MAC is a very good conference. Marshall will regret their decision. Competition wise, MAC is every bit as good as the new big east. Central Florida was not a good geographic fit, and they too are going to what I think is not as good a conference.

Everyone was talking about Northern Illinois. Everyone forgets about Miami (one tough loss) and Bowling Green (close loss to Ohio State) who play each other next Tuesday.

I'm sorry, but the MAC is not on the same level as CUSA, the Big East, or the MWC. While those conferences have programs with national names and tradition (TCU, Pitt, BYU), losing to MAC teams will still get most BCS coaches in hot water very quickly.

They will not be competing for the Orange Bowl in the foreseeable future.

Agreed that the football at some of the MAC schools (and the WAC) is good. Why, then, do few people turn out to watch it?

Why don't they bring Xavier in as b-ball only?

1) Most MAC football played in small towns at stadiums only one-third the size of the flagship midwest schools of the Big10.

2) Big10 schools have many more alumni (Michigan, for example has the largest alumni base of any school--the reasons the bowls love them); these alumni tend to be wealthier, give more, support more, travel more, network better than their MAC counterparts, etc.

3) Big 10 schools have many many additional fans who root for the team simply because it represents their state (the advantage of the school bearing the official state name). Millions root for Ohio State simply because they live in or are from Ohio. Bowling Green? Must be an English lawn bowling conference site.

4) The flagship institutions have Nike swooshes (grin)...

;D

ps. the above does not mean I am not exceedingly fond of the dear ol MAC. It has and will continue to have a warm place in the heart of all Midwesterners everywhere. The MAC knows its place. It is extraordinarily good but humble. Extraordinarily surprising but cavalier. Extraordinarily successful but not boastful. It expresses solid midwestern values through and through, and doesn't even worry about how others view it, because it is honest, what-you-see-is-what-you-get, and very comfortable about being itself.

A couple of points I'd like to make after reading this thread:

1) Any team that plays I-AA football by definition plays "Division I" for all other varsity sports. There is no I-A vs. I-AA distinction for any sport but football in Division I. For example, Villanova plays I-AA football, but plays Division I basketball (the same level of basketball as Duke, Indiana, etc.). That is a common misconception of fans of I-A football schools.

2) Temple may well join CUSA or the MAC if they are invited, but the result will be tough for them. They are far outside the core georaphic regions of hese conferences and the teams in these conferences bring little or no name recognition to east coast fans. This is not an insult to CUSA or MAC programs, it is just the reality of playing in a conference where you are the outsider geographically.

...when [ahem] distinguished commentators are more or less indifferent to the I-A/I-AA distinction and make reference to I-A as though it were "D-I" and I-AA as if it were not "D-I." Good thing that non-scholarship D-III imports don't get too much coverage...that would surely baffle them to no end...and then there are all the "Survival Saturday" references when I just want scores, but that is neither here nor there (Nebraska-Texas and Michigan-Michigan State were "survival" games? for what? berths in the Cotton Bowl and the [Citrus] Bowl?)

the mac has had it year... this year. they are dead...

What?