exit322

Give or take, yep. This year was likely the MAC's ceiling going forward without significant reining in of the portal and NIL, which...good luck with that. And that ceiling was their star teams getting beat by 20 and 22 in the round of 64.

Yes, though Wyoming doesn't have another D1 school that's more popular with that population area than they are.

Obviously a little different given Wyoming is the state's only four-year public school (there's also a Catholic College with <200 students in the state).

Since he's not getting another decent job anyways, I'm not sure how much he cares about the harm

***25 - Indoor field's only 50 yards Kidding aside the TAL has had reasonably OK indoor football attendance in their two years. Some teams better than others, but good attendance for what is a reasonably low-budget operation (even by indoor football standards). Given a name like Terry Bowden (even if he doesn't take it seriously), I'd expect Monroe to be in that "better than others" category.

Ah thank you. Something tells me he's not gonna be watching the TAL games on Youtube this summer...but you never know.

Very true. I am comfortable the Guardians' FO is strong enough to weather those storms, but the whole structure will change with a cap coming.

I'm missing the reference here, sorry

Just think what would be if the Dolans actually tried to win. They might actually be contenders if/when baseball goes to a salary cap (that has a strict floor tied to it)

In the world of indoor football, the TAL has been pretty stable, and it's a 9-week 8-game (regular season) commitment with probably a 2-3 week training camp beforehand. It's not a huge time commitment as coaching goes, and frankly he probably can get a few guys who stayed around ULM after he coached there (in addition to whatever else they conjure up). As the season goes from May 30 - July 25 (with two weeks for playoffs IIRC), it wouldn't interfere with whatever HS stuff Terry's doing. I believe it's an 18-man roster with 7v7 and no kicking. As coaching jobs go, it's probably not going to be real stressful for him.

Apparently Terry got bored. This summer he'll be coaching Monroe (LA) in The Arena League, a 7-on-7 indoor football league. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18ovTiBYFU/

Hey, that's one of the moments of all time

So it was a rejection letter.

You're crazy!

Minor league baseball has done this successfully for years and years.

Oh no. No. Definitely no.

College basketball for the most part has this sorted well. Football...just does not.

Yeah you get this victory lap

Unless Bud's contribution magically quintuples from its already significant amount, Groce hit the program's ceiling in today's NIL world.

Likely there's less generational consistency in a lot of these areas, causing at least the high school issue. How many of us live in the same high school district we graduated from? I know I don't!

If "MACtion" were tied to things like the standing-room-only crowd in Bowling Green for the Battle of I-75...yeah, "MACtion" would be a great branding. But, like you noted, it's tied to the usually tiny crowds (again, Akron's biggest butts-in-seats was that Tuesday Kent game, so good on them) on freezing weeknights.

With the way bowls are crumbling, perhaps with a 6-6 record Akron can find a neutral site game in Florida this year.

I mean, if it's something that would make living in Ohio worse, you gotta figure they'll consider it.

That the "premier" MAC schools are basically coming out and saying "this sucks" may be the catalyst to get rid of the weekday games. What I wonder is...is there a different TV network (or streaming partner, whatever) that's interested in getting into the game that can make the MAC a centerpiece of their (admittedly smaller) network. In a world where the NAL and IFL are getting streaming partners and games aired anywhere (not exactly for the MAC's dollars, but still)...

I think you can alleviate some of those other (valid) points if this one is accomplished. It's not a short term fix, unfortunately