With all the networks looking for product, glad to see the MAC trying to leverage that. 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/jeremy-fowler/22207009/more-maction-mac-espn-expected-to-re-open-media-rights-deal 

Just like the MAC to be giving away the rights for next to nothing. Everybody loves the exposure and selfishly loves to watch the games for free on TV, but I'm still not a big fan of mid-week games. Would somebody who has looked at this in detail show the attendance figures for November weekend versus weekday games. The stadiums usually look empty, but they probably are in weekends as well . Life in the MAC, I guess .

I actually did a comparison at one point. Maybe later I'll see if I can find it. Obviously, there is a decrease in attendance, but it seems that it's not huge compared to other cold-weather November games on Saturdays. The issue is that many MAC stadiums are empty at all times, especially when the weather gets bad at the end of the season.

Here are Ratings for 2012 College Football games.

The MAC games that I see are:
9/1/ Ohio v. Penn State 2.4 (3.5M)
9/1 Bowling Green v. Florida 1.8 (2.8M)
11/6 Ball State v. Toledo .4 (570k)
11/7 BGSU v. Ohio .5 (719k)
11/14 Toledo v. NIU .4 (557k)
11/14 Ohio v. Ball State .2 (281k)
11/20 Akron v. Toledo .4 (542k)
11/23 Ohio v Kent .1 (153k)
11/30 NIU v. Kent .9 (1.3M)

The sad truth is that, with the exception of the Ohio-Penn State game and the BG-Florida game, plus maybe the MAC Championship, these ratings are not going to going to make ESPN want to pay more than the current deal.

On another note, the attendance data show above shows that attendance tracks winning percentage. There was a pop in attendance the first year under Solich, caused by the hype of his hire, and by the Pitt game sellout, but after that it tracked winning percentage. It slipped during the struggles of 2007-2008, but once the team became a steady winner, starting in 2009, attendance has been climbing. Average attendance:
2005 (4-7) - 18,033 (was 16,406 not including Pitt game)
2006 (9-5) - 16,724
2007 (6-6) - 16,500
2008 (4-8) -  15,276
2009 (9-5) -  17,947
2010 (8-5) -  19,046
2011 (10-4) - 19,891
2012 (9-4) - 21,844

I do think it would be a good thing if it went up. The MAC has improved a great deal in the last five years, and I attribute it at least in part to increased national awareness of MACtion, due to the mid-week games. Recruiting definitely improved all across the MAC about 4-5 years ago, and now we're seeing improved results on the field. To continue that progress, though, the athletic departments are going to have to see budget increases, and where will the money be coming from? $100,000 per Mac team isn't even a drop in the bucket.

Who tunes into a MAC game being played on a cold Tuesday night in November in some small college town in the Midwest and expect to see 50K cheering fans in the stands? The perception is the reality and viewers are ok with that. When most people hear the word MACtion they think of entertaining weeknight football, not empty stadiums. Only people who pick their favorite team because they are worried about other people's opinions (ie Buckeye bandwaggoners) would focus on the attendance.

this is what 17K fans at MAC game look like on ESPN, I think this probably exceeds viewer's expectations more than not.

For those 6 mid week games, .2% of the people in America tuned in.  What advertiser in their right mind would pay for that kind of viewership?

So long as the price is fair for the number of viewers, there is no problem. Obviously the viewership is going to be more for, say, Notre Dame-USC, than for Ohio-Kent, but the price is going to be a lot higher, too.

It's going to be a little more difficult than that because there are going to be both National advertisers, and local ones, with ads sold by the local cable provider. The local advertisers probably typically buy the entire season, and get one ad in each ESPN game. They aren't going to look at the ratings for specific games, just the average for the season.

A couple comments here seem a bit off-track, so let me try to do some edjumacatin'.

I added some relevant info back to the ratings numbers above -- which network they aired on, which makes a big difference in what would be considered "good," given that expectations for each are very different. For the year, ESPN (mothership) average 24-hour rating is 0.9, has been for a couple years. Obviously, prime and weekends are higher, overnight and daytime are lower. 2.4 and 1.8 for those two games then, obviously, are bringing that up. Lets compare to the critically acclaimed and very well received 30 for 30 series. The highest-rated ever premier as of January (You Don't Know Bo) pulled a 2.6. Pretty sure the football was much cheaper to put on the air, too (source).

ESPN2 (having to go back a couple years here, to 2010) averages a 0.276 over 24-hours -- again, .4, .5, .9 are pretty good numbers there. They don't break out ESPNU individually in this release, but based on the numbers in it, U, NEWS, Deportes, and Classic all combined average .126 over 24-hour ratings. .1 and .2 on U certainly are decent numbers (source).

No, the MAC's ratings aren't going to compete with the Big Ten or SEC marquee games. They don't have to. The fact is, live sports makes people stop surfing, and even two no-name FBS teams will typically rate better than a reair of World's Strongest Man or episode of Baseball Tonight. Live games also don't get DVRed and deliver a maximal live audience, which is helpful with how ratings are currently calculated.

As far as .2% tuning in and advertisers in their right mind... well, .2% is a lot better than many networks see over the course of their day. Why would anybody in their right mind advertise on VH1, Travel, The Weather Channel, Headline News, CMT, CNBC, NFL Network, MTV2, NBC Sports Network, BBC America, Fox Business News, or MLB Network? All averaged .2 or lower in 2012 -- half their programming viewership was WORSE than .2% of the country (source)! We aren't in the three network era anymore, where 30% of the population tunes in to watch... well, anything. The video business is all about niche these days, and delivering the viewers advertisers want. ESPN delivers young men better than anybody, and there are a lot of advertisers who want to buy them. Most advertisers would prefer to buy .2% of the country, specifically targeted, than waste money advertising tampons to 10% of the country, half of whom aren't going to buy, ever.

If the MAC can fill those weekday slots and rate better than what the games replace, that has value. We (MAC) signed our deal just as the market really started to pick up, and would be wise to try to get some more out of it. Ted also has a good point that ESPN may wish to keep the rights, even for a few more bucks, to warehouse them. Throw some games on 3 to make incremental revenue, and keep them off NBC/Fox/CBS.

Disclaimer: All these views are mine, not my employer's, etc. etc., and all the info above is available publicly (and sourced).

Even though MACtion might only get .2% viewers I'm sure a lot of recruits or perspective recruits tune-in. They might not care about how many people watch but rather just the fact that they would be on national tv, be involved in exciting games that would be the only game that night, and for an out of state player, give their family and friends a chance to tune in from the comfort of their own home.
Overall not only would it help Ohio and the MAC's brand but the coaches could also argue that it could help the players with their "personal brand" for Sundays. How many break out games have Lavon Brazill, Taylor Price, Noah Keller, etc had on a week night game?
Also being the only show on the turf that night means a little bit of a shout out on SportsCenter where on a Saturday the game would be buried. I remember a couple years ago against Buffalo there were a few top plays shown that might not of seen the light of day on a Saturday. I'm not saying every game should be moved to Wednesday. But a "MACtion game of the week" with NIU vs Toledo, Ohio vs Miami, BG vs Toledo on a Thursday night with a College Gameday type atmosphere might be benificial for ESPN and the MAC. The only question would be could the MAC get out of conference teams to jump on board with this? Ohio vs Marshall, BG vs Indiana, Toledo vs Navy could be interesting Thursday night "MACtion games of the week." BTW, I know that these games are this year, I just mean overall these kind of matchups, ESPN could find interesting and compelling to televise.  

Just my .02 cents worth for how the MAC could expand the brand.

Thanks Alex. I learned a lot from your post.