(08-15-2015 11:33 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

(08-15-2015 11:13 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Thinking about it on another thread what if......Temple was never invited to the BE back in March of 2012? Instead ECU was added FB only.

Temple may have stayed in the MAC for football, keeping the MAC-UMass deal intact. Leaving the A10 for the AAC wouldn't make sense at that point.

Yup, however Temple was invited and our fate was sealed. The bigger what if is about the C7 and if they never broke away.

It would have been nice to be playing Temple in the MAC for Football and in the A10 in BB. Both teams would have helped the MAC build an East Coast presence. With the MAC digging it's heals around the Great Lakes it will be interesting to see what could push the MAC back to the East Coast.

Most likely the MAC will return East when there are openings.

In the meantime the MAC is benefiting from the decimation of other mid major conferences in its region.

Missouri Valley (lost Creighton)
Horizon (lost Butler, Loyola Chicago)
Summit (lost Oakland, Missouri-Kansas City)

Each conference took a qualitative hit with their losses while the MAC is slowly stepping up coaching pay in basketball.

If the following scenario played out for the MAC:

B12 (Houston, Cincinnati)
AAC (Northern Illinois, Toledo)

The MAC would go with Illinois State to replace NIU and James Madison in the East to replace Toledo, moving Bowling Green to the West.

There would be a net loss of zero markets for the MAC since Illinois State has as much of a presence in Chicago as NIU, BGSU is in the Toledo market. James Madison would add a new market to the MAC. In basketball (Illinois State) and baseball (James Madison) the MAC would be better off.

However the MVC (Illinois State) and CAA (James Madison) would be taking big hits loosing those two schools, further pushing them down the ladder.