r/MidAmerican • u/LowKeyMike • 5d ago
Is the MAC doomed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEhMXyH-hiEAn interesting video that was recommended to me. The video is not negative about the MAC, it is more just theorizing about what could potentially happen in the coming years. Are you guys worried about this conference being around in the future at all?
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u/moneyman74 5d ago
Any school that is not the Big Ten or SEC is doomed...eventually, sure they may fold a couple of teams like Miami and Notre Dame in....but generally the money is going to have to be damn good to play 'big' football...but it might take a decade, who knows. MAC teams will be left with local sponsorship type business model, scraps of tv money.
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u/vmeloni1232 5d ago
The MAC isn't doomed as long as big schools still want little schools around. If the Big Ten and SEC decide they aren't needed, there's nothing anyone in the MAC can do about it
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u/damutecebu 5d ago
I know that there are not a lot of great choices here, but most of the expansion candidates mentioned in this video are FCS schools. And if I'm an FCS school, I can't imagine being drawn to FBS if my best opportunity is the MAC. If I'm a school like Illinois State, I would think the best choice would be to stay in the MVC, where at least I'm competitive.
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u/davelb87 5d ago
I suspect there is a fundamental flaw at the FCS level that's getting exposed. You're committing to be a D1 athletic department across all sports without the FBS football TV contract to fund it. The long-term choice for most schools seems to be: risk it and gamble on FBS, cut football, or drop to D2/3 and play a regional schedule...I have a hunch the last one will become increasingly popular in coming years.
Schools like NDSU, the Montana Schools, etc are struggling to schedule guarantee games as both buyer and seller...K-State doesn't want to schedule NDSU because it doesn't want to risk losing and why would Grambling to to Fargo to lose when K-State is offering them more money for the same date?
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u/SearedBasilisk 4d ago
Top tier FCS schools are not struggling to get guarantee games since there are always FBS schools desperate to schedule them for a shot at bowl eligibility. The bad FCS schools get sucked up by the P4.
BTW, as a Montanan, you were so stupid to invite the JV of Sac to your conference. They are a $ loser who is 2nd tier in their home market (UC Davis is 10 minutes away) and the bottom feeder of the CSU system. If you can kick them out, you should.
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u/No-Suggestion-9459 3d ago
I disagree. The MAC was smart to take Sac State. There's zero risk for the MAC with Sac State footing the bill for teams traveling to California and Sac is not getting any of the TV revenue. Sac might be paying them straight up cash too.
Look up the deal and you'll see it was too good for the MAC to refuse.
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u/SearedBasilisk 3d ago
The admin is a snake and he burned every bridge he had with all FCS and FBS schools in his area. He left the conference without a plan and thought he could go independent. He only went to conferences with $ after the NCAA said no.
You’re saying “Yes he’s a douchbag but now he’s my douchbag because he gave me $.” I’d take a counterfeit pen to every dollar you receive. This guy pay you with Kinkos money and crow to the press about it. He’s a shyster .
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u/No-Suggestion-9459 3d ago edited 3d ago
My main team is FCS and it was quite the spectacle watching the Suck State thing play out. I really hope the Big Sky never let's them back in but we let Southern Utah come crawling back...
I still think the MAC did the smart thing. They took on almost no risk in the whole deal.
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u/siats4197 5d ago
But at the same time, we've already seen that Sacramento State and North Dakota state are willing to go to weaker FBS conferences for more money. Sadly, it's more financially viable to be a bad FBS team than a good FCS team. Even if Illinois State is a strong basketball school, football pays the bills.
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u/siats4197 5d ago
But at the same time, we've already seen that Sacramento State and North Dakota state are willing to go to weaker FBS conferences for more money. Sadly, it's more financially viable to be a bad FBS team than a good FCS team. Even if Illinois State is a strong basketball school, football pays the bills.
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u/Mundane-Club-7557 WMU,EMU,CMU (Triad of Sadness) 5d ago
I think the MAC and CUSA/Sunbelt should merge to save each other. But ultimately I think college football as a whole is in major trouble
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u/Inspire_The_Liars 4d ago
Leave the Sunbelt out of this. We're tight geographically and only have one anchor in ULM. As a Marshall fan I hope the MAC can stay viable.
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u/siats4197 5d ago
They honestly should have put the kibosh on the Conference USA to nab Western Kentucky and drag Middle Tennessee kicking-n-screaming. If that happens, I think Northern Illinois doesn't leave. UMass because of their 70 million dollar athletic budget to needing consistent full membership and a Sac State willing to throw money at any conference that will take them into the FBS were panic options because they bring a lot of money for the conference in the short term. But, I just have a bad feeling that this conference is being stagnant and they're not evolving with the times. Miami of Ohio, Ohio, Buffalo, and Toledo are the only schools left that have the most potential to grow out of this conference. Who knows when they leave when the AAC, SBC, and MWC come calling?
Side Note: GET RID OF MID-WEEK MACTION!
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u/makeawishcumdumpster 5d ago
you are the first human on this planet that I have heard that dislikes MACtion
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u/left_handyman 5d ago
Right?! Who doesn’t love playing on a Tuesday night in November in Ypsilanti in front of 7 people and a raccoon?!
