MAC Expansion
What’s Going On? A whole lot of nothing, but that might need to change soon. There aren’t any brands that make sense for the other Group of Five conferences, so the hope is …
Best Case Scenario: All 12 schools stay in place, the conference is able to land Army for a big name who’ll bring the attention, and a few parts from Conference USA – WKU, Middle Tennessee, and Louisiana Tech might work – strengthen the position.
Worst Case Scenario: The Big Ten and SEC become too strong, and the other three Power Five conferences figure out how to combine forces. The MAC doesn’t become the WAC, but it struggles to stay up in the FCS status all while losing their desperately needed paycheck dates.
Crazy Idea That Won’t Work, But … Create an alliance with the Big Ten. No, the MAC doesn’t become a minor league farm system – even though that’s really what it might be like in a new college football era – but it comes up with a deal that its teams are on various Big Ten schedules to collect road game paychecks.
What Will Probably Happen: The MAC should be okay for a while. There’s a shot Conference USA or the Sun Belt make a pitch – Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan, and Buffalo are big schools – but for now everything seems to be calm.
Conference Expansion: What’s Going On?
ACC | AAC | Big Ten | Big 12 | C-USA | Ind
MAC | Mountain West | Pac-12 | SEC | Sun Belt