I think the MAC should go the way of the ACC, Big 12 and CUSA and not have divisions for basketball.  Each team could still play a 16-game schedule, playing five teams twice and six once.  But it wouldn't necessarily have the same combination every year.  Some natural cross-division rivals (e.g, BG-Toledo; Fiami-BSU) could then schedule home-and-home series if they'd like; teams with already existing rivalries could still maintain them.  More important, It would do away with division champs being seeded in the MAC tournament ahead of teams with better records; the teams with the four best records would have first round byes. 

Yes, Yes, Yes.

We need to get back to crowning the regular season champion as the MAC Champion for that year. Since we went away from that traditional idea, attendance around the league has fallen drastically. Playing the regular season solely to determine seeding in the post-season tournament is a complete yawner and the attendance figures prove it.

Thus we must go back to no divisions and have at it. Divisions serve absolutely no valuable purpose. The one and absolutely only purpose of divisions is to grant the top team in one division the #2 seed in the tournament, most likely a higher seed than they would have otherwise received. Big deal. No one really cares. The purpose of the idea was to generate interest among the fans of the teams vying for that division title. But in reality, fighting for the #2 seed in a tournament does not create any interest at all. A Kent - Ohio game in Athens at the end of the season, with the #2 seed on the line, is not going to exactly fill the Convo.

We need to get back to making the regular season the big deal, and the MAC tournament the "second season" as it used to be. The tournament is already big on its own since the winner gets into the Big Dance. The current system where we have gone to the NBA model for our MAC basketball season cheats the fans out of the true excitement that the regular season can bring. The attendance figures of recen5t seasons around the entire league prove my point.

With the performance of the MAC in the out of conference schedule so far this year, inquiring minds are wondering if the MAC even HAS basketball any more. 

Yeah...word is that the league is negotiating a "Challenge" series for next year with the SWAC...Prairie View A&M vs. Miami; Southern vs. Central Michigan; etc.    Should be some barn burners there. 

There's only one conference that does not use a tournament to crown its champion, and that is the Ivy League.