I like the second option better. It would be sort of a North/South split somewhat. Also, I am mainly looking forward to the possible addition primarily for basketball and because it will give us new matchups. I'm honestly sick of watching us play some of the current members over and over. Hopefully this will make some of those games less frequent.
The Option I like best is moving Toledo to the East then adding MTSU and WKU to the West. This gets all 6 Ohio schools in 1 division (plus Buffalo).
Edit: Looking at the map WKU and MTSU would be the 2nd and 3rd most western teams in the conference so it would only make sense for them to be in the western division. Buffalo would be forced to fly to both MTSU and WKU for division games. The directional Michigan schools are much closer.
WKU has made it to bowl games 6 out of the last 7 years, including an 11 and 12 win season. Most likely making a bowl again this season too making it 7 out of 8. During that same span they're a combined 7-0 against MAC schools including 2 bowl wins. They're an average FBS team, but they're a top 3-4 MAC football program and top 3-4 MAC basketball program. I would have liked having Marshall over Middle Tennessee. MTSU doesn't really add anything since their basketball program went to garbage once Kermit was poached.
Of course they are. Similar to how someone on the Titanic would have felt if they hit the iceberg 2 miles from a port.
Someone explain to me how it is advantageous for us to rescue two programs nobody else wants. If their exposure to TV markets, potential revenue and all of the other happy horse poop we will ultimately hear from conference leadership is so great, how come there aren't conferences lined up to bring them on board? Why is the opposite happening with them being abandoned?