For some reason a lot of Zips have a very "high school" mentality when it comes to college athletics. The small stadiums/areas of the MAC, schools located VERY close to one another, and a regional conference that really is only centered in two states. Do we really need 6 schools in Ohio? I would definitely support some sort of BE-MAC merger. Maybe North and South divisions?
Akron, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Temple, Ohio, NIU, UMass, Toledo, USF, UCF, Houston, Memphis, SMU, Tulane, and ECU would make a very solid conference and cover a lot of the eastern US.