lance99 Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 It warms my heart to see there are conferences out there actively trying to become worse than the MAC. Sometimes it pays off to not do anything and watch the competition destroy itself. +1000000 Besides, I think it was you that said "Conferences grasping for straws" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 +1000000 Besides, I think it was you that said "Conferences grasping for straws" At this point, I could have used the word straw...or goats...or leaves...or Sweedish fish...or etc. They will take anything they get their hands on. Hell, the Big Ten brought in Rutgers and Maryland. If that isn't grasping for goats, I don't know what it. The disappointment of the MAC is they lost Temple and brought in UMASS. Losing Temple was a good opportunity to downsize the league in a way that would make it better and not worse. Think of it as a 10% drop in the stock market. The 10% drop is a natural correction and, if played properly, opens up the door for making a portfolio better and not bloated with bad stocks. It makes me wonder about the questions the leagues ask when they make decisions. One could ask about umass, "Does this make sense?" One could also ask, "How does this make sense?" I'm not certain ADs, league commissioners or university presidents ask "How?" because they want to give a one word answer....yes, let's add the team....boom, new resume line added. "How" makes a person think and respond with more than yes or no. If they ever asked "how", their answers would be such a bunch of hogwash that nobody would expand their league and have anything to put on their resume for their next job. TV ratings?...Hogwash. Exposure?....Hogwash, nobody wants to watch crap. Money?....Hogwash, most schools are bleeding money and states don't have the tax base to support nonsense. Improve the university experience?...Hogwash, kids would be better off drinking beer and trying to get laid than watching a crappy product. It's all a bunch of hogwash that I can't believe ADs around the country have snookered very intelligent university presidents into believing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Interesting Try again, thats a dead link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Try again, thats a dead link. Not sure how to fix it. However, it is www.slate.com. The author is Josh Levin and the title of the article is "The Big East is a Failed Experiment." Readers should be able to search for that and find it easy enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDZip Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Not sure how to fix it. However, it is www.slate.com. The author is Josh Levin and the title of the article is "The Big East is a Failed Experiment." Readers should be able to search for that and find it easy enough. The end of the link should be html, but for some reason keeps showing up as hml or just hl when its saved here. Make it .html and it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyzip84 Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 The end of the link should be html, but for some reason keeps showing up as hml or just hl when its saved here. Make it .html and it works. That is a pretty good read, but he stole my "University of Phoenix sponsoring sports" idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZippyRulz Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 If you're having trouble keeping track like me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division..._future_changes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 I'm seeing a lot of references on various sports news websites to MACtion, and some references in stories about last night's conference championship game living up to the MACtion "brand." Given that the MAC had two teams ranked in the BCS top 25 going into the conference championship game, and at least a few teams living up to the MACtion branding, is it possible that the MAC may be in the process of separating itself from some of the lesser conferences? Or is this just another of those cruel illusions that will quickly fade, leaving Zips fans convinced that UA needs to ditch the MAC for a greener pasture somewhere somehow? Can MACtion get traction? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Z Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 Can MACtion get traction?Better get a shirt, now that it's trademarked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 Thanks for that link, Dr Z. At the bottom of that story is a link to another MAC story that I hadn't seen, and which is pretty positive: MAC proving football prowess no longer reserved for big conferences Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 The Mac is having a good year. More than anything, the quality of play is better. History shows this season is more likely to be followed by a bad season than a good season. I would caution everyone about getting too excited about the future of the Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z.I.P. Posted December 1, 2012 Report Share Posted December 1, 2012 Only Question: Will we ever see any #AkronMACtion on the gridiron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akzipper Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 Only Question: Will we ever see any #AkronMACtion on the gridiron? Will we ever see 2 wins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDZip Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 The Mac is having a good year. More than anything, the quality of play is better. History shows this season is more likely to be followed by a bad season than a good season. I would caution everyone about getting too excited about the future of the Mac. The MAC is quite cyclical. One of the things that keeps the MAC mired in mediocrity is exactly what is being discussed in another thread - coaching tunrover. The MAC has had some fine coaches but as soon as they can show some modicum of sustained success in a place like the MAC, they get snapped up (as an aside this has never happened to any Akron coach