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Should Akron Seek Another Conference?


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3 hours ago, LZIp said:

NDSU. Quality mid major basketball program, great fan following, and would probably come in and be a contender football wise in the MAC immediately. They also play in a dome...

 

NDSU is 600 miles from the nearest MAC team. NIU is closer to Buffalo than it is to Fargo.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/1/2016 at 4:58 PM, ZachTheZip said:

NDSU is 600 miles from the nearest MAC team. NIU is closer to Buffalo than it is to Fargo.

 

The MAC's problem is that there are way too many schools clustered together. Let's be honest, Akron isn't leaving anytime soon. So our best shot of improving our national stance is trying to make the MAC a better conference. Adding some schools with decent followings to expand our footprint would be a good start. 

 

NDSU, App State, MTSU, Marshall (sorry) would be a good start.

Edited by akzipper
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1 hour ago, akzipper said:

 

The MAC's problem is that there are way too many schools clustered together. Let's be honest, Akron isn't leaving anytime soon. So our best shot of improving our national stance is trying to make the MAC a better conference. Adding some schools with decent followings to expand our footprint would be a good start. 

 

NDSU, App State, MTSU, Marshall (sorry) would be a good start.

 

What you view as a weakness, I view as a strength. Schools being close together means low travel costs which is valuable to financially strapped athletic programs. Flying the golf, tennis, swimming, track, soccer, etc. to Fargo each year is expensive. Not to mention the MAC is locked into its already generous TV deal until 2027. Where is this extra money going to come from so MAC schools don't have to split the same size pie more ways to feed more mouths?

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3 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

 

Where is this extra money going to come from so MAC schools don't have to split the same size pie more ways to feed more mouths?

 

The answer to that is basketball. Getting a second bid (or winning a game or two) increases the NCAA payout enough to offset the revenue split.  NDSU is a decent mid-major, but not enough to get the MAC a second bid.

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12 minutes ago, ZachTheZip said:

 

The answer to that is basketball. Getting a second bid (or winning a game or two) increases the NCAA payout enough to offset the revenue split.  NDSU is a decent mid-major, but not enough to get the MAC a second bid.

 

Exactly, but outside of Wichita State, if they were to add football and had a strong desire to compete at FBS level, I can't think of any realistic candidates that would raise MAC basketball to being a bonafide 2 bid conference.

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On 4/29/2016 at 11:24 AM, skip-zip said:

 

I don't know if I've seen anyone yet who has accounted for the increase in revenue.  With a higher perceived conference affiliation (whether experts agree with it or not), more recognized opponents, and the notion that Akron is "moving up" in the national picture, more internal revenue is going to follow.  TV revenue, ticket sales, sponsorships, and donations should all get a big boost in this situation. 

I think OU or Toledo are fine choices to get our 2nd bid ;)

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4 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

 

What you view as a weakness, I view as a strength. Schools being close together means low travel costs which is valuable to financially strapped athletic programs. Flying the golf, tennis, swimming, track, soccer, etc. to Fargo each year is expensive. Not to mention the MAC is locked into its already generous TV deal until 2027. Where is this extra money going to come from so MAC schools don't have to split the same size pie more ways to feed more mouths?

 

That makes sense. My issue is that I doubt we'll ever see Infocision filled again, let alone filled on a consistent basis. Even if the Zips can continue winning, people just don't get excited about the MAC opponents coming to town.

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8 minutes ago, akzipper said:

 

That makes sense. My issue is that I doubt we'll ever see Infocision filled again, let alone filled on a consistent basis. Even if the Zips can continue winning, people just don't get excited about the MAC.

 

Yeah, I just don't see adding any of those teams changing that. CMU beat a ranked team, WMU has 2 wins over P5 teams, and OU beat Kansas so its not like the MAC isn't getting those attention grabbing wins already. Also, it's not like NDSU fans are going to drive 16 hours or pay $400 in airfare to come to Akron and pack Infocision. Appalachian State was what NDSU is now and the Sun Belt is still at the bottom of the food chain after adding them.

