The MAC Stinks

[Blue & Gold]

Winning curers a lot of ills, and that is where we need to start. Every year in football we start out O-for, sacrificing for the sake of a "pay day." Our revenues should be up with Info, so let's drop these early season pay days and schedule someone who will do a home-and-home (Cincy) where we will be competetive. When was the last time we were 1-0 to start the season? Have more than 4 or 5 home games. get the students excited, get the community hooked (with the new stadium) and this will begin the building.

Amen.

[skip-zip]

uakronkid...as an older Zips fan, you know I love your enthusiasm. And actually, I agree with what you are saying in your last post. Yes, we need to win. And yes, winning brings better recruits, etc. etc. etc. I completely buy into that formula, and often profess it myself. But the frustration we deal with as a MAC member, which started this thread, isn't going to change by winning a few more game. The MAC must get stronger. Please read my last post again, and give this some thought as well.....The MAC was an OK league in 06-07, we had a great team, and won 26 games.....and didn't have a prayer of getting an invite to the NCAA tournament. We went over 20 wins in 05-06 and 07-08 as well, and again didn't stand a chance of an NCAA invite. And, these were all years where the MAC was BETTER than it is now. So, maybe some people would be inclined to think that since we have a great group of young players right now, and a few more yet to come, that maybe we can win 28 games instead of 26 games...and maybe...just maybe....the national press and the NCAA tournament selectors will notice us. And I simply don't think that is enough to bring about the changes that we want to see. I think what we REALLY want to happen is for us to get respect on a national level for having a good season...just like anyone else. And be viewed as a team that at least has a chance to compete for a national title, and deserves the opportunity. And playing the kind of competition we played this year won't get that done. We aren't leaving the MAC anytime soon...so the MAC has to get better. If not, we'll either be praying for near-undefeated seasons, or resting our entire fortunes on a couple of games in Cleveland in March in the hopes that we can get a #15 seed in the dance. I don't think that's the way we want it to be. And I just don't want to see it continue that way.

[johnnyzip84]

Winning curers a lot of ills, and that is where we need to start. Every year in football we start out O-for, sacrificing for the sake of a "pay day." Our revenues should be up with Info, so let's drop these early season pay days and schedule someone who will do a home-and-home (Cincy) where we will be competetive. When was the last time we were 1-0 to start the season? Have more than 4 or 5 home games. get the students excited, get the community hooked (with the new stadium) and this will begin the building.Also, make recruiting a few Akron kids a priority. 1 or 2 kids on the roster from Akron won't cut it. With home town kids playing, home town support follows. And don't tell me Akron area high schools don't turn out college ability athletes.

I figure the question is probably rhetorical, but it did cause me to wonder. UA has been 1-0 only 6 times in the 1-A (FBS) era.Year Opponent Result1986 Salem 35-01990 Illinois St 17-71992 @EMU 27-91993 @CMU 23-13 you go Gerry!2001 Ohio 31-292007 Army (Cleve) 22-14As far as Akron area quality recruits are concerned, there are some of course but just not as many (on average) as there used to be. It's simple demographics......an aging and shrinking population.

[ZachTheZip]

Skip, in basketball winning has a different meaning than in football. For football, as a MAC member, the ultimate goal is to get to a bowl game. Just finish above .500, no matter how good or bad the competition was, and you get it. In basketball, winning means actually winning the MAC tournament and going dancing. Nobody cares if you're 30-2 and going to the NIT. The MAC is a 1-bid league, and that won't change any time soon. It would be great to see the MAC get stronger, but what can we do about it? The only thing I can think of would be getting Temple to join the league for basketball and then tossing out EMU. We have to focus on ourselves and pray that the new commissioner has the guts to do something about the rest of the league (the West, specifically).

[skip-zip]

Uakronkid...again, go back to my original post. The starting point is to start collectively raising the SOS of every team in the league. The MVC made this work for them in a major way, and now send multiple teams to the NCAA tournament every year.I'd sure be curious to see what respect we would get with a 30-2 record. But, as I alluded to in my last post, do we really want it to be that way? To have to win that many games just to earn a little respect? I sure don't. Bringing in Temple would certainly help. If that is a possibility, I hope that it is pursued.

