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Ohio Football Topic
Topic: Conference Realignment & The MAC, Big 10
Page: 2 of 2
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colobobcat66
4/9/2016 9:50 AM
I think that the presumed fact that no G-5 school will ever play for a national championship shows that we have lost the arms race. We have been put permanently on the outside looking in.
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Jeff McKinney
4/9/2016 10:10 AM
Ohio athletics has been better over the past 10 years. When I say MAC schools have lost the arms race, I mean our prospects of being able to compete at the very highest level with Power 5 conferences.
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TWT
4/9/2016 11:11 AM
Jeff McKinney wrote:expand_more
Optimist: Let me correct my use of "peer institution". I meant schools on our level of athletic institutional committment. I looked at the list of our peer institutions and most of them are Power 5 schools except for New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

I was also referring to football only. The landscape is different for basketball. It's vastly different for other sports.
Jeff the problem is Ohio is not the type of athletic school that wins Division 1 national championships. Its the same problem in every Ohio sport. Volleyball with as many times its made the NCAA tournament should have made at least an elite 8 but it hasn't. Elite athletic schools like UConn or Norte Dame are winning national championships. Of course Notre Dame is a national institution and UConn is a couple of hours away from NYC recruiting grounds. On an individual level Ohio wrestling has won national championships and both in basketball and football Ohio has an All American once in a while. TV was a great equalizer for UConn. Their rise corresponded with the rise of ESPN. The MAC TV deal has put Ohio on national TV in football more than many P5 programs. Then as a G5 Ohio is on the same level in football as Cincinnati or Houston something that was never really true in the past. Playing in a New Year's bowl is as realistic as ever.
Last Edited: 4/9/2016 11:13:27 AM by TWT
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TWT
4/9/2016 12:13 PM
The Optimist wrote:expand_more
The phrase Mr. McKinney used was "peer institution."

When I was at Ohio a few years ago, none of the fellow classmates I met told me they applied to Eastern Michigan when they were applying to colleges. Many told me they considered Ohio State. Some got in, some did not.

If you are looking at this from an academic perspective, wouldn't you be looking at similar "schools" to our own? Personally, I want to play programs similar to our own University.

Ohio State is miles ahead of us athletically. As an higher education institution, I don't believe they are miles ahead of us. They have better statistics in many areas, but overall as academic institutions we are on the same playing field. Athletically, we are also on the same playing field. We are both D-1 institutions and I don't have any desire for that to change.
Ohio St. is a better higher education institution than EMU but they aren't on Ohio's level either. Ohio has a liberal arts college environment and before the MAC played in a conference with other liberal arts colleges. The green system at Ohio was designed to preserve the college feel with a state school sized enrollment. Quality liberal arts colleges fetch the biggest cost premium on the marketplace so what you're getting with Ohio is a bargain. Schools like Miami, UConn and WVU are comparable to Ohio in that regard. Bowling Green is an alternative to a lower tier private college. The Michigan MAC schools are partially regional, partially overflow for Michigan and Michigan State.
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