here?
We'll see what happens, perhaps very soon.
From what I understand, Western Kentucky's president has lived most of his life in the South. Maybe he'll take a look what Commissioner McLeod has put together and like what Conference USA is shaping up to be.
That said, who knows what Conference USA will look like in five years. Every single school in that conference wants out. What Conference USA is today is probably not what it will be five years from now. And if something opens up in the American Athletic or the Sun Belt, Western Kentucky is probably not at the top of anyone's list, despite solid performance on the football field and some nice basketball tradition. (Bowling Green is the nation's 180th-largest television market, just behind Watertown, N.Y., and just ahead of Marquette, Mich.)
Given all that: I could very well see Western Kentucky making a change.
They would be a solid addition for us.