With Marshall going to CUSA and several MAC schools not meeting attendance requirements for IA how is the MAC going to survive.

IMO, the WAC and Sun Belt are the conferences at risk. W/o Marshall and UCF, the MAC still has 12. There are really only 4 schools at risk in the MAC. The rest have made the old 17k tickets sold requirement fairly easily most years. EMU, Akron, Kent St. and Buffalo are the ones at risk and I suspect no more than 2 will actually miss. Even if all 4 did, that still leaves the required 8. And the MAC could add other schools w/o a home for full or fb only membership to get to 10 or 12.

Agree bullet...

MAC needed to tighten up anyway--too many teams to make the little revenue-sharing profitable. They will always survive since there are a lot of regionals in the Midwest, and travel costs between the schools are low. There are possibilities for expansion again at the end of the whole process, if they need to get back to twelve and want to work with schools such as Temple and Middle Tennessee State, etc.

The MAC really doesn't have much to worry about, as it has many options for single or dual teams:

Temple / Massachusetts (both stay A-10 except football, Minutemen move to I-A)

Middle Tennessee / Western Kentucky (WKy moves to I-A, football only arrangement pssible)

Illinois St / S. Illinois (both move to I-A and to MAC from MVC)

Temple is a logical choice for the MAC.
Who else will want them?
8-)

best choice for Temple is the MAC.they cannot be independent otherwise it is the A-10 or scrap the program.Also if the Sun Belt is raided further they can go south.

Is there any chance Army or Navy could go to the MAC? Would the MAC want to go to 16 after Marshall and UCF leave? ???

I don't think you will see any major changes in the MAC after MU and UCF leave for the supposed Big Time. The conference has 12 members, is one of the largest conferences in country in terms of student enrollment and has a strong fan base. MAC performance on the field and arena has improved year after year so that scheduling a MAC school is no longer a guaranteed W for "major" conference members. The MAC is a bus league with low travel costs. It's even relatively easy for MAC fans to attend away games. Also, the MAC schools operate in major media markets.

I see the MAC operating more like the successful, stable conferences like the Big Ten and SEC, building strong relationships between conference members and their fans and expanding only when and if it makes sense. Not like the CUSA and others who you don't know who is a member from one year's end to the next and their is no relationship between member institutions.

Hopefully the days of allowing former bad actors to reenter the conference or admitting schools who openly disrespect the other members are over. If expansion is desirable there are many Gateway/MVC schools who would be a good fit. There are also members of the Sun Belt who could benefit from MAC membership.

Sure like that suggestion, Joedadi...

8-)

Very good take on the Army/Navy issue. Basically when everything shakes out, there will be two independents in 1-A - Army and Navy. They can write their own tickets and do what is in their best interest. They know that they won't be able to compete on the BCS level because of tougher academics and the military committment, so they are content with a competative schedule, natural and historic rivalries, the Army-Navy game and the occaisional bonus bowl game.

There will always be plenty of schools that want to schedule Army and Navy just because they are Army and Navy.