Todd Jones spent last week going to each of the five nationally televised games that were played in Ohio on consecutive days (four MAC games and the O$U game).  He filed a story after each game and wrapped it up today with an interesting look at the financial aspects of college football:

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2011/11/06/fin...

For me, the most poignant part is this:

"For the MAC, the need for revenue translates into playing 13 weekday games in November to fulfill its eight-year, $8 million television contract with ESPN.

And so there was an Ohio player on Wednesday, still clad in full uniform, doing a radio interview near midnight in the press box after a 35-31 win over Temple. He had an 8 a.m. class the next morning and a test later that day.

A week earlier, the NCAA passed legislation strengthening academic requirements, so the sight of the player highlighted the occasional mixed messages inherent in the system."

The strains on athletic department budgets at MAC-level schools these days often makes it difficult to figure out which is the noun and which is the adjective in the phrase "student athlete."

Its simple. MAC schools spend what they need for an 85 scholarship program hosting crowds of 15,000 to compete in their conference. Big Ten schools host crowds of 70,000 and compete to win in a vastly richer conference so they make more money but need to spend all that much more money. MAC schools are not using Ohio State's football spending as a measuring stick. BCS conferences have a different level of access to the post season than a MAC school and that affects recruiting. There is no denying that. Within FCS you have leagues as diverse as the CAA and the Ivy which are ineligible for the playoffs. The MAC doesn't have to match the Big Ten funding level to remain in FBS. It only has to keep up with the minimum standards of the Football Bowl Subdivision. Why so many sports writers fail to understand this I don't know.

Isn't this what the dispatch writes about everything that isn't ohio state?

Cut the Dispatch writer some slack, it's a Columbus thing. Remember, the esteemed OSU President himself Gorden Geek proclaimed Boise St. last year not "BCS Bowl Worthy" due to the fact that they built their record feasting on teams made up of the Little Sister's of the Poor Conferences.

Interesting that just in last years SuperBowl between the Packers and Steelers I think the MAC had something like 15 players between the two rosters. It was the second most represented conference on the SuperBowl roster behind BCS behometh SEC. Not a bad showing for a "dirt poor" conference.