1999 was a high water mark for the MAC in terms of it being the last year a MAC team earned an At-Large bid. Comparing two data points doesn't tell the full story but I thought it would be interesting to look at the attendance in 1999 vs 2015. I don't know what is more surprising, the fact that most teams didn't see that much variation or that Ball St and Miami just fell off the map. In spite of the conference avg falling by nearly a thousand the MAC finished worse in the 1999 rankings, coming in at 14th.

2015/1999 School (+/-)

3,639/1,597 Buffalo(+2,042)
6,681/6,098 Ohio(+593)
3,154/2,689 Kent State(+469)
2,709/2,531 Central Michigan(+178)
2,643/2,538 Western Michigan(+105)
3,214/3,409 Akron(-195)
1,251/1,455 Northern Illinois(-204)
2,028/2,467 Bowling Green(-440)
5,029/5,696 Toledo(-673)

2,885/3,810 MAC (-925)

858/2,262 Eastern Michigan(-1,404)
2,806/5,630 Ball State(-2,824)
1,113/6,401 Miami(-5,288)



What is the best case scenario for the MAC? Here's an overview of 2015's conference rankings-

#1-#5 P5-Pac12 + Big East (9K-12K)
#6-#7 Pac12 + MWC (7K)
#8 AAC (6K)
#9-#10 A10 + MVC (5.1K)
#11-#12 CUSA + WCC (3.9K-4.1K)
#13-#16 MAC + Horizon + WAC + Big West (2.6K-2.8K)
#17-#31 everybody else

It's interesting that we finished 13th but even with a 1K increase to match 1999 we would still be 13th, but would obviously be much closer to 12 and 11. Realistically I think we would get as high as #11 but I don't see the MAC breaking the 5K barrier and getting into the top 10 without a significant culture change across the league.

We are in a very unique position in that OU is Athens. Take away the university and the town disappears. Other than perhaps Miami, no other school in the MAC is like that and Miami is a bit different in that a major city (Cincinnati) is so close. There are certain advantages that our location and lack of distractions affords us that we should take advantage of but not take for granted.

Alan, as to basketball you're probably correct but its interesting that such isolation is a double-edged sword in regards to football. I recall in the football threads sometime ago that Athens' isolation was a drawback to getting recruits to either look at the campus or getting people from outside of the greater Athens metro area (yes I chuckled as I typed that) to attend football games.

I think there were some years that Eastern actually drew decently, during those seasons when they were really good and contending in the MAC. I remember attending a game in their old fieldhouse that seated about 4,000, and it was a sellout. Of course, it was during the Trent years and he drew big crowds on the road.

giacomo, that used to be the case...but as you know the entertainment options have proliferated. People can stay in their homes and see sporting events in high definition. And even if they go out of their homes there's a lot more things to do.

We all kinda snickered a little when BGSU built a new 4800 seat gym, but that may be the wave of the future for mid majors...even Gonzaga's gym's capacity is only in the low 6000s, right? And that's for an uber successful program that is in a sizeable metro area, Spokane.

BG at 4800 vs BG at 6000 is a pretty big difference in my mind.

150 students for a school with decent teams and players--that's hard to do.

Do they pay students to stay away from basketball games?