Well, if they include crowd shots this should help us with any recruiting wars for basketball.

why on earth would the MAC select UB, NIU and CMU to be the first programs to upgrade? UB I can maybe see justification for but NIU and CMU? What was the selection process? Were these programs selected because they already owned equipment/technology that the other schools don't have? How do you not put Ohio, Akron and Toledo up as your most visible programs in year 1?

Perhaps NIU was willing to put up money to do this and we weren't?

Didn't UB build a whole control room when they got their new scoreboard? I was under the impression they would probably be one of the first.

The web feed from NUI in the past always had multiple camera views, even if they took the feed straight from their scoreboard including the ads and other in game "lets go NIU" graphics.

Another reason to add to the (long) list of reasons why OHIO should leave the MAC.

years ago I had a manager that would say "if you see the printer is broke, don't tell me its broke, try to fix it yourself and if you can't fix it then come to me with a suggestion on how to fix it." In other words, don't just point out a problem, offer a solution.

re: Ohio needs to leave the MAC. Sure, sounds great. Let's go. The problem has been identified. Now the important part- tell us HOW Ohio is going to leave the MAC.

Didn't you know that all the Big boys were after us! We've only stayed in the MAC out of loyalty!

you accuse Ohio of being complacent and not having the ambition or desire to advance but you offer no specific or realistic way for Ohio to demonstrate this advancement to your satisfaction. We all know the printer is broken, tell us how you would fix it.

I remember when Jim Schaus first became AD and talking on the radio he mentioned the Big East and CUSA as possibilities. This of course was before all of the realignment hit disrupting most conferences. The Big East no longer exists as a football conference and the new CUSA is worse than the MAC in basketball. So yes the administration doesn't have its head in the sand on this. What's telling though of their aspirations is they've kept the football stadium capacity at 24,000. All of the schools who got invites to a power conference have at least a 40,000 seat home capacity. Wake Forest is the smallest P5 stadium at 31,000. Its safe to say a power football conference for OHIO is not on the horizon. With the football facilities Ohio is putting in place with the academic center and suites in the tower after that Peden would be AAC material and the capacity is the same size as Tulane and Tulsa's stadiums. In the last 10 years or so UConn, UCF, Houston, Tulane, SMU, Temple all have new stadiums and the others have gone through major renovations. That tells me having the football facilities to compete is key to getting into the AAC and we'll have just about everything with the academic center and suites that could be expected and beyond. The Convo renovations help but the Convo has always been an asset for us anyway. 20 years ago when CUSA was forming Peden didn't have lights or a weight room. 10 years ago when Marshall moved to CUSA Ohio had the athletic mall built out but the football program was weak. Today Ohio has an IPF, Meeting Rooms, Renovated Lockers and 5 straight bowl appearances, near or at the top of the MAC in all categories. Attendance is at the top of the MAC which helps. They don't want to put a school in there that averages 1150 in basketball that can't get the recruits because of a poor atmosphere.

Perimeter, if you read the post I offered two suggestions. Find some institutions with like aspirations and go for a new conference or look for a better conference with schools that have the aspirations we have. That could be CUSA or AAC.

Uncle Wes, I hope our upgrades put us in the conversation next time around. I am just afraid they aren't enough though. We probably just don't have the resources to shoot it out even at the AAC/CUSA levels. For example, do we have or could we raise $85 million to upgrade Peden like UC is doing with Nippert?

I read it, but I still don't know who these like minded institutions are. Like minded in what way? The schools in the CUSA and AAC all have the aspiration to leave the conference they are in. Why join a conference where everyone wants to leave when we can just stay where are and want to leave just as easy?

The bottom line is you are making accusations that are unmeasured. How do you know our administration doesn't aspire to be better? How do you know they haven't seriously weighed the options of moving to another G5 conference? I can point to several indicators that contradict your accusation.

Before all of the expansion and realignment I was on board with moving to a different conference, but it makes no sense now. The MAC has arguably been the most stable conference since this all began. Other than Temple leaving and UMass joining (and eventually leaving) the conference has stood pat. Football wise, it has been good, getting a record number of bowl invites and top NFL Draft picks, not to mention NIU's BCS apperance.

Basketball has been OK, and it seems it's on the way back up. So why not stick around and see if both sports can dominate (or at least be highly competitive) year-in and year-out? If a conference then comes in a says "hey, here's XX million dollars, come join us" then so be it. But other than that, the MAC is where Ohio is staying for the long haul.