Let's face if the Big East fades into the mists of history like it appears, either the MAC is going to get poached or we will have to do the poaching. As I indicated in a previous post. I think we should be proactive and offer invites to Cincy, Memphis, Temple, UConn and Marshall. These schools all have a football interest and some of them (the Bearcats) are in desperate straits.

Otherwise, if a new conference comes to frutition from the ghosts of the Big East and Conference USA, some MAC schools are sure to be targeted. Better to be proactive than see the best schools of our history rich conference go another way.

I don't understand how you think the MAC will be poached?  Do we have any schools that have the right combination of geographic footprint and fervor from the community?  I can't name one school that can fit both descriptions, it's either one or the other.  Plus no school has a big money donor or community money to make the next step up at this time to be where universities like UC and UConn would want out of fellow members.  Between the lack of money and push back from the academic side at spending greater amounts of money there is no way a MAC member gets poached.

Buffalo's problem is that the city doesn't care about them, the state doesn't understand college football, and their alumni HATE the school. Seriously, everyone I know who went to UB (undergrads and grad students both) has feelings somewhere between mild distaste (think of that "the morning after a shuffle" feeling) and open hatred. Mostly because of the piss poor customer service and the way the school likes to nickle and dime its students to death.

Edit: to be clear, I'm not saying that their alumni hate the UB Bulls (as in the athletic teams), but they hate the school.

Sorry be being redundant but I thought I would post this over here in case some haven't been following the interesting posts on this topic from the basketball board.

Sargentfan, I know what you are getting at but I still think there are MAC schools that have a lot to offer, and again if we aren't proactive we will literally be on the outs looking in, and with all of our tradiiton and recent success that would be awful.

Let's go to your footprint argument for a second. Take for example Penn State and their merger into the Big Ten. Now before the scandal, they were known for football and maybe wrestling but certainly not basketball. In the early 90s you could watch the Pittsburgh and Philly sports news and unless Penn State was in the national championship game they would barely get a mention. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are hardly college sports fans, I have friends in both cities and they marvel at the coverage college sports gets not only in Columbus but in Cleveland as well. If the Big Ten took your argument, they would have never brought in Penn State. The reason they were brought in was for tradition and alumni support.

Look at schools like Wake Forest in the ACC. They are small and not in a major metropolis. They have 4,000 some odd undergrads and only something like 2,500 grad students. Look at the Atlantic Ten in basketball St. Bonaventure and Rhode Island are two schools that receive little attention in their hometowns, yet they are in a conference that gets a half a dozen schools into the NCAA Basketball tournnament. They have tradition (especially St Bonaventure) and alumni support. What I am getting at is that we have tradition, alumni support, nice facilities and recent success. No MAC school has a fan base that travels more than one hour to football and basketball games than us. We need to sell ourselves and our conference lest we become the what ifs of some future ESPN 30 for 30 special.

The MAC will neither be the poached or poacher.  The MAC institutions (along with another 40 or so non BCS schools) are irrelevant in the discussion when you start counting the 70-80 schools the Big guys want to carry along with them.

NIU averages 15k in attendance and has horrible basketball

Its not about winning. Its not about winning. Everyone read this; its not about winning. Big conferences dont want you because you win. Winning doesnt matter. Just because you have a sweet athletic program, doesnt mean the bigs want you. It doesnt matter if you win or lose. Market share is all that matters. Why do you think the Big 10 added Rutgers and Mayland? Big ass markets. Nebraska football is now relevant in Baltimore.

If the Big 10 wanted quality, they could have added Cincy and Louisville. But they didn't. Its not about winning. No amount of winning will make a big conference look at a MAC team.

amen. if Temple was in Philadelphia, OH they would've never been picked up by the BE. Its funny, but if the Big East had decided to replace each school that left with the best program it could attract then they likely would never have split into the Big Least and the Big Priest.