Where is the MAC headed?

Currently, according to the Sagrin ratings, both the Colonial and Southern CONFERENCES are rated hiogher than the MAC in BOTH football and basketball.  I don't remember this ever being the case!

So, what should OHIO and those MAC schools that really are Division 1-A be doing now?

The bottom of the league is lower than ever in basketball. Three teams haven't even beaten a Division I opponent yet. There are another three teams rated pretty horribly.

The top of the league is doing OK. It hasn't been a marquee start by any means, but the East teams (except BG) have been solid. So has Ball State.

I can't really say why this is, but the MAC has never had so many truly awful teams.

As for football, it was a disappointing year at the top. Even the best teams in the MAC all had pretty bad non-conference records. But as far as football goes, I think the good thing is that you could probably call this a building year for most MAC teams. A lot of the league's biggest names return next year and I think many would predict that all of the MAC's best teams will all be better next year. I'd say that's true of Ohio, Miami, Temple, Toledo and maybe even Northern Illinois (even though they lose Spann).

Jeff, I've been around the MAC since the late 60's.  This is the worst it has ever been and it seems to be in a downhill slide. So, if our performance is at the Southern or Colonial level (with prospects to stay there) who are we trying to kid playing with theosu's of the world and why would we continue to play that game.

Seems like the realistic options are:

Status Quo...

Movin' on up, CUSA...

or

Moving down in football and putting our eggs in the basketball basket in a better Conference.  With the Convo, that seems the most doable.

Never thought I'd come to that conclusion but it looks like it may be the best alternative.  Besides, it does get you into the opportunity to play for a National Championship which we'll never get to with the first two options.

The finances in college football are so out of whack that Pat Hill at Fresno State took a $300,000 pay CUT willingly to help keep the program and university afloat.

wish the good folks in cutler hall and the athletic department would take all of the above comments to heart...

No Jeff. MAC athletic spending is at all time new highs. Ohio spend 7.3 million on football last year and that was second in the conference to Temple. Ohio is also leading the conference in basketball budget. The problem is not money, the MAC has more of it than ever. The reason why the MAC is struggling over the last 5 years or so is the acendancy of BCS basketball where the power 6 are leveraging thier scheduling advantages to the detriment of mid major conferences. The advantage of playing almost all of a schools non conference games at home has been around for a while at BCS schools but they've really gotten it down to a science of how to gerrymander the most NCAA bids. A few programs out their like Memphis, Gonzaga, Xavier are strong enough draw to act like BCS schools and their success can pull 1 or 2 other schools into the NCAAs. The MAC does not have any basketball programs with that kind of clout (hopefully Ohio can be that school). Now there was a time 10 years ago when the average player in the A10 or CUSA was more BCS material and a step above the MAC but most of those players have now found their way onto the rosters of second tier BCS schools. The MVC might be the exception because top to bottom they look like they attract bigger players but the A10 and CUSA not really anymore. Its a recruiting issue MAC schools face, plenty of resources are there.

Good grief.  Are ya'll gonna have this "serious discussion" every week?

I'm undecided as to what angle to answer this from but what I'll say is the game is titling away from gate receipts and more toward TV stature as a measure. Like the Federal Government is finding out with a pay freeze the salary increases for the BCS coaches will have a celing. If Nick Saban continues to double his salary every 4 years at that rate the Alabama athletic department will go under before he can retire. The long term TV contracts negotiated by the SEC lock a fixed fee of 20 million a year until 2025. The MAC is not going to catch up to this or even has the will to do so but its going in the direction where its starting to seperate itself from any of the so called FCS leagues. MAC football can be on Tuesday mornings with only the groundskeepers in the stands and it really doesn't matter as long as TV cash is rolling in. It will be less and less about actual attendance than paid attendance. MAC schools will sellout every game with empty stadiums. Its nothing more than money and those schools that have it an FBS level facility (25,000 seats) adequate to play along will and those who don't will drop scholarship football. Another 10-20 schools are planning to move up from FCS and that division will collapse. The MAC then is probably just going to stay as is with the schools having the stadiums to play in non-BCS ball while having more peer universities to play against.  Conferences that have D1, 85 scholarship football are going to make TV revenue and those that don't will make none.

That's a pretty good one Ben.  We don't need a volleyball coliseum because we have an arena that already seats 3 times as many as that coliseum plus it has better lighting.

As for interjecting academics into the discussion, you're comparing outcomes vs. entertainment.  The academic programs prepare students for the real world that you and I inhabit and OU prepares some world class students. Athletics, at our level anyway, simply provide us with the entertainment that we sometimes want or need to get our minds off work - hence The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.

McBin is touching on something I see as the future indicator for whether Ohio can stay up in FBS ball long term, overall institutional money. The private donations rolling in for academics over the last 15-20 years is seperating the school from the more poorly funded in the MAC academically. I could see a couple of schools bowing out of MAC football out of instutitional deficits.

Yes. This discussion will be on every board, every week of every season.

Are you new here???

Wes, you may be missing the point here.  The concern is not that we are falling further behind the BCS conferences; the concern is that the MAC is falling further behind other non-BCS conferences like the Colonial, Horizon, West Coast. 

Its simple Jeff.  Spend more!  (And I am smiling while I type this, but am also serious folks.)