Note that NIU's MAC Championships did not boost attendance. Their attendance in recent years has been below a decade ago. By contrast, BG's attendance did go up, but I suspect it was more related to the excitement and big scores that their coach generated, rather than due to the MACC.

^^Finally, a post from Cali that is spot on.^^

And it took him/her only 10 posts.

Not to mention that many of his posts appear to be written during his work hours! If I'm his ceo I'm wondering why he is spending time on this board instead of his job? Grounds to be fired?

If that were true, most CEO's wouldn't last very long. How long would Elon Musk had lasted at Tesla? How many profitable quarters has Amazon had? Etc.
As usual, you are looking at ONLY a MACC to determine what is acceptable success. Hopeless logic.

On the flip side of that coin (fired despite lots of profits)....Roger Ailes....

I agree with most that you said here. I felt as miserable after the Texas State loss as any I can remember, but I enjoyed attending the Kansas beat down about as much as any. I've got to remember to expect lows and highs.
I'm not seeing the 20 year thing, but it's going to continue to change for sure.

Let's examine the concept. Solich is clearly a better than average coach. He did better at Nebraska than any of his successors. He did better at Ohio than any of his predecessors dating back to Hess, with the possible exception of Grobe. He has taken a program that was well below average, and has made it consistently better than average. He has also built the program in numerous other ways. Things like the upgraded lockers, the IPF, and the new student center have all upgraded the program. By recruiting more and more in-state players, he's been generating more awareness of the Ohio program around the state. (As an example, since adding AJ, Ohio now has many more fans in the Covington area than before). Thus, each year that Solich stays, the program gets stronger in a variety of ways. With or without a MACC, the table is being set for prolonged success.

Now the other side. Each year a number of new coaches are promoted to being an FBS head coach. A few of them do win a conference championship. The vast majority don't. It's a gamble, and you can have failures even when you have a huge budget, as Nebraska does. It's even more of a gamble with MAC-sized budgets. I'm going to guess that in the last eleven years there have been about 50 new coaches hired into the MAC. Of those, a few have won championships, and a few have been able to move up even without a championship, but the vast majority are no longer head coaches.

If you ignore dream scenarios, and look at the odds realistically, what will happen when Ohio does replace Solich (regardless of whether it is sooner or later)? Based on my observation of other MAC football coaching hires, I'd say that there is about a 13% chance of hiring a coach who would take Ohio to a MACC, and then leave (e.g. Dave Clawson, Dave Doeren, Turner Gill, Dino Babers, Brian Kelly, Butch Jones). There is another 7% chance of a coach who will take them to the MACC, lose, then leave (e.g. Darrell Hazell, Jerry Kill, Brady Hoke). There is also about a 20% chance of a hire who might take Ohio to the bottom of the MAC (e.g. Rob Ianello, Shane Montgomery, Don Treadwell, Ron English, Jeff Genyk, Paul Haynes, Charlie Molnar, Stan Parrish). That leaves about a 60% chance of a hire somewhere in the middle.

Most of the programs with the strongest tradition (NIU, CMU, BG, Toledo, Miami), but not all, have managed to avoid the really bad hires. Hopefully Ohio will have a strong enough tradition that when they do replace Solich, then can avoid a bad one, but there is no guarantee.

How many other G5 schools have been bowl eligible 9 of the last 10 years? How many have a better winning percentage than Ohio? If the answer is that more than 50% of them have, then maybe you have a point, but the fact is that you don't have one. If you want to argue about whether he's in the upper 5% of coaches, then you have a point, but to claim he's not above average is just absurd.

It's equally absurd to simply assume that the next coach will automatically be from the top 5%. He might be. He also might be from the bottom 5%. More likely he'll be from the center somewhere. I think Schaus will make a wise choice, but there is never a sure thing.

+1 for pointing out yet more facts

Monroe's problem is that he ignores most facts. Instead the ONLY fact he sees as relevant is a MACC.

AKA the Dusty Baker Effect for Reds fans....

I would agree that it's not the "best" measure. It's just one of many. Since all it takes anymore is a bare winning record, going to bowls is merely a measure of a coach's ability to consistently be above average, rather than truly excelling. I personally look at win percentage more, because that tells you more about how far above average a coach is.

A more difficult question is how you measure a coach like Solich against one like Hess. Solich's teams at Ohio have consistently been very good, rarely great. By contrast Hess had a couple great ones, but also some really awful ones. Solich has a higher winning percentage, but not the titles. Sadly, I think that if Hess was coaching in today's environment, 1968 would never have happened, because he'd have been fired after 1965. Sure, 1960 was great, and 1961-63 were pretty good, but 1964 was only 5-4-1, and 1965 was 0-10.

So, editing your list, and adding Brigham Young:
1. Boise State - 14 straight bowl appearances, 16 in the last 17
Brigham Young - 11 straight bowl appearances
3. Navy - 12 bowls in the last 13 years
Cincinnati - 9 bowls in the last 10 years, 10 in the last 12
Northern Illinois - 9 bowls in the last 10 years
Nevada - 9 bowls in the last 10 years
7. Houston - 8 bowls in the last 10 years, 10 in the last 13
East Carolina - 8 bowls in the last 10 years
Air Force - 8 bowls in the last 10 years
10. Ohio - 7 bowls in the last 10 years
Tulsa - 7 bowls in the last 10 years
Southern Miss - 7 bowls in the last 10 years, 15 in the last 19
Central Michigan - 7 bowls in the last 10 years
Fresno State - 7 bowls in the last 10 years
14. San Diego State - 6 bowls in the last 10 years
Bowling Green - 6 bowls in the last 10 years
Central Florida - 6 bowls in the last 10 years
17. Marshall - 5 bowls in the last 10 years
Rice - 5 bowls in the last 10 years
Toledo - 5 bowls in the last 10 years
Western Michigan - 5 bowls in the last 10 years
Arkansas State - 5 bowls in the last 10 years
21. Colorado State - 4 bowls in the last 10 years
Utah State - 4 bowls in the last 10 years
Louisiana-Lafayette - 4 bowls in the last 10 years
Troy - 4 bowls in the last 10 years

So, of 60 or so G-5 schools, Ohio is tied for 10th.

For what it's worth, the overall win percentage of G5 teams over the last ten years:
1. Boise State .856
2. Brigham Young .715
3. Cincinnati .695
4. Houston .667
5. Navy .654
6. Northern Ill .644
7. Ohio .585
8. East Carolina .577
9. Nevada .569
Tulsa .569
11. CMU .546
12. Marshall .543
13. Fresno St. .535
14. BG .527
15. La-Lafayette .516
16. MTSU .512
17. San Diego State .512
18. La-Tech .508
19. Ball State .504
20. Troy .500

Note that since there are about 60 G5 team, the average G5 team has a losing record. That's fairly obvious, since most of the time when P5 teams play G5 teams, the P5 team wins.