unfortunately). Urban Meyer, Brady Hoke, Butch Jones, Brian Kelly, Dave Doeren - and probably Darrell Hazell soon. Its hard to keep sustained success when you turn your coaches over every few years. There have been a few failures, Turner Gill, Jerry Kill (maybe rhyming with ill is bad) but in general successful MAC coaches have done quite well when they move on. Its pretty rare for a BCS level coach to move to another school after experiencing success, in the MAC, its the norm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 The MAC is quite cyclical. One of the things that keeps the MAC mired in mediocrity is exactly what is being discussed in another thread - coaching tunrover. That's one of the issues as it relates to turnover. I would argue that even worse than head coach turnover is assistant coach turnover. Think about JD's first staff. There were some really quality coaches who moved on to better jobs and weren't replaced by better coaches. The same thing happened with Faust. I would argue the best assistants in the history of UofA football were early in the Faust era. Owens also had guys like Fickell early and was not able to replace them with other than high school coaches. The key to success isn't to try to stop the turnover. Few people really want to coach in the MAC and it is a stepping stone for other jobs. We will also never be able to pay what BCS level schools can offer. There is nothing wrong with facing and embracing that reality. Once the reality is faced, then school can adapt by having guiding principles from the high up leadership on how to handle the situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UAZipster0305 Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 That's one of the issues as it relates to turnover. I would argue that even worse than head coach turnover is assistant coach turnover. Think about JD's first staff. There were some really quality coaches who moved on to better jobs and weren't replaced by better coaches. The same thing happened with Faust. I would argue the best assistants in the history of UofA football were early in the Faust era. Owens also had guys like Fickell early and was not able to replace them with other than high school coaches. The key to success isn't to try to stop the turnover. Few people really want to coach in the MAC and it is a stepping stone for other jobs. We will also never be able to pay what BCS level schools can offer. There is nothing wrong with facing and embracing that reality. Once the reality is faced, then school can adapt by having guiding principles from the high up leadership on how to handle the situation. I agree that there is probably no stopping MAC coaching turnover. However, I don't know that there are any administrative "guiding principles" that can (even partially) rectify the situation either. Did you have anything specific in mind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 I agree that there is probably no stopping MAC coaching turnover. However, I don't know that there are any administrative "guiding principles" that can (even partially) rectify the situation either. Did you have anything specific in mind? President needs to Take a more wholistic approach to hiring an AD. We seem to hire people because they do one thing or another well, but we never hear about how they do the other parts of their job. TW was a marketing guy. Little did we know he wasterribleat everything else. Provenza needs to establish 4-5 aspects within the athletic department he wants to be good at. Everything else is secondary. Hire good people (not buddies), retain good staff (not replace people with buddies), keep players on the field in a way that when the do something minor the whole team isn't punished with losing, win, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UAZipster0305 Posted December 2, 2012 Report Share Posted December 2, 2012 President needs to Take a more wholistic approach to hiring an AD. We seem to hire people because they do one thing or another well, but we never hear about how they do the other parts of their job. TW was a marketing guy. Little did we know he wasterribleat everything else. Provenza needs to establish 4-5 aspects within the athletic department he wants to be good at. Everything else is secondary. Hire good people (not buddies), retain good staff (not replace people with buddies), keep players on the field in a way that when the do something minor the whole team isn't punished with losing, win, etc. I agree with this. In the past five years, nearly all athletic setbacks have been related to the specific points that you refer to. Kudos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 In actual conference realignment news, Chicago State is joining the WAC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akzipper Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Wow the WAC is really going downhill. So glad they are abandoning football. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z.I.P. Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Wow the WAC is really going downhill. So glad they are abandoning football. Their big decline began when Big Sky schools Montana and Portland State turned them down. That's was rough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyzip84 Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 The only question here is what took this so long? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 The only question here is what took this so long? Is there anyone on this board who still thinks moving to the BE is a good idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyzip84 Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 Is there anyone on this board who still thinks moving to the BE is a good idea? It sounded good at the time With the BE TV money being much less than anticipated, it wouldn't surprise me to see the whole conference collapse here before long. If it does, they should let the hoops-heavy schools keep the name for old time's sake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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