The gripe with the site is soft after an early exit. No advantage for the 1 seed format is the problem. 8 teams. First round at home sites. Final 4 in Cleveland. A day to travel and shoot in that arena would also be helpful. No more 10 and 11am tips. No more 1 HOUR ONLY shoot around for teams. Makes no sense to give literally zero advantage to the 1 seed. Given you draw Kent or Akron at all you're the undermanned fanbase. Especially for the early tips.

(03-17-2024 04:14 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  The gripe with the site is soft after an early exit. No advantage for the 1 seed format is the problem. 8 teams. First round at home sites. Final 4 in Cleveland. A day to travel and shoot in that arena would also be helpful. No more 10 and 11am tips. No more 1 HOUR ONLY shoot around for teams. Makes no sense to give literally zero advantage to the 1 seed. Given you draw Kent or Akron at all you're the undermanned fanbase. Especially for the early tips.

They get an advantage. You just don't like it or didn't take advantage of it.

You get to play the worst ream record-wise from the regular season and you get the most rest until the second game if you win...where you also have the best shot at playing the worst team remaining from the regular season.

There's no excuse for 18-23 year old kids not being "ready" to play a game at 11 a.m. in the morning.

Not having your "fans" there is also not an excuse. Toledo won plenty of games this year on the road in the MAC against a near full house of loud opposing fans.

(03-17-2024 04:30 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(03-17-2024 04:14 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  The gripe with the site is soft after an early exit. No advantage for the 1 seed format is the problem. 8 teams. First round at home sites. Final 4 in Cleveland. A day to travel and shoot in that arena would also be helpful. No more 10 and 11am tips. No more 1 HOUR ONLY shoot around for teams. Makes no sense to give literally zero advantage to the 1 seed. Given you draw Kent or Akron at all you're the undermanned fanbase. Especially for the early tips.

They get an advantage. You just don't like it or didn't take advantage of it.

You get to play the worst ream record-wise from the regular season and you get the most rest until the second game if you win...where you also have the best shot at playing the worst team remaining from the regular season.

NET says KSU was the 4th best team..They just took losses in conference battling injury. You'll always have a random draw of team worth vs. conference record. Could be good, could be bad. Toledo played zero 11am tips all year. Especially on the road. If you're lucky you played an early tip in non con. Your body clock is not up at 5am and playing 4 to 6 hours later. We play games in the MAC at 7pm.

There's no excuse for 18-23 year old kids not being "ready" to play a game at 11 a.m. in the morning.

Agree to an extent... but that WCC does it right getting their best 2 teams to the dance EVERY SINGLE SEASON. There is no advantage to be 14-4 or 8-10 as long as you make the thing. Even being the 2 seed gives you an afternoon game with the potential for more fans and to be awake.

Not having your "fans" there is also not an excuse. Toledo won plenty of games this year on the road in the MAC against a near full house of loud opposing fans.

Name 1 good crowd Toledo played at? WVU? 4200 at BG? I'm just disagreeing to the statement as it bears little meaning as far as Cleveland. The point stands Akron and Kent only draw well for Cleveland and they've used that to their advantage over the field. That's just a fact. It's not an excuse to lose to them. They should just draw better in the regular season tbh.

(03-17-2024 04:09 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  Either way, when the contract is back open for 2031, Let the HC put forth a bid. I would also expect Detroit to make a play for it to be at LCA. That being said, the current MAC leadership would like it in Cleveland forever, IMHO.

Speaking of contracts being up, we only have Ford Field for two more years following the one-year extension announced last fall. This was the statement on that: https://getsomemaction.com/news/2023/11/...field.aspx

I continue to wonder if the one-year extension is linked to expansion, but I can't quite figure out the angle. Is there another city that could make a strong case for the championship given the addition of UMass and (hypothetically) Western Kentucky?

Would TQL Stadium in Cincinnati have a case to make?

