Why do we care about multiple bids? All that matters to me is Ohio getting in.
First, quite simply because we haven't done it since 1999.
Second, for the NCAA tournament $$. Every extra team gives the league a shot at extra "shares". Every team, including Ohio, gets this. Lots of MAC teams got some financial relief on the backs of OU's tourney runs in 2010 and 2012.
For the national perception and exposure of the league. You have to start somewhere and it starts with getting out of the "also ran" status of the 1-bid league slums. It would be fantastic to get to a spot where our league is consistently in the conversation for a top 8/10 league instead of in that 12-14/15 range. That slot gets you in the conversation for at-large bids every year.
Wouldn't it be nice to have our season matter again outside of one week in March? Wouldn't it be nice to have the national perception of a top 8/10 league such that we can begin (hopefully consistently) recruiting HS talent at that level? Or using the added money from increased NCAA win shares to pay more $$ to hire and/or maintain top level coaches a little better than we do now?
Take a page from capitalism - a rising tide lifts all boats.
OU is the boat. The MAC is the tide.
That's why we care about the MAC getting multiple bids.
Problem is we DON'T have anything close to that national respect/perception right now, which is exactly why UB's loss tonight completely doomed us yet again.