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You should go back and read what I wrote. I literally said in my post Akron would be the one game that would be good for them to schedule in the MAC. The rest not so much. There are very few G5 programs consistently as good as Akron year over year. You schedule a home and home with them and they might be good for the 1st year, but garbage the next. Another point is you don't know for certain who the top 100 teams will be until months into a season. Even the teams that might have had high preseason expectations might not live up to them or a team nobody expected emerges.

Also, I realize the NET is here to stay and it’s the metric we must use to justify our participation in the NCAA Tourney. But I do not see it as the better tool for evaluating a teams performance over Kenpom. I think the NET is the P5 cartels tool to distort reality, not better understand reality. And when everything is based on “quality wins” played on the cartels home courts with home refs you have further distortion. Garbage in means garbage out.

My prediction is that the P5 cartel will continue to concentrate their financial power and control. Perhaps breaking off into their own super league making them essentially the new D1 and turning the rest of D1 into D2 and so on down the line. They will just assume that their business model of paying the best players in the country big money will maintain their elite status. But all it will take is for 1 really great team in the new D2 to refuse to play for them or with them to cast doubt on the whole project. At that point negotiations will take place or the NCAA will completely implode and we start again with who knows what.

Actually Bobby Bowden is dead. You are missing the concept buddy.

You are entirely missing my point. Power conference teams shutting you out? Fine. Go play top 100 road games at schools like Akron. LSU is 89 NET, Florida State is 90 NET, Akron is 91 NET, Oklahoma State is 95 and Minnesota is 96. A win at Akron will probably end up in the same quadrant as a win vs any of those other power conference programs. At the end of the year, if there's an at large debate and someone gets snubbed because Akron isn't named LSU/FSU/MIN/OSU, then you can complain about the corrupt system. To intentionally avoid those solid G5s, especially on the road, is malpractice and hypocritical because that's exactly what power conference schools do.

Aren't all students free any more?

The committee's main complaint about conferences like MVC or A10 getting at-large bids is SOS and lack of quality wins. Playing the directional Michigan's and the other dumpster fire MAC teams would feed that narrative. It would make sense for a GW or a Duquesne to schedule a school like Akron, which has consistently been in or around the top 100 for a few years now, but mostly everyone else in the MAC is a waste. Toledo a few years back would have been solid too or Buffalo before that. The real problem is the selection committee. If they offered more incentives for those games getting played, they would be scheduled. The problem is the cartel of the P5 (including Big East) has stacked the deck so that they take all the at-large bids and all the other 27 conferences have to fight over maybe 2-3 at-large bids in total.

That's fine, props to St. Bonnie. I still maintain the GW coach doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. A10 is looking pretty solid to start the year. We will see how they end up. If they continue to be a legitimate 1 bid league (not a snubbed one), it's even more pathetic that they won't play more game at schools like the MAC teams.

A conference is more than just a few programs. I think it makes sense to recognize programs that schedule those games that you talk about, like a St. Bonaventure, while chastising those that don't. I don't think the A10 is loaded this year. They will likely be 1 bid, just like the MAC.

Last year was GW's first winning season since 2016-17. They've been middle of the road at best, and largely a bottom feeder in those 8 or 9 seasons. If GW had been a powerhouse with the status of Dayton or VCU, are they playing at American (still hard to give them credit for this considering it's essentially a home game in DC) or ODU? Who knows, but history would tell us no. Go look at VCU's & Dayton's schedules this year for reference; zero lower end road games, and Dayton actually has FSU coming to Dayton for a game. My issue is with the hypocrisy of the GW coach complaining about MTEs creating exclusive power conference fields, while his own conference has been practicing the same shift in scheduling over the past decade or so. If he had his perfect schedule, he'd also lean towards power conference bias. Heck, Georgetown played at GW to start the season. They're playing Florida in some Orange Bowl Classic in December. They were invited to the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip Off and played against USF. They are choosing to participate in the Cayman Islands Classic this weekend - McNeese St., Middle Tennessee, and Murray St. All of this before they get the privilege of playing a loaded A10 conference schedule. Spare me the crocodile tears, GW coach. (This is a much better discussion for the World of College Basketball thread)

All part of the plan. With the goal to never play mid majors ever

Here’s an interesting Loyola Chicago Ramblers tidbit. They actually have a 1963 NCAA championship banner hanging in their gym. Now granted back then the NIT was the premier annual college tournament, but you can say it aged well to their benefit.

The University is already spending about as much on football as the other MAC schools are. The main difference is $4-$5 million of what Akron is spending is going to Infocision debt servicing. Other MAC schools don't have that overhead so they have more money for additional staffing. I do agree endowments or long-term commitments are really what's needed.

