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Ohio Basketball Topic
Topic: MAC to eliminate divisions in basketball, move to 20 game schedule
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The Optimist
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Posted: 5/12/2020 4:31 PM
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There are changes to other sports as well (not football)

This has been discussed many times before on this board... Changes at least partly due to current financial situation...
Alan Swank
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Posted: 5/12/2020 4:35 PM
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The Optimist wrote:expand_more
There are changes to other sports as well (not football)

This has been discussed many times before on this board... Changes at least partly due to current financial situation...
Link?
UpSan Bobcat
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Posted: 5/12/2020 4:36 PM
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Also, no postseason tournaments for baseball, softball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's tennis, field hockey and lacross.

Only eight teams in the MAC tournament, no first-round games.

These are changes for at least four years.

https://www.wtol.com/article/sports/major-changes-coming-...
Andrew Ruck
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Posted: 5/12/2020 4:48 PM
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Holy crap. Sidebar, I actually love the bottom 4 not making the tournament. Creates a fun race in the middle and leaves out the crappy teams.

In my opinion, it is unfair and inaccurate to lay this all at the feet of the COVID-19 related shutdown. The wheels were already rolling on a lot of this stuff and they've found their scapegoat.
Tom Valentino
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Posted: 5/12/2020 5:04 PM
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20 games is a weird number for a 12-team league. I guess this means we will play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once?
The Optimist
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Posted: 5/12/2020 5:08 PM
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Tom Valentino wrote:expand_more
20 games is a weird number for a 12-team league. I guess this means we will play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once?
Was just doing that math in my head... Just have the 2 extra games and make it a true round robin...

(Conspiracy theory: We are losing a team)
Last Edited: 5/12/2020 5:09:13 PM by The Optimist
GoCats105
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Posted: 5/12/2020 5:53 PM
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Hell freaking yes to this. About damn time.
GoCats105
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Posted: 5/12/2020 5:55 PM
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Tom Valentino wrote:expand_more
20 games is a weird number for a 12-team league. I guess this means we will play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once?
Let's just hope they don't follow the SEC football model where you literally won't play a home/home with another school for like a decade.
GoCats105
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Posted: 5/12/2020 5:56 PM
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The Optimist wrote:expand_more
20 games is a weird number for a 12-team league. I guess this means we will play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once?
Was just doing that math in my head... Just have the 2 extra games and make it a true round robin...

(Conspiracy theory: We are losing a team)
Better Conspiracy theory: COVID is causing people to cut back on travel so the MAC is expanding with more regional teams.
The Optimist
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Posted: 5/12/2020 6:23 PM
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GoCats105 wrote:expand_more
20 games is a weird number for a 12-team league. I guess this means we will play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once?
Was just doing that math in my head... Just have the 2 extra games and make it a true round robin...

(Conspiracy theory: We are losing a team)
Better Conspiracy theory: COVID is causing people to cut back on travel so the MAC is expanding with more regional teams.
Love it!

20-team super conference where you play everyone once. Marshall and WKU will be solid additions. I wonder if this will include basketball-only schools? Duquesne could be a nice rivalry. They are pretty close and I still don't like Dambrodt.
shabamon
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Posted: 5/12/2020 6:27 PM
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I don't see how eliminating divisions helps anything.
OUVan
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Posted: 5/12/2020 6:34 PM
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Glad we didn't have this structure in 2010. I do like the 20 game schedule though. Wouldn't have minded going to 22 and making it a full round-robin.
shabamon
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Posted: 5/12/2020 7:03 PM
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The conference schedule is already book-ended by winter and spring breaks for most schools. I'd hate for the 20 game schedule to result in more conference games played between Christmas and New Years. It would be a great move for the conference to pick a week maybe in early December to play two of the 20 games. I'm sure those who are able to go to games would be far more interested in seeing a conference game in December over Coppin State or Campbell.
Andrew Ruck
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Posted: 5/12/2020 7:23 PM
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shabamon wrote:expand_more
The conference schedule is already book-ended by winter and spring breaks for most schools. I'd hate for the 20 game schedule to result in more conference games played between Christmas and New Years. It would be a great move for the conference to pick a week maybe in early December to play two of the 20 games. I'm sure those who are able to go to games would be far more interested in seeing a conference game in December over Coppin State or Campbell.
Is there anything that prevents them from playing 3 games in a week? If not they could pick 2 weeks to go Tue/Thu/Sat, one at home and one two game road trip for each (would be a cost savings too). The regular Tue/Sat 7 other weeks. Something like:

Jan 5, 9
Jan 12, 16
Jan 19, 21, 23
Jan 27, 30
Feb 2, 6
Feb 9, 11, 13
Feb 16, 20
Feb 23, 27
Mar 2, 6
Tourney - Mar 11-13