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6 hours ago, akzipper said:

Even if the Zips can continue winning, people just don't get excited about the MAC opponents coming to town.

 

I often make a point very close to this, so I agree with you, for the most part. 

 

Dig a little deeper.  It's not just the opponents we're playing.  It's the fact that we're not playing FOR anything that matters to most people.  In fact, if you asked people around town, you'd probably find that most of them don't even think we play in the same Division as the schools who are playing for a prize that matters.  

 

Attendance will improve if things keep moving in the right direction.  But the expectations for attendance that some people have about nearing stadium capacity "if we just win more games" is just delusional.  

Edited by skip-zip
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I totally agree... a consistent winner in the MAC only gets the program to minimum attendance requirements I think (an average of 15K per home game).   I don't think it goes much beyond that with any consistency while still in the MAC.

 

Interesting to look back at the last 20 years of Zips schedules-- we were playing, and beating, Cincy with regularity.  Wish we could be in a league with Cincy, Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville, Memphis (and maybe Toledo).   Universities within driving distance in mid-size media markets.   

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You mean, a conference like the old Metro Conference?  That name got thrown around alot back in the 80s, and it would have been a good fit.  It did contain a lot of Midwest city schools.  Even after that league began to disband, and schools left for other arrangements, many of them ended up in some very good situations and have been able to grow their athletic profiles.  

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  • 4 weeks later...

Let me preface all of this by saying that I've never thought it was possible that Akron could seriously draw attention from any highly regarded conference.  But still, here were some of the schools listed that were apparently interviewed as part of the Big VII's recent expansion inquiry:

 

Air Force

Colorado State

Rice

Tulane

 

There were a few more, but these names really stuck out at me.  Maybe they are all a better geographical fit for the league.  But besides that, does anyone think that any of these 4 schools are really superior to Akron in any way in football/basketball?  

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9 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

There were like a dozen schools they interviewed.

 

Correct.  I saw the list and noticed that there were a number of schools that I would objectively not consider to be Superior to Akron.  That's why I was bringing it to everyone's attention.  Especially since I've always believed that conference expansion has not expanded enough yet to start reaching down towards schools that are around our level of play in the major sports.  

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18 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

So maybe we were 13th on their list of schools that they didn't use to expand

 

No, I don't think any MAC school would have been a fit, geographically.  I already indicated that.  The furthest school North into MAC Territory on their list of candidates that were interviewed was Cincinnati.  

 

You're missing what I am reporting here.  I saw schools on their very short interview list that are pretty low on the D-1A totem poll.  I don't think I had ever seen that before.  And I clearly stated that I am NOT in the camp of people who have ever thought that a school that far down the line ever had a chance to be considered for a major conference expansion.  

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1 minute ago, skip-zip said:

 

No, I don't think any MAC school would have been a fit, geographically.  I already indicated that.  The furthest school North into MAC Territory on their list of candidates that were interviewed was Cincinnati.  

 

You're missing what I am reporting here.  I saw schools on their very short interview list that are pretty low on the D-1A totem poll.  I don't think I had ever seen that before.  And I clearly stated that I am NOT in the camp of people who have ever thought that a school that far down the line ever had a chance to be considered for a major conference expansion.  

NIU was on their preliminary list

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35 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

NIU was on their preliminary list

 

The article only showed the 10 or so schools that were interviewed as final candidates.  NIU was not one of them.  Even if they were, I'm not sure I would have lumped them with the schools I mentioned previously.  I wasn't looking at whether MAC school were involved.  I didn't think they would be.  What caught my attention was the level of some of the schools that had made the final list. 


Conference officials held interviews in September with Air Force and Colorado State from the Mountain West; Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, South Florida, SMU and Tulane from the American Athletic Conference; and BYU, which is a football independent with its other sports in the West Coast Conference.

 

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