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Just take the Mrs. somewhere nice beforehand. That way she gets both a dinner and a show.

Or attend an Zips basketball game @9pm the day before Valentine's Day😍

Doubtful, we already see how poor MACtion attendance is. How many people do you honestly think would show up to Infocision for an 11AM or 2PM bowl game during the work week just days before Christmas?

Let the schools host a bowl game. Would be a better environment compared to the neutral site games

sounds legit if Brett McMurphy's reporting it. not that it really affects us...😑

No idea if this is true due to this is Via Twitter...... https://www.on3.com/news/detroits-bowl-game-canceled-after-29-years/

I don't see them paying ~$17 million to join the MAC if I'm being completely honest. I think if they had interest in joining the MAC that move would have happened 5, 10 years ago. They were holding out for an invite to something like the AAC or MWC to make the jump worth their while.

I strongly disagree. The MAC is still a regional conference, and with NIU gone, there is a breadth of three full states between the most westernly MAC school and NDSU. The MAC definitely does not need inflated travel budgets to make regular trips to the arctic. Besides, we already have a Canadian school that is much closer.

Saw this, too bad it's the MWC... MAC could have hit a homerun here, especially since we lost NIU.

Amen. I would also add that was the best era for parity in college basketball. The power conferences didn’t like it and every change since has made it more difficult for mid-majors. God bless Wentz for giving us a fighting chance.

Brett McMurphy is reporting that the Detroit bowl game is being discontinued. I would expect more bowl games to follow suit. With the playoff expansion these lower tier bowls will get less and less attention. Edit: It's the 3rd bowl to be eliminated within the last year.

None of what I'm saying below is to dispute anything you've said. It's just an observation. A lot of those games were part of those November exempt tournaments. That's why I was very vocal back in November/December criticizing the changes that have made it so most of those tournaments are now segregated into fields of mid-majors or power schools. Playing a Penn State or Oklahoma State on a neutral court provided the best opportunities to pick up those P5 (I guess P6 back then) wins that mid-major resumes desperately need.

There is absolutely no basis for this whatsoever. If he didn't think OOC mattered, he wouldn't have worked to schedule any of those games. They had six OOC P5 wins over his last 5 seasons: Arkansas (15-16), South Carolina (14-15), USC (14-15), Oregon State (13-14), Penn State (12-13), Mississippi State (11-12) They also beat Florida State (07-08) and Houston (16-17) in postseason play.

I didn't say we didn't play anybody in the OOC. I said, we didn't win in the OOC, and why would we when there is a defeatist attitude from the beginning? Of all the games you listed, I think the only ones we won was one against Penn State and another versus Mississippi State. That makes it 2-22 in the games you listed, if I counted right.

If Groce and Steele stay for a bit more, and UMass can get up to a top 100 team, we will have a very nice mid major conference.

Mark it down, the lights will be too bright for Miami at "University Arena" in Kalamazoo

Again, I'm not sure he ever said non-conference schedule didn't matter. He often said they have to win in the MAC Tournament to ensure getting there because the committee didn't typically award MAC teams with at-larges, and he wasn't wrong. Look at the 06-07 team. I'm also not sure where this revisionist history comes from that his teams didn't play anyone non-conference. 16-17 - Creighton, Gonzaga 15-16 - Villanova, Arkansas 14-15 - Miami, Penn State, South Carolina 13-14 - Oregon State, South Carolina, Iowa State 12-13 - Penn State, Oklahoma State, Creighton 11-12 - Mississippi State, West Virginia, VCU 10-11 - Minnesota, Dayton, Temple 09-10 - Texas A+M, VCU 08-09 - Pittsburgh, VCU, Dayton

They seem to be good when they can slow the game down and turn it into an old school 80s, 90s style of play. They don't really have the athletes or perimeter shooters to play an up and down the court, high scoring game.

I watched UMass-Miami a few weeks ago. It was an excellent game that UMass could have won. Their big man is going to give us problems.

I do think a strong UMass would be good for the MAC. As a fan of the game, the more compelling match-ups the better. If the MAC consistently had 3 or 4 top 100 programs it would make the season feel more must see. I just saw Miami @ WMU was selected as one of the ESPNU games. Akron/Kent was the other game selected that week. I see why they picked Miami since they're ranked, but on the surface that looks like a terrible game. At the same time I guess the only other possible game they could have picked over it would have been Toledo @ Ohio, but who would want to watch that?

All the program building talk aside, relative to this game, UMass would be a very nice, relatively big name program to get a win against, even if they are in the MAC.

I don't mind those dance teams and other things you mention. I actually think its great marketing to introduce potential new fans. In fact, when @Hilltopper gave me his seats for the EMU game, my fiancé stayed out at half-time because she wanted to watch the dance team perform instead of going into the Tommy Evans Lounge. Edit: I also wasn't hinting at spending money, at least nothing material, on the half-time entertainment. There are things that can be done that cost little to nothing.

Nearly the entire point of the halftime entertainment, high five tunnel, tip off kid, national anthem singers, etc. Is to get people to buy group tickets to see their kids and friends performing. That's why we see these gigantic adult dance groups during the games against Concord in December. They don't really need to sell a lot of group tickets for the kent game. If we were to spend money on a halftime entertainer that would be taking money away from something else, like maybe fixing the seats. Was that frat boy basketball stupid, yes, but I don't blame them for having it at the kent game

Everything about his attitude and comments indicated that the non-conference schedule didn't matter. It stymied any opportunity of building community excitement towards larger crowds and program momentum that could progressively build towards larger OOC wins and maybe at-large bids in future years. How would St. Mary's or Gonzaga fare if their coaches were perpetually saying that the OOC didn't matter? Or conversely, how would their programs nosedive if they started saying this going into next season? With a losing mentality you get losing. That's what KD's team had in the OOC and the non-MAC post-season. I give KD credit for elevating the program to sustained success in the MAC, but it was his time to move on.