(03-07-2024 03:38 AM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  1960's were the golden era for the MAC. Ohio and BGSU were ranked in top 5 in basketball at one point early in the season. Ohio beat four Ten teams in one season back then including top ten ranked Indiana and Ohio State in the same week. There is a reason the Big Ten stopped playing away games against the MAC in basketball. One difference was the basketball schedule non-conference was brutal back then. Ohio played Cincinnati, Ohio State, Loyola-Chi, Louisville and 4 to 5 Big Ten teams a year and won a its fair share. Coach Snyder played anyone anywhere back then. MAC schools want a return home game which most power conference schools refuse to do. No more West Virginia, Xavier, Dayton, Cincinnati or Ohio State on the schedule. That means very heavy Horizon league and Sun Belt teams which agree to return games.

Yes the MAC was at the time considered a basketball conference more so than a FB conference. There is a reason the average arena in the MAC is nearly 8,000 as they were trying to be national players in men's basketball.

This is totally different than most schools in CUSA outside of NMSU, UTEP and WKU who traditionally were low major DI if not DII basketball programs.

Today 11am est.

https://twitter.com/UMassAthletics/statu...4377405462


UMass Athletics : https://t.co/82BUS9Rkly
ESPN+ : https://t.co/92KKNJd78B
YouTube : https://t.co/j0hpXctkqe

Very excited to join MACtion, the conference of rivals. We'll have Buffalo

Massachusetts Athletics Joins the MAC
How to Watch the Introductory Press Conference

The University of Massachusetts will host an introductory press conference at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 7 at the Martin Jacobson Football Performance Center.

Hear from Chancellor Javier Reyes, Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford, MAC Commissioner John Steinbrecher, Head Football Coach Don Brown and Head Men's Basketball Coach Frank Martin on our move to the Mid-American Conference.

The press conference is open to media and invited guests only. It will be live streamed for the public on YouTube, UMassAthletics.com and ESPN+. To tune in, click the buttons Above in this post.
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Also Matt Brown has an extra points article today.

Quote:Another attractive component for the MAC, according to other sources familiar with the decision, was that “there were more schools in the MAC that looked like UMass”, not just from an institutional perspective, but from an athletic budget and support perspective.

So what happens next? What does this mean for the A-10, MAC, and CUSA?

Listen for the past hour, actually 1:20 minutes as almost the first 20 minutes was waiting. Talks started in September, they talk about faculty, academics, academic and leadership consortium and our Chancellor jumped in as he was a product of the academic consortium. About building the next department head, deans, chairs, provost etc while Javier Reyes was at Arkansas in the SEC. Seemed very thoughtful, covering athletics, facility, students, campus vision. Not really much rahrahrah. Commissioner Steinbrecher was quietly on campus during a game in November and disappointed did not seem him.

Hey UDel did what was best for them and we did what was best for us. This has a feel of a long term commitment. The investment in athletics will accelerate with 8 to 10 times the conference revenue growth. As our AD said, we are hitting the gas, no brakes. Frank Martin is a real team player, his wife ran track at UMass, football helps raise all programs and their budgets all went up from his career. Don Brown and Frank Martin had offices next to each other at Northeastern. They both recruit in programs that were at the bottom with no bells and whistles. You recruit players that believe in your vision, the school and not the conference.

So in terms of MAC expansion, they added Buffalo and Northern Illinois in the mid 90's and now UMass, all fulfilling the usual expansion model of adding new markets.

(03-07-2024 07:26 AM)Garden_KC Wrote:  

(03-07-2024 03:38 AM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  1960's were the golden era for the MAC. Ohio and BGSU were ranked in top 5 in basketball at one point early in the season. Ohio beat four Ten teams in one season back then including top ten ranked Indiana and Ohio State in the same week. There is a reason the Big Ten stopped playing away games against the MAC in basketball. One difference was the basketball schedule non-conference was brutal back then. Ohio played Cincinnati, Ohio State, Loyola-Chi, Louisville and 4 to 5 Big Ten teams a year and won a its fair share. Coach Snyder played anyone anywhere back then. MAC schools want a return home game which most power conference schools refuse to do. No more West Virginia, Xavier, Dayton, Cincinnati or Ohio State on the schedule. That means very heavy Horizon league and Sun Belt teams which agree to return games.

Yes the MAC was at the time considered a basketball conference more so than a FB conference. There is a reason the average arena in the MAC is nearly 8,000 as they were trying to be national players in men's basketball.

This is totally different than most schools in CUSA outside of NMSU, UTEP and WKU who traditionally were low major DI if not DII basketball programs.

The talk about Stony Brook joining the MAC had me to look, and it turns out that the CAA (19th) is ranked even higher than the MAC (24th) in basketball right now. There's 8 top 200 teams in CAA.

Charleston: 104
UNC Wilmington: 109
Hofstra: 116
Drexel: 121
Towson: 157
Delaware: 166
Stony Brook: 176
Monmouth: 180

Compared to just 4 in the MAC.

Akron: 119
Toledo: 133
Ohio: 150
Kent State: 187

The CAA does have 5 teams in the 300s compared to just 3 in the MAC, but that's due to larger conference size... I will say we didn't *need* to add schools like Hampton and North Carolina A&T, but what's done is done.

(03-10-2024 01:47 AM)WolfCrashpad Wrote:  The talk about Stony Brook joining the MAC had me to look, and it turns out that the CAA (19th) is ranked even higher than the MAC (24th) in basketball right now. There's 8 top 200 teams in CAA.

Charleston: 104
UNC Wilmington: 109
Hofstra: 116
Drexel: 121
Towson: 157
Delaware: 166
Stony Brook: 176
Monmouth: 180

Compared to just 4 in the MAC.

Akron: 119
Toledo: 133
Ohio: 150
Kent State: 187

The CAA does have 5 teams in the 300s compared to just 3 in the MAC, but that's due to larger conference size... I will say we didn't *need* to add schools like Hampton and North Carolina A&T, but what's done is done.

This may be the worst season of MAC basketball since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in the 1970s, and maybe well before then. The MAC is normally a solid mid-major conference in basketball. Obviously, this terrible performance could become a new normal, but I tend to doubt it.

NIL has hit the MAC hard. MAC schools don't have the kind of boosters to tap into that and its has hurt them from keeping top talent. MAC can offer playing time to freshmen and transfers from power schools. UMass will have an advantage with NIL. MAC need a couple months to mold the rosters with the youth and turnover. Non-conference is going to be ugly. The MAC does a great job of developing young talent. The kids that stick around in the MAC can earn all conference awards and be that team leader. MAC gets the undersized guards and forwards. These players would be picked apart at the higher levels.