Been checking the scores on these guys every week. Ohio stands as their only loss. They are rated #4 in FCS and play at #3 Appalachian St. this Saturday. I was so impressed with their fans that I'm rooting for them. It would be cool to see them make a run in the FCS playoffs.

Ditto!

Well, if you consider Sagarin ratings of any value-there's only 3 MAC schools above poor little Wofford and we're not one of them.  Wofford currently has a 68.08 ranking, while SMU is 67.92, UConn -67.48, VA -67.19, Rutgers-65.95, Purdue 64.30, Indiana 62.06 etc.  Those teams are more sellable to the fans because of the "name", not because of the quality of their football programs.

And Boone is beyond beautiful this time of year.

Why would they move down a division if this is true?

App State is actually looking to move up to the FBS in the future.

Appy State is king of the hill in I-AA right now...why would they want to take their chances in I-A?

I could see potential problems in seeking a conference affiliation.  I can't see the ACC taking them.  SEC wouldn't.  That leaves CUSA, and the travel would be a nightmare for Appy.  They'd have some natural rivals in ECU and Marshall, but IMO that would not be enough. 

We are somewhat beating  a dead horse here, but Marshall is doing better in Conf USA than it would in the MAC.  Even though it's not really Big Money" the situation w/USA is much better tyan the MAC- it's not even close IMO.  Take football this year-C-USA has 6 bowl tie in's including the Liberty-a "real bowl" with history.  They get more BCS money than the MAC.  Marshall had 28,000 fans+ against Ohio and they've been lousy the last few years w/Snyder as coach.  How many did Miami have against us at their homecoming-15,000?
Even without playing any so called natural rivals Marshall draws well.  Conf USA is down this year, still better than the MAC IMO-which isn't saying anything.

re: Marshall

here's a comment I just saw on a Herd fan board-

Re: Ohio goes to 7-3

Reply

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Wondering if we would be better served in the MAC...I hate to think like that but we would probably be 7-3 also and headed to a bowl...being a winner is much more fun then losing and we would still have as much exposure on TV as we do now if not more.

Quick fix to top 25....return to the MAC and only schedule one BCS team a year for out of conference games. Even if you lose there is a good chance to go 11-1 and be ranked.


that's the conundrum they face- would they rather be king of the MAC, regularly competing for a Conf. Championship and being bowl eligible, or as they are now- in CUSA and going to their 1st bowl after 6 years with no head coach and a 6-6 record, followed up with a season that starts out 1-6. I would have to think that the $$$ differential would have to be huge to make it worth it.

do you think we'd better off making the jump like the Herd, or staying put and continuing to be competitive?

As I recall, the reason the Terd went to CUSA in the first place was CUSA has more bowl tie-ins (6 vs. 3), including vs. BCS schools.  So now they think that a 6 ouf of 12 chance to get a bowl bid is better than 3 out 14?  They need to improve math classes across the River.  If they think 11-1 is an automatic in the MAC, they're kidding themselves.  Fact is, they would do no better in the MAC than they're doing in CUSA; so far they've lost to the top teams and beaten the also-rans.  They don't have a Randy Moss and they don't have a Chad Pennington and they apparently don't have the budget the get friendly refs.  And they are not going to get the sweetheart deal to host the championship game they had in the '90s.

As for OU jumping the MAC ship, I don't think we would fare any better than the Terd at this point.  Remember, Temple used to be in the Big East for football and left because they couldn't compete (I remember Rutgers -- which was no ,500 team at the time -- leading a push to boot Temple out, which left some bad blood and is why Temple isn't in the Big East expansion conversation now).  Until we schedule more BCS teams, we really don't know how good the program is.  Improving the schedule and beating the big schools more frequently will get us more and better TV time, and thus more bucks.  And having the MAC in general do better against BCS schools would be a big help.

Marshall's football program was beginning to lose its shine during the last couple of years it was in the MAC.  In fact, you could see real holes in their program in the last season...Didn't they go 6-6 or something like that, with several MAC losses?

I think the Herd would have struggled in the MAC during the Snyder years...maybe not as bad as they have in CUSA. 

Having said that...most Marshall fans will tell you that CUSA is a much better deal for them financially, and they don't regret the move. 

Partially due to their loss of scholarships since they have been in CUSA.  Remember, they were caught cheating while in the MAC.  I believe both times they were in the MAC ended with them having NCAA sanctions for cheating.

Living in Gallia county i am "lucky" enough to know a few Marshall fans as well.  I would say by a 2-1 margin they would prefer to be in MAC.  The biggest reason they give was mention previously and it has to do with being able to make road trips to follow the team.  A couple even stated the rise of Boise State shows that a team from a MAC type conference can make a splash on the national stage.  Don't get me wrong, I hate Marshall with every ounce of my body (yes more than Miami), but I really enjoyed them being in the conference.  I know it always fired up all the OU fans in Gallia, Lawrence, Jackson, Scioto and Meigs counties since we side between the two.