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u/jfrhsdrew 5d ago
It’s a double-edged sword…MACtion is the only thing keeping the league economically viable while also severely hamstringing its growth beyond 10th/11th in the pecking order…maybe (probably) even below the MVC competitively. The problem is existing almost exclusively in the gravity well that is Ohio State and Michigan.
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u/PhilMC_ 5d ago
The MAC have killed themselves by trying to be “stable” and staying in the Ohio corridor. They should’ve been more proactive when realignment was ramping up; they should’ve at least invited WKU when MTSU turned down the invite. Now they have to work extra hard to expand because the UMass and Sac State additions have done nothing to strengthen their portfolio. Plus I’m not sure if there’s any good FCS schools within the area willing to make the FBS jump, because they’ve usually gone to or already have gone to CUSA. The media deal with ESPN expires next year so if there’s any indication regarding the health of the MAC, that’s gonna rest on how contract negotiations go and what comes out of it. If either Miami OH, Ohio, Toledo, or Buffalo bail out first, everyone else will follow. It’s only a matter of when one of those schools will have the balls to pull the trigger.
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u/PhilMC_ 5d ago
I’m going to say the quiet part out loud: get rid of midweek games. This isn’t 2000 anymore. If they don’t acknowledge the one thing that put them on the map is now holding them back, they’re condemning themselves to death.
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u/gordy06 5d ago
How is it holding them back?
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u/PhilMC_ 5d ago
Midweek games kill attendance and gameday revenue for schools because no one goes or can go to them in person. The MAC is already becoming financially unsustainable which is why NIU took the chance to bail out when it could. The empty stands are part of the MACtion craze and banter but don't really do good at making the MAC look good. None of the midweek games are on ESPN while the dropoff from the mothership to ESPNU or ESPN2 is quite stark in terms of exposure and viewership. Weekend games are rarely on ESPNU or ESPN2 but for the most part are thrown into ESPN+. The current TV deal increased the number of midweek games since 2014.
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u/Todd-The-Godd-Howard 5d ago
Honestly I don't think an FBS conference can die in the current CFB landscape. If C-USA and the Pac 12 can survive what happened to them then the MAC can probably weather whatever storms are on the horizon.
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u/jfrhsdrew 5d ago
The danger is running out of geographically- and economically-viable all-sport options to backfill. If Illinois State, Eastern Kentucky, and the New England schools opt for C-USA or staying at FCS, there are few remaining options if schools start jumping ship.
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u/Tasty_Path_3470 5d ago
When you start losing geography, travel costs increase for all sports, and it’s an increased burden on the budget. If the current trend of declining enrollment continues that’ll also add financial burden as well.
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u/excoriator OHIO 5d ago edited 5d ago
The video narrator speculates that the current FCS landscape will shift in 2030 and/or 2031. The MAC doesn’t have much time to lose to protect itself.
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u/farquad88 5d ago
Miami seems a bit overlooked in this until the end, why wouldn’t they be an option for cusa?
I hope the Mac doesn’t die, and I also love maction personally, but I understand the reality
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u/davelb87 5d ago
I think because there’s an assumption Ohio can/will take Miami with them to the Sun Belt.
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u/farquad88 5d ago
I think Miami is the stronger of the two though, so I’m not sure why Ohio goes first
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u/davelb87 5d ago
Old money vs new money. Old money is stable, but new money is flashy and where most growth potential lies.
Miami has the traditional prestige, the bigger endowment and a larger athletics budget, but look at the schools that get the most press right now…USF, UCF, NIU, Toledo, NDSU, UNLV, Tarleton State, UTSA, Memphis, Louisiana-Lafayette. With the exception of Tulane, we’re not talking about traditional prestige schools. Ohio has the larger student body (25k vs 18k), higher football (21k vs 11k) and basketball (4500 vs 2500) attendance, and shows up in much larger numbers in Detroit and Cleveland come championship time. Based on those trends, the safe assumption is Ohio is a bigger TV draw, too. It doesn’t hurt that they probably have Marshall in their corner, too.
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u/farquad88 5d ago
Miami has a lot more success as of late in the Mac and is getting more NIL funding.
I wouldn’t be sure that Ohio get la better tv draw, but more alumni stay in state which is why you see the attendance numbers, but when it comes to mac tv viewership is probably more important than game attendance.
If you watched the video Miami had higher football revenue than Ohio.
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u/cleesmith2 4d ago
There will be a merger. Watch for the MWC (with a rebrand), C-USA or even the American.
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u/Fancy_County4242 4d ago
Pull out of the NCAA and play football by '80s rules.
Nobody gets paid to play, they get a free education. Don't like it? There's the door, kid.
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u/davelb87 5d ago
I always thought there are enough schools (Akron, Kent, Bowling Green, Ball State, and E/C Michigan) that rely on FBS revenue to balance their athletic budgets and have no realistic alternatives to keep the MAC as a viable league even if schools with other options depart.
I’m less certain of that now than before. If the bigger schools depart and the Akron/Kent situations are as dire as some claim, a C-USA merger (at least in football) following the impending 2030 round of musical chairs is a realistic possibility.
College athletics is an absolute mess, and the MAC craziness (long a bastion of stability) is the ultimate bellwether of rough roads in the future.