Every beginning has an ending eventually.

If we are in a more highly respected conference in the eyes of recruits (even the powers that be at ESPN, tournament selection committee, et al) does Groce still feel that he would have to leave in order to have his opportunity of a lifetime?

Keep in mind that the football program also stands to benefit greatly just for starters since it's no secret that all of our athletic program would experience a upgrade in prestige.

Seems to me we can keep repeating the pattern of hoping we find an unproven head coach that becomes proven here only to leave for their "opportunities of their lifetimes" or we ourselves can become that opportunity of a lifetime.


but again, my saying it doesn't mean anything....the key is "how " does it get accomplished.

So you would have us lose another coach who comes in and wins the conference in his 1st 2 seasons as a head coach here with someone else's players and THEN say what i'm saying right now?


or just to "consider" saying what I'm saying right now?

Hence the importance of "how" being so important.


Live within the boundaries of your fear and you never get anywhere meaningful and be constantly made to feel a victim of your circumstances

Definitely a thought and possibility that has been running through my mind all season. Where could we go that would benefit us, how would we fare in that conference, etc. I tend to agree that we might need to wait it out a year or two, see how this transition goes. But...for the future, here are some of my thoughts on where we could go.

Conference USA we could easily compete with these teams, and have a good shot at making the tournament often.

A10 We could compete with the likes of Xavier and Dayton, but the issue is the lack of a football conference in the A10. Going independent wouldn't help our football program, and doubtful the MAC would keep us on in football and not basketball.

Big East Before I get the "are you kidding me?!" messages, lets think about this. Ohio went up against Louisville and almost won. After the game, Rick Pitino said Ohio had the caliber of a Big East team. We beat South Florida in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tourney. Admittedly, South Florida is a middle-of-the-road Big East team, but I assume if we made the move to the Big East, we would also start out middle-of-the-road, and look where that got South Florida. Football would be a no-brainer...UConn won their football title two years ago...should speak volumes for the football strength of conference (however, the Big East name still garners more respect than the MAC does). I honestly think we could regularly compete in the Big East in both football and basketball (especially with West Virginia leaving the conference)

 

I'm so tired of this .... National Pestiege =/= ability to win the MAC.  We could win the MAC 50 years running, and it's not going to matter.  You have to show the ability to draw ratings, not win anything.

MAC will gain respect if Toledo, Akron and Buffalo field football and roundball teams year in year out like the Bobcats have the past 3 years.  Then if two of those three keep it rolling than you go to the laggards and give them the boot and pick up 2-4 good fits from other conferences.

Do we not have the funds or do we not have the funds "allocated" in a way that would allow a move to a larger conference?


Are you saying that the consensus is that this is just Ohio's lot in life so we should just accept it?

Being down in Raleigh now, I often listen to the ESPN radio down here and while it was fun listening to them freak out about Ohio almost beating UNC, they some times will talk to the coaches at ECU. ECU is in Greenville and consistently have sell out of 50,000 plus in their stadium and they can't get any of the bowl conferences to look at them because of the lack of tv exposure. Athens is definitely in this same predicament, whether we like it or not, if we want a bigger conference, we have to win the MAC without question and not lose the games we should win. 

Beat Penn State this fall and the conferences will be interested.. Ohio's NCAA run was the first step...a win in Happy Valley is the next.

When it comes to conference expansion I am kind of an expert as I am a hound for strategy type thinking and conference expansion (specifically the Big 10) got my juices flowing and got me involved in numerous boards and some in particular that specialized in conference expansion.

Conference expansion is led #1 by the biggest of margins media markets & TV ratings. Being 'good' enough doesn't really mean anything. Heck, just look at Temple going to the Big East for an example. If Temple was a rural PA university (ie Happy Valley) and not in Philadelphia it would still be in the MAC. They were a warm body in a major media market.

And unless Athens grows into a major city we are not going to be attractive for a long period of time. What hurts us even more is Ohio State can claim every major market we could think of. If Ohio was a 40,000+ strong campus with a loyal following we could claim Columbus as a major market. The problem would still be Ohio State monopolizing the ratings there.

So basically any BCS conference wouldn't touch us with a 1,000 foot pole.

But the rules are a little different for the next tier, ie CUSA. But would the additional money (still not much more) offset the additional travel costs? So FULL conference membership into CUSA could be a wash.

The Atlantic 10 is intriguing to me, but no football really hurts. Yes alot people want to drop football, but more people love it to stay. So maybe... maybe the best we could do is go to CUSA as a football only member and then go to the Atlantic 10 for the rest of our sports? 

Even then... that's a stretch. We just have to realize we are who we are. So be the best Ohio we can, dominate the MAC and then let the chips fall where they be.

This is it exactly the issue. We are just in a poor geographical location, with no real TV market, not enough area population to support getting bigger and all that leads to a lack of money to put towards the teams.

Everyone wants to move to a better conference and I do too. But the bigger conference are after financial gain when they add schools. Our limitations make us unattractive to bigger conferences.

Did Temple do that? I must have missed something.