30 MVC games to be aired on ESPN networks

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

I can't believe that UNI or ISURed fans would be THAT excited about the MAC. In basketball all that conference does is pull mediocrity out of one another. And in football they play games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights on obscure ESPN channels that I'm not even aware of. Guffaw.

Conference USA or Sun Belt those are leagues to get excited about. There have been a number of CUSA teams that have performed well and got called up to the big leagues. SMU, UH, UCf, etc. There is legitimate upward mobility there. And the Sun Belt is basically a bona fide minor league for CUSA. Win in the Belt, get promoted to CUSA, win there and you get promoted to the big show. With the MAC, come on that happened for what maybe Temple. But do you think the Big Ten or Big East is pining for Bowling Green? If UNI or ISUred move to that league, it won't do them any better in terms of respectibility. The average fan in Ottumwa or Macomb isn't going to appreciate the difference.

#movingtoMACwilldoyounothing

[AndShock]

I, for one, am not shocked by the fact that CaseyGarrisonforPrez is not aware of ESPN2.

[PantherSigEp]

I, for one, am not shocked by the fact that CaseyGarrisonforPrez is not aware of ESPN2.

Or that he thinks the Sun Belt to be a decent conference

[TheAsianSensation]

All the talk on the MAC is based on the fact that no other conference (maybe WAC) is in a position to expand in any type of format, and I believe the MAC is throwing out some smokescreens. They will expand, and for them, 16 makes more sense because they have a geographic core that will support it, unlike the old WAC.

I could see the MAC expanding, or trying. I think 16 would be a huge number for a non-BCS league. Too many league games will kill conference SOS and perception. The only other way to do it is to have divisional play with only one game against the other division. I think this would be a tough go, though. The big boys could sell it, I just don't know how it would play it in the MAC and Big South type conferences. A big league killed the WAC and created the MWC. 18 teams is just ridiculous.

Like I have said, if UNI can pull it off, I'm all for them, but if the MAC opens their doors, UNI will be fighting with a bunch of 1-AA teams that want in, not just Valley teams, but a bunch of teams in the current MAC footprint.

The MAC is the one league that can get away with it, though. The WAC was torn asunder because so many teams wanted to keep rivalries going and were geographically unstable. If UNI joins the MAC, they don't have a inate need to play Buffalo and UMass. The Ohio schools don't really need the games in Michigan, Indiana, or Illinois. The MAC will still be a league, but many of the members don't need to make their way all around the league like teams in the WAC did, or teams in the ACC or SEC will.

Also, the MAC is bottom of the barrel. They are the afterthought. For them, the right strategy is to collect assets and see if one hits it big. That's all they can do.

[uniftw]

I can't believe that UNI or ISURed fans would be THAT excited about the MAC. In basketball all that conference does is pull mediocrity out of one another. And in football they play games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights on obscure ESPN channels that I'm not even aware of. Guffaw.

Conference USA or Sun Belt those are leagues to get excited about. There have been a number of CUSA teams that have performed well and got called up to the big leagues. SMU, UH, UCf, etc. There is legitimate upward mobility there. And the Sun Belt is basically a bona fide minor league for CUSA. Win in the Belt, get promoted to CUSA, win there and you get promoted to the big show. With the MAC, come on that happened for what maybe Temple. But do you think the Big Ten or Big East is pining for Bowling Green? If UNI or ISUred move to that league, it won't do them any better in terms of respectibility. The average fan in Ottumwa or Macomb isn't going to appreciate the difference.

#movingtoMACwilldoyounothing

1. As has been said about UNI, I don't know about ISU, the move is football only. Joining the MAC in football would be a great move for UNI if everything worked out like we hope, as fans, it does. If you look at the computer averages *insert DEATH TO COMPUTERS comments here* the MAC, SBC, and CUSA are all almost identical to each other thus far this year. The WAC is in there as well, but that league is falling apart. With all of those being equal it comes down to regional match up - for UNI, ISU, and even SIU the match is the MAC.

This:


is a million times better than this:


which possibly a step a head of this:


When it comes to travel.


Couple that with the fact that the following CUSA schools are leaving CUSA - Memphis, UCF, SMU, and Houston and being replaced with FIU, Louisiana Tech, ODU, North Texas, and Texas-San Antonio, and UNC-Charolette it's pretty clear the league is migrating south and east with less attractive teams. When that move is complete there will be just 3 original CUSA members left.