Don't get me wrong: I think Ford Field is perfect for the football championship. Outdoors, even in Cincinnati, doesn't sound very attractive. But this one-year extension (just one) puzzles me.

(03-17-2024 04:30 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(03-17-2024 04:14 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  The gripe with the site is soft after an early exit. No advantage for the 1 seed format is the problem. 8 teams. First round at home sites. Final 4 in Cleveland. A day to travel and shoot in that arena would also be helpful. No more 10 and 11am tips. No more 1 HOUR ONLY shoot around for teams. Makes no sense to give literally zero advantage to the 1 seed. Given you draw Kent or Akron at all you're the undermanned fanbase. Especially for the early tips.

They get an advantage. You just don't like it or didn't take advantage of it.

You get to play the worst ream record-wise from the regular season and you get the most rest until the second game if you win...where you also have the best shot at playing the worst team remaining from the regular season.

There's no excuse for 18-23 year old kids not being "ready" to play a game at 11 a.m. in the morning.

Not having your "fans" there is also not an excuse. Toledo won plenty of games this year on the road in the MAC against a near full house of loud opposing fans.

Toledo to Cleveland isn't even a bad drive. You would think given how vocal they are they are traveling from Dekalb. You can get from Toledo to Cleveland in just over 90 minutes.

(03-17-2024 06:35 PM)kreed5120 Wrote:  Toledo to Cleveland isn't even a bad drive. You would think given how vocal they are they are traveling from Dekalb. You can get from Toledo to Cleveland in just over 90 minutes.

No doubt, if anyone should gripe about locations of the basketball and football championship sites it should be NIU. We are the furthest from both Detroit and Cleveland of every MAC school, plus you add in the one hour time change which also only affects NIU.

(03-17-2024 06:42 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(03-17-2024 06:35 PM)kreed5120 Wrote:  Toledo to Cleveland isn't even a bad drive. You would think given how vocal they are they are traveling from Dekalb. You can get from Toledo to Cleveland in just over 90 minutes.

No doubt, if anyone should gripe about locations of the basketball and football championship sites it should be NIU. We are the furthest from both Detroit and Cleveland of every MAC school, plus you add in the one hour time change which also only affects NIU.

Frankly, for all the complaining ... I think the biggest issue is the league office has let the tournament become 'stale' in terms of generating community interest outside of MAC alums. Folks forget, despite the women playing in a separate facility and Cleveland State hosting the Horizon League tournament at the same time in the early years, the MAC still regularly drew crowds in excess of 10,000 for the semis and the finals.

The finals this year drew 7,995 for an Akron-Kent matchup that had both teams limp into the tournament as Akron lost several games down the stretch, and Kent was short-handed to injury the bulk of the MAC season and tournament.

The local media is so watered down in Cleveland for both print and TV that very little buzz is out there. Cleveland State women made the NCAA and hardly a blip anywhere.

Indeed, the Women's Final Four is here this year and folks barely know about it. There was no mention of it that I recall during the MAC Tournament.

I'm sure Toledo-BG would get more than their share of coverage if tournament was in Toledo, but not sure there's much interest in Buffalo or NIU, no matter how good they are, even if nationally ranked.

(03-16-2024 09:18 PM)FMRocket Wrote:  

(03-16-2024 12:34 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  MAC tournament is great in Cleveland with the game venue, restaurants, bars, hotels and casino nearby. lots of fun. Rock & Roll hall of fame and science center for tourist attractions. A balanced league and wide open tournament every year makes for lots of excitement. Look at Kent State this year. A rough regular season, but they are playing in the title game. MAC did well with the draw this year gets Akron/Ohio in prime time on a Friday night and then Kent State/Akron in the final.

Having been to downtown Cleveland many times for Toledo-MAC tourney games/concerts/ etc.. I have always enjoyed the experience in and around Rocket Mortgage fieldhouse !!
But, a more central location like Toledo with a perfect 8500 seat (basketball capacity) arena with plenty to offer pubs/restaurants/Imagination Station/ nearby casino/ and a world class museum and zoo only ten minutes away !!
The only down side is lack of hotel rooms in the downtown to complement the new Glass City Center… Another 2 hotels or 600 plus rooms are definitely needed !!