All 20 games in a 60 day stretch. Would be awesome.
FearLeon
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Posted: 5/12/2020 7:50 PM
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Would two extra conference games eliminate games against against schools like Wilberforce and Heidelberg forever? That is a win in my book.
Last Edited: 5/12/2020 7:51:17 PM by FearLeon
Buckeye to Bobcat
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Posted: 5/12/2020 7:58 PM
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shabamon wrote:expand_more
The conference schedule is already book-ended by winter and spring breaks for most schools. I'd hate for the 20 game schedule to result in more conference games played between Christmas and New Years. It would be a great move for the conference to pick a week maybe in early December to play two of the 20 games. I'm sure those who are able to go to games would be far more interested in seeing a conference game in December over Coppin State or Campbell.
Felt like I said this in another thread by making them potentially Saturday games during football season......gee what a coincidence ;)
Jeff McKinney
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Posted: 5/12/2020 8:02 PM
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The Optimist wrote:expand_more
20 games is a weird number for a 12-team league. I guess this means we will play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once?
Was just doing that math in my head... Just have the 2 extra games and make it a true round robin...

(Conspiracy theory: We are losing a team)

Exactly my thoughts.
Alan Swank
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Posted: 5/12/2020 8:30 PM
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Start games the week of December 7th, play two weeks, take two weeks off with a bit of non-conference, resume the week of January 4 and play right through. 11 weeks, 22 games and the conference tournament March 10/11 - 13.
Pete Chouteau
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Posted: 5/12/2020 8:54 PM
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They could also pair teams as travel pairs to play Friday/Sunday or even Friday/Saturday.

Northern-Western
Eastern-Central
Miami-Ball
Toledo-BG
Ohio-Akron
Kent-Buffalo

It's an old PAC-10 formula.
UpSan Bobcat
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Posted: 5/12/2020 9:07 PM
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Pete Chouteau wrote:expand_more
They could also pair teams as travel pairs to play Friday/Sunday or even Friday/Saturday.

Northern-Western
Eastern-Central
Miami-Ball
Toledo-BG
Ohio-Akron
Kent-Buffalo

It's an old PAC-10 formula.
They've done this in women's soccer for a really long time. Ohio used to be paired with Marshall back when I followed the team, but now it looks like Ohio and Kent State (and Buffalo with Akron).
OhioBobcat
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Posted: 5/12/2020 9:17 PM
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shabamon wrote:expand_more
I don't see how eliminating divisions helps anything.
It's because the division in basketball were meaningless. They work in sports like football where two teams play for a championship. They served no purpose in hoops anymore. The MAC was the only conference in the nation using them in hoops for the last several years. Many other conference did away with them years ago. The MAC should have done away with them years ago. This was long overdue.
shabamon
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Posted: 5/12/2020 9:54 PM
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I mean if the motivation of the move is to save money, I don't see how eliminating divisions affect anything. The only effect they had in basketball was in scheduling and travel. Now that's gone. I like playing our biggest rivalries twice a year, and wouldn't want to have a basketball season where we play Northern Illinois twice and Miami only once, for instance.
Pataskala
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Posted: 5/12/2020 10:44 PM
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You sure this isn't an April Fool's joke that had been quarantined because of Covid-19?

It's long past time for the MAC to get rid of the divisions for b-ball. The MAC is the last D1 conference to have divisions and when they rightly did away with the division champs automatically getting the 1-2 seeds a few years ago, there was no reason for having divisions. While shrinking the tourney to 8 teams removes possible dark-horses (like our 2009-10 team) going to the dance, it puts more value on regular season games.

The changes also make sense for at least some of the other sports (I'm not familiar with how many MAC schools field teams for all of them). Baseball, for example, is down to 11 teams (no Buffalo) so every team can play every other team in the conference the same number of games. That makes a tourney (or a football championship game, as the B12 does) useless. If postponements create an inequity that have a bearing on the championship, they can be made up at the end of the regular season.
Last Edited: 5/12/2020 11:00:26 PM by Pataskala
cc-cat
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Posted: 5/12/2020 10:46 PM
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Jeff McKinney wrote:expand_more
20 games is a weird number for a 12-team league. I guess this means we will play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once?
(Conspiracy theory: We are losing a team)
Exactly my thoughts.
or two programs combine
mf279801
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Posted: 5/12/2020 11:22 PM
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cc-cat wrote:expand_more
20 games is a weird number for a 12-team league. I guess this means we will play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once?
(Conspiracy theory: We are losing a team)
Exactly my thoughts.
or two programs combine
For years we had Unbalanced divisions in football, leading to a non-round-robin on one side of the division, all sorts of weird tie-breakers, etc. i don’t see why you think it would be strange, with that history, to play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once. Heck, i wouldn’t think it overly strange, given past conference weirdness, to play 6 teams 3 times, 2 teams once, and 3 teams not at all.
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