Quote:
Originally Posted by Galaxy
Bishop, do you think the MAC is just a stepping stone to a conference like the Big East? I know UConn spent four years playing Division 1-A before moving to the Big East.
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Too much is changing on the conference landscape to predict 5 years down the road, but I certainly hope it is (no offense MAC fans - it's just not a natural geographic fit. The other option would be splitting off with Temple/Buffalo and some upgrading FCS schools like JMU, App St and Delaware to form a 2nd-tier eastern football conference.)
A number of our natural rivals are already in the Big East (UConn, Syracuse, even Pitt and West Virginia because of past conference affiliations) and the one that we would be overlapping with in the "Boston" market (BC) is now out. (I put Boston in quotes because UMass really carries the Springfield/Worcester market and only penetrates Boston when there is a buzz.) I think if we had upgraded in the late 90's as we were flush with basketball money and coming off a national title in FCS we would have been invited to the Big East instead of/along with UConn when they did. I think if we had upgraded 5 years ago into the MAC/C-USA we'd be the 10th Big East team right now (possibly the 9th instead of TCU, although part of TCU may be because of the BCS quality they bring).
Now that our AD/BoT have finally gotten off their asses (probably thanks to our newish Chancellor Holub, previously of U Tennessee, who loves saying we need to act like a flagship if we want to be funded like one), the biggest worry is that the Big East invites 3 more of Villanova, UCF, ECU, Houston and ends up at 12 football teams and caps it. (The other worry is that the Big Ten raids the BE for teams like Cuse/Pitt/UConn as part of a move to 16 - ensuring we move up to "the Big East", but not the Big East that we want.)
Side note - this announcement makes Villanova's decision a little more interesting and possibly more likely that they upgrade against their better judgment. In the last few years, BU/Northeastern/Hofstra have disbanded their programs, Rhode Island has dropped to the NEC, and rumors are Maine, then UNH, might not be too far behind as their travel costs skyrocket/attendance goes down. Maybe Villanova is far enough South to stay in the CAA, but since one of UMass main considerations seems to be making sure they have a seat (at least in 1A, ideally the BE) once the musical chairs ends, Villanova might look at that and decide they need to go now or risk having high-level FCS football disappear and no viable D1 conference to move up to.