I think it's a conversation worth having for the sake of having the conversation. I would have shared the same if it was a SunBelt, CAA, or Horizon League coach saying the same thing. He has gone to play at other mid-majors so it's not like he's a hypocrite like you keep trying to make him out to be. He literally played at 2 last year. He didn't have to play @American or @ODU last year. He choose to, which goes against the point you made about him actively avoiding them. It sounds like your issue is more with Dayton or Duquesne's of the world as those are the A10 programs in our backyard who don't actively schedule MAC schools. St. Bonaventure regularly schedules Buffalo, including @ Buffalo and has played MAC schools several times in Cleveland. Loyola Chicago I guess would be another culprit. They schedule MAC schools, but only if you play them at home, which beats not scheduling at all, but still not as good as St. Bonaventure going to Buffalo or playing Akron in Cleveland. With UMass in the league I feel you will see a few more A10-MAC battles as even though UMass doesn't have one on the schedule this year, I would expect 1, maybe 2 moving forward.

I think that injury to Eric last year was a blessing. I don't know if he and Evan are here this year if Eric plays last season, and Eric's talent would've been wasted on last year's team. He's a much better fit this year without Nate Johnson on the roster and has room to really showcase his athleticism and abilities.

I’m not making a prediction, but with his skills and maturity this early and for that size I could see him going pro after his junior year. I mean legit first rounder. So yes, precedent would be something like play at Akron for 2 years, then go to Duke for a year and then go pro. It would be nice if the Mahaffey clan gave Akron a family discount and he finished his college career at Akron. He would be like Larry Bird putting Indiana State on the map. That said, I want to make sure Evan gets his due. I especially like his defense and calm presence on the floor. He’s going to get fouled a lot so he needs to pick up his free throw shooting, but he’s been great so far. Great leadership. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks to the Capt and Zips 1991. I just had a vague snapshot in my head of the Zips holding up trophys of some kind in a preseason tourney and it must have been the Sun Bowl in 2016. https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2016/12/23/akron-wins-sun-bowl-basketball-invitational/95760162/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z114120d00----v114120b0041xxd004165&gca-ft=136&gca-ds=sophi

The American game was also in DC, so hardly a road game. ODU is more respectable. My point is these coaches act like they're being blindsided by this segregation in college athletics. It has been happening for nearly 4 decades, ever since tv media deals became a thing. It has been accelerated with conference realignment and COVID, but nobody should be shocked. Consolidation of power & money is a tale as old as time in society and sports are not immune without legitimate guardrails (NFL is the best example). Yes, big schools quit going to mid-majors to play regular season games years ago; however, it's not like the A10 is lining up to play at Akron, Miami OH, Ohio, Kent, etc., despite being geographically appropriate. There are 0 A10 @ MAC games this season, and very very few in the last 5 years despite nearly half the A10 having MAC schools right in their backyard. Is that not similar to the trend we've seen with the power conferences? Treat others the way you want to be treated; it's the golden rule and is the only bulletproof method to avoid hypocrisy. In 5-10 years, whose to say the A10 won't be only participating in MTEs with schools from the AAC, Big East, and PAC12? I get the GW coach's point, but it's hard for me to take him seriously when, if he could have it his way, he'd only play power conference schools anyways. Revenue sports in college athletics need OOC scheduling rules to fix this, but the powers that be aren't going to bite the hand that feeds them.

Damn…now I’m the “old guy.” 😫 The Zips won a tournament in 1990 (year after Huggins departed). I believe it was at Drake. Zips were led by two Duquesne transfers - Kevin McCarthy and Pete Freeman. Both had sat out the previous season as transfers and expected to play for Huggins. Instead they got Coleman Crawford. I still feel bad for them.

Thanks. I think it’s fine being the aim (why not aim high), but I’d settle for 6 and bowl eligibility. Our OOC isn’t the grinder it has been in some other years, but it still includes 2 P4 teams and a good G6 team. Likely we go 1-3 in OOC which would require 6-2 or 7-1 in conference play. That’s the conference record of a title contender and I don’t see that happening next year.

Awesome, we can get out of one of our P4 games next year. $100,000 is a lot of money for most people. It isn't much for a football budget. If it's a one time gift, it could go away next year. Akron needs permanent endowments and prioritization of money from within the University at least to the levels of the upper half of the MAC.

https://x.com/ATGoodrich/status/1991967431481586107?t=BKzouw0SYzLAxiSbuM8nCg&s=19

George Washington just last year played at both Old Dominion and at American, which is in the Patriot League. The coach speaking has gone into other mid-major arenas and played road games. Besides, the point he was making was mainly about MTE. Big schools long quit going to mid-majors to play regular season games. That happened 20 years ago, maybe longer. Its only been in the last ~5 years that you're seeing MTE fields that segregated power schools from mid-majors.

I find it funny that an A10 coach is complaining about being frozen out of competitive opportunities. When's the last time an upper echelon A10 school made the trip to a MAC gym?

It is different. But I like it. It gives the top teams a rest day so they don’t have to play 3 games in 3 days. Something the MAC should avoid as well. Reward the top conference teams with a shorter road to the title.