[ZachTheZip]

Uakronkid...again, go back to my original post. The starting point is to start collectively raising the SOS of every team in the league. The MVC made this work for them in a major way, and now send multiple teams to the NCAA tournament every year.I'd sure be curious to see what respect we would get with a 30-2 record. But, as I alluded to in my last post, do we really want it to be that way? To have to win that many games just to earn a little respect? I sure don't. Bringing in Temple would certainly help. If that is a possibility, I hope that it is pursued.

The problem is that an increase in SOS won't help the teams that are causing the problems for the rest of us. Could you imagine the massacre that would happen if you forced the West teams to play an even tougher schedule? When the East plays the West, the West's overall record counts for twice as much as their SOS in our RPI standings. It would be more beneficial for the top teams to play West teams around .500 with a terrible SOS than it would be to play a winless team with the top schedule in the country. I think a better solution than to enforce a minimum SOS (which can be difficult since you can't predict how good teams will be when the contract is made) would be to enforce a minimum number of home games. 6 out of 14 is reasonable, and it prevents teams from going on the road and getting killed which hurts the rest of the league. Another requirement would be to participate in a pre-season tournament, which gives them the opportunity to play top teams if they are good enough, or grab wins against bad teams.What that does is improve the SOS of the top teams (by virtue of playing better conference opponents), while improving the records of the bottom teams. I'll use Miami as the perfect example. They played one of the 5 toughest non-conference schedules in the country, and despite not beating any team better than Temple, they sat on top of the conference's RPI because of it. Then they got into MAC play, and when they were playing the East it dropped a little, but stayed a top 30 schedule. Then they played the West, with their abysmal records, and their SOS dropped to worse than 100. What's the point of loading up on top teams (and losing to all of them), if as soon as you play the West it gets erased? If the West had a better record, teams like Miami in the East would benefit the most in terms of SOS. Then the West teams get an even higher SOS boost from playing the East teams with the now-improved RPIs. It's a cycle.

[xu9697]

I will probably back up some of what has been said and perhaps add a little more. I am thinking of the conference as a whole and not being "Akron-specific". Though, I will have an "Ohio-lean" b/c that is what I know (state of Ohio, not OU).Keep in mind that, obviously, the largest focus should be on football & basketball.With Football..1. MAC has to work with ESPN to limit the amount of weeknight games PER TEAM. No team should have more than 1 home weeknight game. If attendance ever has a chance from the "casual fan", 10 out of 12 games for each of the 13 teams must be played on Saturday. 2. Improve facilities..Akron, Can't and Miami have done this. I believe others have as well. It never hurts to have good facilities.3. I agree with others..spend more time scheduling CUSA, WAC, etc. than signing 2 for 0 contracts with bigger name schools. 2 for 1s with IU, Syracuse, etc. are nice. And an OCCASSIONAL tilt with PSU or OSU is fine as well.4. MARKETING!!! No doubt, the MAC gets stuck between the big name schools and the Division III schools (speaking more of Ohio b/c that is what I know). MAC needs to advertise that these are family friendly environments with family friendly prices BUT also with big-time athletes (unike Div. III). Market the locations, the one-tank trips, the players that have made it to the NFL, the pricing/convenience. Speaking of Ohio..with 6 teams in the MAC and still the 11th largest population (I believe) no reason that attendance cannot get better at all schools in Ohio at the very least.With Basketball...1. Facilities. Can't and Akron both need improvements. OU is nice, Miami is OK, have not been to Toledo and BG has a new one coming.2. Scheduling. Not sure if I have specifics, except keep improving relationship with A-10 (lower 1/2), CAA & Horizon to build an OVERALL better schedule. I know the one game against a team like Pitt or something would be awesome, but perhaps it is better to fill a schedule with Duquesne, Rhode Island, Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy & VCU.3. Marketing!!! Family friendly, good prices, etc. Once again..market league as a whole and advertise NBA players from MAC.I think the MAC has done an excellent job in really pumping up the MAC tourney in Cleveland. They need to continue to find ways to market football and basketball while mixing in some of the other sports (like Akron soccer for example).Thinking outside the box:Maybe look at a new conference name. Is the MAC name really a great brand name?Adding Navy & Army...tough to figure out how that would make their annual game work vs. the MAC championship, but they could bring something to the conference.As an aside in regards to the Big East reconfiguring: I still see it happening some day, and I still think at least 1 MAC team will join. Temple, Miami and Akron for different reasons would be the strongest considerations.

