UL and UC: no idea, because if the playoff happens, the format may dictate.

UCONN: BC said they would veto them until the end days.

Rutgers: your guess is as good as mine, but they would likely be put together with UCONN as a package.

The Big East is now so weak, the owls may actually win there. You talk about an act of desperation, this is it. How does every team in the MAC now find another team to plat if 2012? Play some teams twice?

As I've said before, Temple leaving will NOT create a hole in every team's MAC schedule. In fact, it won't creat a hole in ANY MAC team's schedule, which hasn't yet been released. With of without Temple, every team in the MAC will play 8 conference games, as follows:

If its a 14 team league (with Temple and UMASS): every team will play 6 division games and 2 cross-overs
If its a 12 team league (no Temple, no UMASS): every team will play 5 division games and 3 crossovers
If its a 13 team league (no Temple, but with UMASS): we'll have the same unbalanced division format that we had the last few years: The MAC-west plays a round robin while some East teams play 6 division games and 2 cross overs and other East teams play 5 division games and 3 cross overs (and miss playing one of their divisional partners).

The big east's schedule got messed up by WVU's early departure because the conference was playing a round robin, and in the absence of WVU, every team was left with just 11 scheduled partners. When the schools in your conference aren't already playing EVERY OTHER SCHOOL in the conference, the loss of 1 team will not create last minute schedule gaps.

If this does happen, it will be interesting to see if the MAC considers dropping UMass (as they are allowed to do if they so choose). And then it will be interesting to see how the conference schedule changes. It might not be as simple as replacing Temple with a West team because of the potential of the unbalanced schedule again.

Thanks for the explanation,it makes sense.

No sarcasm intended when I say it is beyond me why ANY conference would lust for Temple as a member.  Reason:  No evidence to indicate that the Owls will ever draw more than embarrasingly low attendance in a big stadium. 

For that same reason, no evidence of a program's ability to come remotely close to filling its stadium,  it is difficult to imagine any conference wanting Akron, Kent or EMU. 

GB4L, there has been an awful lot of that going on. It's all about the "green." Very sad.

I personally dont understand how anyone can be happy Temple is leaving the MAC. I live on the East Coast and whenever anyone ever asks me what conference Ohio is in I always lead with the teams with teams they might have heard of. Temple, Toledo, Miami, maybe Kent St, maybe Akron, and now UMass. No one around here has heard of Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Ball State and the rest of the Bad News Bears that make up this horrible conference. And there is a less chance they would have heard of Ohio if we never played Temple. So what Temple used us and I dont like it, but we used them as well. Playing Temple gets us huge recognition in this geography, we're in the newspapers, on the news, people in this city now have an idea who Ohio University is. Having Temple has been invaluable from a marketing perspecitve, I'm sad to see them go.

Happy to see them go?  Not really.  More like not unhappy they're leaving (if all we read comes to fruition).  From day one it's been no big secret that Temps was using the MAC as a gap-filler to get back to an AQ conference.  There's never been any real identity with Temps as a MAC school.  Same feeling that was there with UCF.  Wasn't really torn up when they bolted either.  Ain't no big deal.

I'm more interested in schools that want to help the MAC thrive.  Temps has never seemed to be that way for me.  Neither was UCF or even Terd (although the fact Terd was in for more than football doesn't quite put them in the same company as the other two).  Rivalries help make a league better, but rivalries are something that develop and are nurtured throughout the entire school year, not just in the fall.  That's why I'm also a bit skeptical about UMass.  They're known more for b-ball, although not nearly as much as they were 20 years ago.  Are they interested in improving the MAC or just building the recognition of their own program so they can jump to some other conference at the first opportunity?