kreed5120

I think some would be surprised by what some of these players are making in NIL. Someone posted an anonymous MAC basketball coaches survey. MAC coaches were saying departing players were making anywhere between $25k to $200k+. Granted that was basketball and this is football so not a perfect apples to apples comparison.

Looking at volume stats and not adjusting them for pace I think is flawed. I don't know how it would translate, but I do agree with you philosophy that long rebounds do create opportunities for second chance points. Namely, open 3s when the defense is scrambling to get reset.

Yes, no way the MAC would allow them to remove their football program, but leave their other sports. Especially since their basketball team is consistently in the bottom 1/3 of the MAC

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. The Big 10 and SEC collectively will far supercede the Big 12 and ACC. That said there are still ~25 teams between the 2 conferences. I don't think it's unreasonable that 1 of those 25 teams to emerge as a top 7 or 8 team most years. FSU was supposed to be that team before they fell flat on their faces. As for schools like Wisconsin they come and go. Only the blue bloods are consistently great. Even then they can have down periods, like Michigan did for a number of years. Wisconsin took a step back and Washington who was irrelevant for a number of years made the national championship. Washington took a step back this year and then Indiana emerged. There will always be programs that come out of nowhere and have a period of excellence before returning to their median.

Yes, I think this year was also an anomaly. Both the Big 12 and ACC were weak. I'd expect most years at least 1 of the 2 conferences would produce a real contender.

The committee got a lot of criticism with the initial selection, but the team selection ended up being fairly decent. The SEC proved to over rated and 3 teams for them was more then plenty. Indiana's only 2 losses on the season are to the two best teams in the country. They clearly belonged. I'm still not a big fan of how the playoffs were seeded, but a lot of that had to do with the requirements of the conference champion being given the #3 and #4 seeds.

They would have 0 interest.

There are plenty of competitive teams. The problem is there are 2-3 Super Teams every year. It was like the Golden State - Cavs era of the NBA. The whole season was meaningless because you knew those two stacked teams were going to meet in the finals every year. There were other good teams in the NBA during this time. Those teams just didn't have 3-4 hall of famers who were all still in the prime of their careers. If I wasn't a Cavs fan, I wouldn't have even bothered watching the NBA during that time.

It took until the semifinals, but we finally got a good game that was decided in the final few minutes in the CFP...

I would agree in football as the distance between the haves and have not has grown considerably. You still see mid-majors make noise every March. Heck, the P4 wouldn't even include the Big East, which is consistently a top 2-3 conference.

I saw several of these posts. Initially NIU fans were saying their ratings were 30% better than other MAC teams. That didn't take into account NIU had more games on stations like ESPN2 compared to less viewed networks like ESPNU and CBSSports. When adjusted to compare how NIU did on a particular network vs other MAC schools, there was only a 4-5% difference. I don't really see that swaying the needle much.

I don't think it materially impacts it to be honest. Any additional revenue that was potentially lost would virtually be offset by the fact we would now have one less mouth to feed. Not just from the TV revenue, but league revenue as a whole. NCAA tournament credit, league sponsorships, CFP payout pool, etc.

You asked where the articles are about the impact this has on the alumni, players, fans. I'm simply stating all are okay with these changes so why would those articles exist? I'm actually happy they're gone. I'm a bigger MAC basketball fan than MAC football. This is addition by subtraction.

What NIU fans have you seen that are saddened or upset for leaving the MAC? I haven't seen that sentiment anywhere whether that be their forum, reddit, X, journalism. They seem to all be happy with the move. I don't really care to get into the discussion of whether or not it's the best move for them because frankly I don't care. I'm simply stating there aren't these saddened NIU fans, alumni, players that you claim there to be. This isn't a situation where Texas and Oklahoma left the Big 12 or USC and Oregon left the PAC-12. NIU fans are on board with this change. Edit: The only people that I've seen upset about it are fans of other MAC fan bases. People like you.

Maybe in 5 or 10 years that piece you're hoping for will be written. Right now everyone seems on board with the move. To me NIU kind of always was like that relative that never quite fit in with the family. I'm not bothered by their loss like I would be a Toledo, Ohio, Miami etc.

When I looked at NET rankings a week or so ago NIU was #360. I'm not sure where they're at now, nor care.

Hey, vinyls are making a comeback

Fans and alumni I've seen various places on the internet seem thrilled. This isn't a situation like UMass where the basketball fans are pissed because they got demoted that way football could be given a lifeline. Football is the only sport that matters to NIU. They will likely take their other sports to the Horizon, which will be even less travel for them compared to what they were doing in the MAC before. All of this is probably why NIU jumped at the invitation while Toledo has appeared to ignore it. Toledo cares about sports like basketball. Also, Toledo is centrally located in the MAC and has natural rivalries they don't want to lose. Edit: As someone who is more invested in MAC hoops, I'm thrilled by this move. Addition by subtraction.

I'm actually surprised it's that soon. I would have assumed they would have refinanced and extended to reduce the annual payments.

The portal is one of those things where you can like it or hate it, but if you try to fight it and not adapt you're going to get left behind.

I think it's way too early to crown a MAC regular season champion. All the teams are very flawed and will have head scratching losses. I wouldn't be surprised if 11-7 wins the MAC this year.

The issue is whatever the MAC does people will complain. They did away with the double bye because they felt it was too overpowered and made the tournament predictable and unexciting. I don't remember the exact stats and don't feel to look it up, but they weren't wrong. Now that the NIT bid was taken away, I feel they need to revisit this again. At least offer a single bye. The MAC regular season champion not having a postseason is criminal. Perhaps the MAC can pay for them to compete in one of the pay to play tournaments. The MAC's bigger problem is many schools just have given up caring about basketball all together and spend every spare dime on football or in several circumstances hockey.

Even Saturday home games in September and October are poorly attended. In general live attendance at sporting events is down compared to decades past. More people prefer to watch from the comfort of their own home. I don't see that trend reversing. If your goal is to take the next step, programs like Toledo or Ohio aren't who you should try to compare yourself to. I'm not exactly sure what renovations you have in mind for the JAR or the cost associated with them. Either way a renovated JAR won't be a premier arena in the MAC and definitely won't be at the elite mid-major level. You can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day it's still going to be a pig. Maybe revisit the arena decision once Infocision is fully paid off. Perhaps by then the University debt load would be more manageable.

The team that earns the extra credits does get extra. I read it too long ago to remember all the details. I think extra credits earned are split into 3 shares. 1 share is equally divided between all teams. 1 share is given directly to the team that earned that share. 1 share is given to the league office to help cover league expenses and pay incentives.

The MAC does have financial incentives for winning the regular season title. I don't remember the exact dollar figure, but obviously it isn't enough to move the needle. Before covid the MAC set up a plan to reward schools that perform well in basketball. The payout is funded by additional credits the MAC earns by winning games in the tournament. The more credits that are accumulated, the bigger the payouts become. The problem is the MAC isn't sending multiple teams to the tournament or advancing enough for that pot of money to grow sizable.