Most realistically either C-USA or the American. Would probably perform best in C-USA, but either one would likely want to add another member school so the divisions stay balanced. Would really be a killer blow to the MAC having the only remaining charter school leave (also the 'most successful' in recent football history).

I assume you meant the AAC. Either way, in addition to expanding Peden we're also gonna have to convince another couple hundred thousand people to move to Athens.

The AAC is basically entirely comprised of teams in major markets (Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Philly, Orlando, Memphis, etc. The only schools that aren't (Navy, ECU, UConn) are still in areas with a much larger population base than Athens. Not sure we're all that attractive to another conference, unfortunately.

No one is saying we should do it right away, the OG raises the question that it should be something to be considered. If the MAC continues to decline like it has the past few years why wouldn't you want to move to a different conference? That's a better track record than a decent amount of teams in C-USA/AAC, unless you think a conference championship 10 years ago makes up for multiple sub .500 records since.

If you think most of the people in New Orleans care about or otherwise support Tulane, you need to put down the crack bowl and back away from the liquor cabinet. Their football team averaged 16,939 at home for 2017 while Ohio's was 19,388. In New Orleans Tulane is usually viewed as an also ran to LSU, the Saints and some really good high school football teams throughout south Louisiana. It is also viewed as a snobbish private school who most people in New Orleans could care less about. A few years ago before they built their new football stadium and still played in the Dome, they usually had an attendance of somewhere south of 5,000.

I think we should form our own conference with the other elite party schools in the country. We'd need to focus on getting our tailgate scene up to SEC standards, but I have no doubt we could put the Sun Belt's "FunBelt" moniker to shame.

Proposed Conference:
Ohio
Iowa
Colorado at Boulder
IU
WVU
University of California - Santa Barbara
Georgia
Tulane
FSU
Arizona State

Need 2 more schools to get 12 for a conference championship game. Thoughts?

OHIOBOBCAT- As a project manager, I would have to forecast our future projected earnings if the conference continues to decline. Our last two MAC champions have been destroyed by Funbelt teams. App State owns the MAC from my standards as they have been ESPNs new crush since beating us in their first Camellia Bowl. ESPN wanted us to be the new Boise State but we couldn't capitalize on a National TV game after that Sports Illustrated article came out. So yeaa....its laughable but two years from now we may be revisiting this convo if Toledo, Buffalo, and NIU (6 bowl losses in a row) don't start pulling their weight in bowl games. Goes to show our Bowl series with other conferences is the measuring stick for dollars and future matchups.

Part of me thinks Marshall would rather not play football than limp back to the MAC with its tail between its legs and admit leaving the MAC was a mistake.

Also to add to this. CENTRAL FLORIDA went 0-12 in our conference and moved on. TEMPLE never went to a MAC championship and has moved on. UMASS never went far. Marshall is the only one to me......that has the right to move on winning multiple MAC titles. And if UCONN keeps bottoming out it may move to the MAC to rebuild its brand like the others have tried to. Any other teams prior to 2002 I don't know....

+1

Anyone who thinks what Ohio or the MAC does in 95% of the bowl games they play in would be classified as "meaningful" is kidding themselves. The absurd number of bowl games and bowl teams nowadays exist for two reasons: a way for networks to try and make a little more money, and to bridge the viewership gap between the conference championships and the real bowls about a month later. The bowl games that Ohio and most every MAC school play in (aside from a select few such as NIU and WMU recently, and a few others over the years) are glorified scrimmages - at best. Many of the players are more interested in the bowl game gifts that are distributed than some of the bowl games themselves. And have you seen the pathetic travel turnouts for MAC teams (Ohio included) in these games? Ohio was even giving away 1,804 free tickets through a promotion this year and it was still a dreadful turnout. Hardly anyone cares about these games. Again, they're not much more than glorified scrimmages.

Look, Ohio turned in two outstanding efforts in its last two bowl games, no doubt. But to say that Ohio "saved" the MAC with those two wins is comical. IMO, Ohio was the best overall team in the MAC the last two years come seasons end. But Ohio couldn't even win the MAC East in either year, let alone the MACC. So what we've seen is the MAC's best overall team (Ohio) slip in bowl matchups to execs who are picking matchups based on records and standings. The result: Ohio trucked two overmatched teams that never had a shot. Play those UAB and SDSU games over 10 more times each and I'm still picking Ohio every time. It's why I hoped Ohio would have been higher in the bowl matchup order to face one of the MAC's best tests, from both a competitive game standpoint and to help the MAC get better bowl matchups overall. But make no mistake, Ohio didn't "save" the MAC in the bowls, it only helped the MAC save a little bit of face each year.

You can’t say the bowls are meaningless if winning makes more money for the MAC teams. Winning figures into the payouts so they’re meaningful if money means anything.

OH FOR CHRISTS SAKE