Let'sGoZips94

Suits are very, VERY good at screwing things up once they climb the ladder high enough. Messing with the current MAC Tournament format would be asinine, especially if it's in response to Akron's dominance/Miami OH's choke job. The Sun Belt has the craziest format in the nation that gives each set of higher seeds an additional bye. The tournament started on Tuesday, March 3rd. The top 2 seeds - Troy (1) and Marshall (2) - didn't play until Sunday, March 8th. The semifinals were 1 seed Troy vs. 8 seed Southern Miss and 2 seed Marshall vs. 10 seed Georgia Southern; this, after the quarterfinals matchups saw 2 blowouts by the lower seeds. Georgia Southern had played 4 games prior to their semifinal matchup and knocked off Marshall to reach the tournament final. Putting top teams on ice for longer periods of time is riskier than 3 games in 3 days. If the double-bye is that intriguing for ADs, why don't they propose a 2-round conference tournament starting Friday night? Why have 8 teams make it to Cleveland instead of 4? Don't. Touch. The. Format.

Players should get to choose what their bios say post college career. Nate's saying Kansas State is BS. He was made at Akron.

Or it's scheduled later in the season with NET-based matchups. Determine a win percentage threshold over X number of years. Randomly draw 8-16 teams from the list. Match those teams up in February based on NET. Call it the "Bracket Booster" instead of Bracket Buster. Voila.

Create an event based on the winningest programs in the last X amount of years. Call it the Mid Major Blue Bloods or something like that. Year to year doesn't matter when it's programs people care about. The issue with the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge is outside of James Madison, Marshall, and MAYBE a couple other programs, fans don't care about the Sun Belt. Same with Sun Belt fans about most MAC programs. I don't know what the exact solution is, but giving the P4s the middle finger is the best path the mid majors can take.

This upcoming season is the last year of the agreement. Will be curious to see if there's an extension announcement over the summer. If not, it's likely over after this season. Quite frankly, I wouldn't hate to see it end. I don't know how much it benefits either conference as the top matchups have typically been lopsided NET wise. It would be better if they expanded it to include other mid major conferences to put more big fish in the pond. The goal should be for the top matchups to be Q1/high-end Q2 opportunities and that isn't happening enough.

Wasn't there a rumor that the challenge has a questionable future?

Not saying they won't be good, but they did not maintain the mismatch advantages that allowed them to be so successful last season. Keep in mind, this is a team that I believe led the country in single possession victories. They did not dominate their competition like Akron did (for the most part), and they achieved those victories over one of the weakest schedules in the country.

A lot less flexibility in this roster.

So he went from being committed to Ohio State to not playing at Rutgers to Kent. There is either a character issue, talent issue, or both.

Not sure if you're auditioning for the next Netflix Roast with these jokes but your post certainly isn't based in reality. Dorian and Miller are intriguing but as Kreed said, neither one has played a minute of DI basketball. In fact, Dorian was with 14th place Rutgers all last season and they seemingly let him walk. I also don't understand Miller's top 100 class ranking because his best offers were PCCC, Miami OH, and Furman. Meanwhile, Akron brought in a guard that averaged 17ppg/4agp/37% 3P and dropped 27 vs. Colorado State, 17 vs. Indiana, 19 vs. High Point, 9 vs. TCU, and 19 vs. McNeese. Sorry he didn't make All Conference in the Southland; I think we've seen enough from the MAC's annual awards to know that these selections are largely a joke and meaningless. By the way, the Southland was ranked 18th in Net, 1 spot behind the MAC. Staveskie will not be in over his head at the MAC level, that's for sure. Did PCCC get better? Maybe, maybe not; that remains to be seen. However, it's a fact that they got smaller and Akron got bigger. Incredibly odd to tout PCCC's two incoming guards with zero DI experience and rip Akron's incoming PG who averaged 17ppg in a very similar conference to the MAC. Go Zips.

It's interesting to see the directions Akron and PCCC have gone respectively. I don't believe PCCC brought in any wing guys - they're all guards and (shorter) post players. That's how Akron was built in the early-mid Dambrot days and Kent used to be built like Akron is now. Roster composition and physicality is completely reversed. We'll see if Akron has the shooters, but I predict PCCC will struggle with Akron's size/athleticism/rotation flexibility/physicality. I think a lot of teams will.

Energy, attitude, effort, and versatility. He's going to be a great addition.

The High Points and Miami OHs of the world better not drop the ball vs. a tougher schedule. Would be flat out embarrassing and detrimental for mid-majors everywhere if they stink up the joint after they made all this noise about P4 schools being "too scared" to play them.

Ford has seen Max for the last few years. The fact that he was one of the first additions to the team says a lot about what they think of him IMO.

If Pence is anywhere near as matchup proof as Spida, what a pickup for Dustin & his staff.