How to even up the MAC divisions

[Zipmeister]

Really Really slow here so.................Who would you like to see the MAC add to even up the Divisions?Western Kentucky is a viable candidate that has made the jump to D1 (reasonable fball, very good bball) . Either Northern Iowa or Southern Illinois might be an interesting addition if they made the jump to D1.

[ZachTheZip]

Nothing will be even unless we get another football-only school or Temple joins for all sports.

[Quickzips]

Real simple, kick out Temple (or better yet Can't).

[Captain Kangaroo]

The Zips take their shiny new stadium and move to C-USA. Problem solved. F Rick Chryst.

[Zipmeister]

Nothing will be even unless we get another football-only school or Temple joins for all sports.

Good point...I meant even up the football divisions. I think even divisions are more important in fball than than bball. Probably about the time the MAC adds another school Temple will be moving on anyway.

[Ryno aka Menace]

Western Kentucky is already going to the Sun Belt

[Zip Watcher]

The conference missed the opportunity a few years back when they could have aggressively pursued WKY & MTSU. Get them both, and you're up to 14 teams, you bring in 2 schools who already have a healthy dislike of each other, and the footprint is kept stable.I suspect that Rhoades & Proenza will solve the conference's problem before Zeke Marshall's junior year w/ the Zips. I don't know any inside info .. just a hunch.Go Zips!

[Ryno aka Menace]

The conference missed the opportunity a few years back when they could have aggressively pursued WKY & MTSU. Get them both, and you're up to 14 teams, you bring in 2 schools who already have a healthy dislike of each other, and the footprint is kept stable.I suspect that Rhoades & Proenza will solve the conference's problem before Zeke Marshall's junior year w/ the Zips. I don't know any inside info .. just a hunch.Go Zips!

??? What do you mean? What does Zeke have to do with conference affiliation?

[Zip Watcher]

Nothing directly .. only that I don't think he'll play 4 seasons in the MAC.

[Ryno aka Menace]

I know I will probably get flamed for this but sometimes I tihnk being in the MAC is just bad all the way around. They have in my opinion been a mediocre to poor conference since Akron joined. A way to even it up is for us to leave. I know we have had this discussion before but I think I would try the approach of going independent for say 5-6 years and schedule nothing but midmajors and bcs cupcakes to A. Build a winning programB. Go bowling every year Which in turn may make us more enticing for a bigger conference. I mean the MAC (that I do like) will never be ranked higher than 9th best out of the 11 conferences. I just keep getting stuck on the fact that UConn, Cinci, UCF all are doing better than us and at one time those school couldn't hold a candle to us outside of Cinci maybe. Now Temple who got booted out the Big East and Buffalo another perenial doormat are both competitive in the MAC and you wouldn't be crazy if you said they could win their division. I know this is just a pipe dream but I just wanna see Akron at the very least the same status of a BYU, Boise, Fresno St.And I know some people will say look what jumping conferences did for Marshall, well just glancing at their schedule they could have easily been 7-5 and going bowling. They beat East Carolina that went bowling. Their conference had 6 teams go bowling. And that is before they add these new bowls. What do you think it will take for the MAC to have 6 teams bowling?

[ziptrumpet87]

I know I will probably get flamed for this but sometimes I tihnk being in the MAC is just bad all the way around. They have in my opinion been a mediocre to poor conference since Akron joined. A way to even it up is for us to leave. I know we have had this discussion before but I think I would try the approach of going independent for say 5-6 years and schedule nothing but midmajors and bcs cupcakes to A. Build a winning programB. Go bowling every year Which in turn may make us more enticing for a bigger conference. I mean the MAC (that I do like) will never be ranked higher than 9th best out of the 11 conferences. I just keep getting stuck on the fact that UConn, Cinci, UCF all are doing better than us and at one time those school couldn't hold a candle to us outside of Cinci maybe. Now Temple who got booted out the Big East and Buffalo another perenial doormat are both competitive in the MAC and you wouldn't be crazy if you said they could win their division. I know this is just a pipe dream but I just wanna see Akron at the very least the same status of a BYU, Boise, Fresno St.And I know some people will say look what jumping conferences did for Marshall, well just glancing at their schedule they could have easily been 7-5 and going bowling. They beat East Carolina that went bowling. Their conference had 6 teams go bowling. And that is before they add these new bowls. What do you think it will take for the MAC to have 6 teams bowling?

Might work for football, but I bet it'd be a nightmare for bball. They need the conference for the tourney auto bid right now. Don't forget, UConn and Cinci have had success in their basketball programs that allow them to draw the $$ to put into their football programs.

[Zip Watcher]

I know I will probably get flamed for this but sometimes I tihnk being in the MAC is just bad all the way around. They have in my opinion been a mediocre to poor conference since Akron joined. A way to even it up is for us to leave. I know we have had this discussion before but I think I would try the approach of going independent for say 5-6 years and schedule nothing but midmajors and bcs cupcakes to A. Build a winning programB. Go bowling every year

That's an interesting concept that no one would have considered until recently. But now with so many bowl games out there, all you'd have to do is go one game over .500 and you'd probably go bowling every year .. and keep the coin to yourself. Clearly, the guidelines on scheduling would need to be abided by (limiting 1-AA teams). The challenge might be finding 12 games especially once conference season starts. It could be done though .. but you'll never be on TV.I think it was NIU that tried the independent route in the late 80's early 90's and it didn't go so well. But with so many bowls that there's a risk of needing waivers to have enough teams each year .. this might not be as insane as everyone's initial reaction may be .. interesting.Of course, this approach mandates that all other sports have a safe home in a conference (A10, MVC, Horizon?) .. but it could be considered.

[Ryno aka Menace]

Damn you do make a good point about drawing money from BB, it could be a nightmare or they could benefit as well. Everyone agrees that winning games is what it will take to keep attendance up. The "product on the field" well the flip side of that is how may people in North east ohio wanna see us beat up on teams like eastern michigan or would rather see us play a tough game against SEC, ACC or Big Ten cupcake at home. It's not just us....it is who we play as well. This is just my feeble attempt to solve a problem.

[Zip Watcher]

Damn you do make a good point about drawing money from BB, it could be a nightmare or they could benefit as well.

Right, the LAST thing we need here is a repeat of the fiasco the last time we had a MBB coach with big plans and success. A sure fire way to lose KD would be to pull the rug out from him (eliminate the chance of automatic bids) in an effort to boost a struggling football program / budget.We did that once .. didn't work out that well.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Wait until the Big East Hoops splinters, and hook up with whatever iteration evolves?Go to C-USA as a "stepping stone" to a bigger conference down-the-line?You keep hearing Mack say "We need to think bigger than the MAC." And JD too. And KD too. I agree with ZW...SOMETHING will happen regarding our conference affiliation within the next couple years. Whether we (the Zips) drive it, or the changing landscape of another conference drives it remains to be seen. But something will change. And the change will be positive.For the record -- I can't imagine an UA AD having the "stones" to go the Independent route again. No way, no how.