2. The schools that have been called from CUSA are huge schools that have been around for YEARSCinci, DePaul, Louisville, Mqrqutte, South Florida, Houston, TCU, SMU, etc... are all schools that easily fit the "big time" label is more ways than one. No UNI or ISU fan is stupid enough to believe that either school is going to end up B1G, B12, Big East, etc... some day. Honestly, for UNI the "biggest" we could "hope" for is MAC/CUSA/MWC.....NEWSFLAH....Same for Missouri State.

4. The average fan in Ottumwa or Macomb (odd choices for towns honestly) don't give a flying F about the C-USA right now, or the Big East. They couldn't name two players on UCONN, Memphis, Tulane, Tulsa, Pittsburgh, etc... The only time those fans even think about them if when the scroller on the bottom of ESPN shows their score.


There isn't a single MVC team that could legitimately make it in the B1G/B12/ACC/etc... without at least meeting a couple of these criteria: HUGE market, over a DECADE of dominance in some way, AAU member/top ranked academic school, MASSIVE alumni base (think Michigan/Iowa size alumni base), have a football program that adds some value to the school, or the conference gets so desperate to stay alive it takes whoever it can get - see Big East.



As usual, you're so far off it's not even funny

[DoubleJayAlum]

So, to summarize, we have the following:

1) Uni may, at some point in the future, assuming the new President, who has not yet even been hired, is not opposed, attempt to try to move up their football program, and only their football program, to the MAC (notice I went all unipanther99 there?);

2) Any move up by UNI will most certainly result in extra expenses for the additional 20 or so scholarships, plus a corresponding number of women's scholarships required by Title IX, plus potential related increases in expenditures for existing football coaches and any new football coaches that are hired as a result of the move up, expenditures for the women's coaches for the new sport(s) UNI would have to add, plus potentially higher new travel expenses for football, along with all of the travel expenses incurred by the new women's sports that UNI adds (by the way, would those new women's sports be housed in the MVC or elsewhere and would the respective conference housing those sports have to approve such an addition in advance?);

3) UNI would have to make this decision in the current political environment existing in the state of Iowa where, at the moment, extreme pressure is being put upon UNI to reduce expenditures of its athletic department and/or make the athletic department less dependent on state financial support;

4) A move may result in additional revenues, but there is no information or data so far as to how much that additional revenue would be or whether it would even cover all of the additional expenses that such a move would present annually;

5) Any such move is further contingent upon the MAC deciding that it even wants to expand to replace Temple and the Philadelphia market, which, as of now, it has not even done;

6) Even if the MAC does make a decision that it wants to expand, the MAC would have to express a preference for UNI (and the Cedar Falls market) over many other competing schools, who are at least as interested in making such a move if not more committed, some of which come from larger markets or may reside in the present MAC footprint (thereby not presenting as much of a bump in the travel budget to existing members that UNI may present);

7) Any considered move would require the MVC to continue to allow UNI to keep all of its other sports that are presently in the MVC in the MVC after such a move.

Lots and lots and lots of "ifs".

One question I have is whether the Iowa Board of Regents would have to approve any such move -- I don't know the answer to this, but I think it would be an extremely relevant factor, especially if the board is full of Iowa and Iowa State plants as UNI fans have told us previously. If so, those schools may not welcome another instate FBS program and could fight to keep such a move from happening, assuming that they sign off on all of the additional expenditures first.

[TheAsianSensation]

5) Any such move is further contingent upon the MAC deciding that it even wants to expand to replace Temple and the Philadelphia market, which, as of now, it has not even done;

6) Even if the MAC does make a decision that it wants to expand, the MAC would have to express a preference for UNI (and the Cedar Falls market) over many other competing schools, who are at least as interested in making such a move if not more committed, some of which come from larger markets or may reside in the present MAC footprint (thereby not presenting as much of a bump in the travel budget to existing members that UNI may present);

I'd retort these 2 points are erroneous, just because:

1) I think there's several schools who want to move up, but not to the MAC. I think the ball is in the schools' court, not the MAC's. MAC will take at least 1 new team.

and

2) UNI may be on the edge of the footprint, but every other serious FCS contender is similarly on the edge, or not even in the footprint. I'd argue UNI creates a very natural branching of the footprint, actually. I don't see UNI at any type of geographic disadvantage to anyone else (sans Illinois State, probably)