(01-13-2020 03:42 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(01-13-2020 12:07 PM)Mister Consistency Wrote:  

(01-11-2020 02:52 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  I’d like the MAC to expand to 16 with the 4 Dakota schools.

SDSU and USD would jump through flaming hoops to join the MAC. UND would do anything short of drop hockey.

NDSU is the one the MAC would want most, though, and I think there's pretty significant resistance on the football side. Playing games on Tuesdays in November is a deal-breaker, and no school in the MAC has anything resembling a path to a national championship, which is the foundation of NDSU's success. The other sports would love it, even with the added travel of going to Ohio and Michigan every year.

I think people underestimate how far away the Dakotas are from the rest of the Midwest.

The Westernmost MAC team (NIU) is more than 8 hours away from the closest Dakota school (SDSU).

NIU is actually closer to Marshall than it is to any Dakota school.

As I recall NIU to NDSU was the closest combination in this hypothetical and it was nearly as far as NIU current furthest conference foe in Bufffalo which is in a separate division so they play less whereas NDSU would be in the same division and would play more.

Effectively adding NDSU doubles the size of the conference which is a pretty bad deal for a league where a key advantage is its compact nature.