Last year the MAC finished the year ranked 9th out of 32 conferences and the A10 was 11th. This year, so far, the A10 is 8th and the MAC is 12th. Sounds more like peer conferences the last couple of years to me. With all due respect, and while I do acknowledge Dayton has a better program than anyone in the MAC, I’m not sure why Dayton fans should think they are entitled to chuckle about the “cute little MAC”.
To be fair, MAC was buoyed last year by Buffalo. Take them out and we're quite below the A10 again. It honestly fits the UD fan narrative I've heard of "you guys have a good team every decade or so". Last year it was UB, but on the normal - the A10 is usually anywhere from 2-6 spots above the MAC. And, over the last 20 years, that divide has gotten wider IMO.
Also have to consider UD's closest MAC point of reference is Miami, and then to a lesser extent Balls. Neither team could get out of the A10 basement.
No argument from me GZ that Buffalo buoyed the MAC last year. However, in actually doing the math, I found that even taking the Bulls out of the equation, the MAC was still more highly rated than the A10.
The conference sagarin rating for the MAC was 0.5227 while the rating for the A10 was 0.5001. Removing Buffalo (0.6368) only took the overall MAC rating down to 0.5124 for the remaining eleven teams; still greater than the 14-team A10's 0.5001. The difference was even more dramatic if you took VCU (0.6031), the highest rated A10 team, out of their conference numbers too. Doing so lowered the A10 rating to 0.4921.
There were two MAC teams rated higher than VCU....Buffalo and Toledo (0.5724). In addition, Dayton (0.5489) would have been rated fourth in the MAC, behind BG (0.5497) too. Lastly, it looks like Fordham, George Washington, LaSalle, UMass, Richmond and St. Joseph's were all rated below both Miami and Ball State.