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Posted
6 minutes ago, exit322 said:

The JMU side of the JMU/Miami/UConn "American" move is true...so is Miami actually going to try this?

 

https://x.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/2109645818395324794

 

JMU is actually a nationally relevant G6 program. Meanwhile, Miami has had a 10 win season only 2x within the last 20 years. I feel the AAC has better options available. Now the possibility of backfilling the SBC becomes a possibility.

Posted
8 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

JMU is actually a nationally relevant G6 program. Meanwhile, Miami has had a 10 win season only 2x within the last 20 years. I feel the AAC has better options available. Now the possibility of backfilling the SBC becomes a possibility.

 

The Sun Belt absolutely becomes a possibility, and I think Miami/Ohio might go there as a combo.  The MAC is in deep deep trouble, and no number of empty stadium night games is going to fix that.

  • Like 2
Posted
48 minutes ago, exit322 said:

 

The Sun Belt absolutely becomes a possibility, and I think Miami/Ohio might go there as a combo.  The MAC is in deep deep trouble, and no number of empty stadium night games is going to fix that.

Statement of the year. Finding a few more schools to fill their spots would be underwhelming and uninteresting. Not that either Miami or Ohio are the class of the MAC, but they are two of the better athletic performers and are also at the top of the academic pile. Filling their spots with inferior schools is not viable for a conference that is already marginalized. Instead, I think this would means the MAC is forced to FCS, which could actually be a good thing for the schools that remain.

Posted
46 minutes ago, exit322 said:

 

The Sun Belt absolutely becomes a possibility, and I think Miami/Ohio might go there as a combo.  The MAC is in deep deep trouble, and no number of empty stadium night games is going to fix that.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see the SB lose another school and to then go pluck 2 MAC school. I just don't see how that suddenly makes the MAC in trouble.

 

The AAC would be done with their round of expansion and the SB would be done backfilling. The MAC would still be left with 10 full-time members and the conference would still be battling C-USA for the honor of being the 9th best FBS conference. That's really no different than how things are now. We would just have 2 fewer teams, which has some advantages. It's less mouths to feed when splitting league revenue; corporate sponsorships, NCAA tournament credits, TV revenue, etc.

  • Like 3
Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, UAZipster0305 said:

Statement of the year. Finding a few more schools to fill their spots would be underwhelming and uninteresting. Not that either Miami or Ohio are the class of the MAC, but they are two of the better athletic performers and are also at the top of the academic pile. Filling their spots with inferior schools is not viable for a conference that is already marginalized. Instead, I think this would means the MAC is forced to FCS, which could actually be a good thing for the schools that remain.

 

I wouldn't see that at all. Going to and remaining at 10 teams is a viable option. It actually works nice once we implement the 9 game conference schedule as we would play all teams once Sac State leaves.

 

Conferences don't need to be 12, 14, or 16 members. No need to add subpar teams. The MAC in the grand scheme of things won't be much different than it is now. It's currently the 9th or 10th best FBS conference prior to this hypothetical. That's what it will be after as well.

Edited by kreed5120
Posted
7 hours ago, UAZipster0305 said:

Statement of the year. Finding a few more schools to fill their spots would be underwhelming and uninteresting. Not that either Miami or Ohio are the class of the MAC, but they are two of the better athletic performers and are also at the top of the academic pile. Filling their spots with inferior schools is not viable for a conference that is already marginalized. Instead, I think this would means the MAC is forced to FCS, which could actually be a good thing for the schools that remain.

Good post. If crap is shoveled into a conference, it becomes a crappy conference. 

Posted
7 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I wouldn't see that at all. Going to and remaining at 10 teams is a viable option. It actually works nice once we implement the 9 game conference schedule as we would play all teams once Sac State leaves.

 

Conferences don't need to be 12, 14, or 16 members. No need to add subpar teams. The MAC in the grand scheme of things won't be much different than it is now. It's currently the 9th or 10th best FBS conference prior to this hypothetical. That's what it will be after as well.

Good post. I've been saying it for years. Expansion for the sake of expansion is dumb. Conferences are way too big. I'd love Akron to play the same 9 teams every year, develop deeper rivalries and mix in 3 OOC games. 

Posted
1 minute ago, GP1 said:

Good post. I've been saying it for years. Expansion for the sake of expansion is dumb. Conferences are way too big. I'd love Akron to play the same 9 teams every year, develop deeper rivalries and mix in 3 OOC games. 

 

This, 100%.  Play the same 9 teams every single year.  I can get behind a 12-team league that has two divisions so you at least get the same 5 teams every year and a relatively consistent smattering of the other six teams.

 

And on days when fans can show up.

Posted
45 minutes ago, exit322 said:

And on days when fans can show up.

Amen. Akron only had one win and drew a nice crowd Saturday. They played during the day on a Saturday and people showed up for what an entertaining game.

 

People will remember a fun day with family and friends much longer than whether or not the Zips won. All of those people chose fun.  Keep providing a fun day. 

Posted
7 minutes ago, UAZipster0305 said:

What is the minimum number of teams in a conference for its champion to be guaranteed an NCAAT birth in basketball?

I assume 8. The Ivy League gets a team every season. 

Posted
4 minutes ago, GP1 said:

Amen. Akron only had one win and drew a nice crowd Saturday. They played during the day on a Saturday and people showed up for what an entertaining game.

 

People will remember a fun day with family and friends much longer than whether or not the Zips won. All of those people chose fun.  Keep providing a fun day. 

 

Yep.  And because of the empty stadium games, they only maybe have a chance of doing it again this year on Black Friday

Posted (edited)

It’s absurd to me the amount of money these schools are willing to pay to join another G6 conference. I saw JMU is paying the AAC $20mm to join, plus whatever the Sun Belt exit fee is. Think I read Miami offered a similar or higher amount. Probably going to have to have more in travel costs as well. 
 

Wonder what breakeven period is for the “investment”. What happens if you can’t compete and the fanbase dies or enrollment drops?

Edited by LZIp
Posted (edited)
25 minutes ago, LZIp said:

It’s absurd to me the amount of money these schools are willing to pay to join another G6 conference. I saw JMU is paying the AAC $20mm to join, plus whatever the Sun Belt exit fee is. Think I read Miami offered a similar or higher amount. Probably going to have to have more in travel costs as well. 
 

Wonder what breakeven period is for the “investment”. What happens if you can’t compete and the fanbase dies or enrollment drops?

 

It makes sense in this case. The AAC TV deal pays about $7 million a year while the SunBelt is around 1.5M-2.0M. That means the move to the AAC gives them an additional $5 million in revenue per year. Probably more once you factor in sponsorship revenue and NCAA tournament credits. JMU will probably recoup their money within 4-5 years.

 

The bigger issue many G5 programs face when making these moves is they need to drastically increase their athletic budgets. That won't be the case with JMU as their $79 million current athletic budget would place them in the top 3 of the AAC in spending. For comparison Buffalo has the highest atletic budget in the MAC and they spend $50 million, so about $30 million less. They were already operating as a high end spending AAC, but playing in the SunBelt.

 

Edit: I do think your point is valid for most scenarios. This is just one of those times where the move made sense since they were already functioning as an AAC team. Not like they will have to increase expenses $20M-$30M in order to chase an extra $5M-$10M in revenue. That's what many of these realignment hopefuls, like Miami, would have to do.

Edited by kreed5120
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