Also, we have to keep in mind UMass is coming in so it might not be good to move it west at this juncture. Along with the hotel situation, what is the Toledo-Boston flight availability? They might have to fly into Detroit and take a 2nd bus commute for the trip... not ideal. If we also bring in WKU it might make sense to move south a bit to Columbus or Cincinnati which both have the arenas/hotels/flights/attractions to accommodate the MACC. Still somewhat central locations without a blatant home turf advantage.

(03-17-2024 07:14 PM)cleveland Wrote:  Cleveland State women made the NCAA and hardly a blip anywhere.

Not exactly. They made the WBIT and are playing at Toledo on Thursday.

The WBIT is new and is considered the second best women's post season tournament, taking the place of the WNIT which moved down a notch this year.

Anyway, back to the OP. He replied to one of my tweets and states he's not arguing for the tournament to return to Toledo...

(03-18-2024 08:40 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  Anyway, back to the OP. He replied to one of my tweets and states he's not arguing for the tournament to return to Toledo...

Fair enough. The way he was criticizing recent editions of the tournament in Cleveland made it seem otherwise.

You can just look at the kenpom rankings over the last 2 decades and it would tell the same story. In 2018-2019 it was a borderline top 10 conference. Pretty much just behind all the multi-bid conferences. Now it's somewhere between 20-25.

(03-18-2024 08:40 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  Anyway, back to the OP. He replied to one of my tweets and states he's not arguing for the tournament to return to Toledo...

Briggs is a fire starter, the article speaks for itself. Story ran in the Sunday Toledo Blade. I think overall Cleveland provides what the MAC wants. That being said downtown Toledo is much different than it was back then. If the Toledo tourism and convention group wants it back they should bid and politic for it. I believe the Huntington Center would be a fine venue for the tournament.

(03-17-2024 04:30 PM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(03-17-2024 04:14 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  The gripe with the site is soft after an early exit. No advantage for the 1 seed format is the problem. 8 teams. First round at home sites. Final 4 in Cleveland. A day to travel and shoot in that arena would also be helpful. No more 10 and 11am tips. No more 1 HOUR ONLY shoot around for teams. Makes no sense to give literally zero advantage to the 1 seed. Given you draw Kent or Akron at all you're the undermanned fanbase. Especially for the early tips.

They get an advantage. You just don't like it or didn't take advantage of it.

You get to play the worst ream record-wise from the regular season and you get the most rest until the second game if you win...where you also have the best shot at playing the worst team remaining from the regular season.

There's no excuse for 18-23 year old kids not being "ready" to play a game at 11 a.m. in the morning.

Not having your "fans" there is also not an excuse. Toledo won plenty of games this year on the road in the MAC against a near full house of loud opposing fans.

I don't think it's controversial at all to say 11am is the earliest some have them have played a meaningful game since AAU in High School, for some guys that's 5 years removed. And it is not breaking news that college kids like their sleep, D1 athletes or not.

Perhaps, the one year extension is an indication that the MAC has negotiated with UMass as part of the deal that brought them into the league to move the tournament somewhere toward the east. Not sure that would be a good idea, but you never know what the MacDaddies might have agreed to.

(03-20-2024 10:10 AM)OhioCatFan Wrote:  Perhaps, the one year extension is an indication that the MAC has negotiated with UMass as part of the deal that brought them into the league to move the tournament somewhere toward the east. Not sure that would be a good idea, but you never know what the MacDaddies might have agreed to.

Where on earth East makes ANY sense for the MAC? That would only aid a Buffalo or a UMass and alienate the entirety of the remaining league members.

Outside of Pittsburgh, where there is NO conference presence, what else is there? That could only marginally benefit Ohio.

It's not happening.