[Dave in Green]

An interesting data point to consider can be found in the current CBS Sports projecting the field for the NCAA men's basketball tournament (link below). At the end of the article they give a detailed breakdown of each conference whose champion earns a bid, including projected champion, at-large and on the fence entries.As expected, the MAC has "none" next to both at-large and on the fence.But here's the kicker: Of the 31 conferences listed, 20 are just like the MAC -- no at-large and no on the fence entries. So 21 of the 31 conferences can effectively be considered 1-bid conferences. This includes some conferences considered stronger than the MAC -- Missouri Valley, Horizon, etc. The much stronger Conference USA has none at-large and only one on the fence.Considering all of this, the challenge to raise the MAC to more than a 1-bid conference in basketball is huge. MAC football is much better off with multiple bowl teams every year already in place.http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/11233762

[lance99]

Uakronkid...again, go back to my original post. The starting point is to start collectively raising the SOS of every team in the league. The MVC made this work for them in a major way, and now send multiple teams to the NCAA tournament every year.I'd sure be curious to see what respect we would get with a 30-2 record. But, as I alluded to in my last post, do we really want it to be that way? To have to win that many games just to earn a little respect? I sure don't. Bringing in Temple would certainly help. If that is a possibility, I hope that it is pursued.

Be careful of what you wish for. The College of Charleston basketball team had a 30+ win record a few years back and was a 8 seed if I remember correctly. Can it work, yes The MVC proved that. As far as football, winning helps alot, recurting players locally is not the answer(ask Gerry Foust how that went) going national is the answer and do one hell of a sales job. Nebraska has their radio network and that might be the way to go. For the record, I currently live in a pac-10 city(Phoenix) and they don't draw unless its a Los Angeles school of U of A and their in a major conference. Sometimes it could be just the location, fan support, conference. Everything that is being talked about here now. Going to a larger conference might be the answer, however you have to take Can't State with you for a rival game and they will never leave.

[skip-zip]

Lance..thanks for pulling out an example of a 30 win team. I would think that would be enough to get into the NCAA no matter who you play. I think uakronkid was the one who mentioned that being only NIT worthy. But my point was, do we really want to find ourselves in a situation where we have to have that kind of record to get noticed? Considering the nature of college basketball, it's just very tough to do. The answer is to increase the difficulty of your scheduling, and encourage the other schools in your league to do the same. This league has to make an effort to get better.

[Dave in Green]

The wins vs. strength of schedule thing is a sliding scale. The weaker your schedule, the more wins you need to impress tournament selectors, and the stronger your schedule, the fewer wins required. Theoretically, it should require roughly the same overall level of performance from a team to achieve the record required to impress the selectors regardless of schedule strength.

[lance99]

Lance..thanks for pulling out an example of a 30 win team. I would think that would be enough to get into the NCAA no matter who you play. I think uakronkid was the one who mentioned that being only NIT worthy. But my point was, do we really want to find ourselves in a situation where we have to have that kind of record to get noticed? Considering the nature of college basketball, it's just very tough to do. The answer is to increase the difficulty of your scheduling, and encourage the other schools in your league to do the same. This league has to make an effort to get better.

Yes they do have to do that, at least in Basketball. However it seems like the Mac West has no desire to do that. The solutition: Kick them out and/ or merge with another conference to force the NCAA's hand because of the "Super Conference" look. Also I was thinking about it more and more form an marketing standpoint, for the national exposre, you need more and more games on T.V. and radio(not just the Thursday Night game on ESPN2 for Football) AND HAVE SOME TYPE OF SOLGAN TO GO WITH IT!!!)As far as Football, adding Temple was a mistake! There was a reason the Big East got rid of them(dragging everyones SOS down). Do the same as listed avobe with the west. Bring back the Acme-Zip game if you have to, or some other-style promotition conference wide. Play home and homes with top- tier schools every year(have to start forcing hands instead of having our hands out).