Which of these current FCS schools would you expect to be most likely to join the MAC if the MAC decides to add a team between now and 2025?

253 miles from BGSU to Eastern Kentucky U.

324 miles from BGSU to James Madison U.

447 miles from BFSU to U. Chattanooga

591 miles from BGSU to Missouri State U.

697 miles from BGSU to South Dakota St.

798 miles from BGSU to North Dakota

754 miles from BGSU to North Dakota State

767 miles from BGSU to Northern Iowa

430 miles from BGSU to U. Delaware

Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois, or Illinois State

156 miles to Youngstown State

.

NOTE: EAST TENNESSEE STATE (ETSU) WAS LEFT OUT OF THE POLL, INADVERTENTLY. IF YOU THINK ETSU WOULD BE NEXT TO JOIN THE MAC, YOU HAVE THE OPTION OF VOTING IN THE POLL FOR U. TENN @ CHATTANOOGA, WHICH IS NEARBY.

.

NOTE: Some of these schools (e.g., NDSU, EKU, Missouri State, JMU, Chattanooga, E. Tenn. St.) have expressed interest in or readiness to move up to FBS status in the near future. Others have not.

https://www.richmondregister.com/sports/...df638.html

https://www.news-leader.com/story/sports...247819002/

https://footballscoop.com/news/could-nor...-expansion

https://richmond.com/sports/college/as-a...5079-9113-
6a40144ae9b5.html

https://markybillson.medium.com/chattano...80733663a8

With its athletic budget and facilities, JMU is the most ready FCS school in the country to make the move to FBS and the Dukes are expected to join an FBS conference in this realignment cycle.

If the MAC were to consider moving from 12 to 14 full members, there's not a better pair out there than Marshall and JMU. This is how the divisions would look:

MAC East
Buffalo
Akron
Kent State
Ohio
Miami
Marshall
JMU

MAC West
BGSU
Ball State
Toledo
EMU
CMU
WMU
NIU

Measuring distance from Bowling Green is the correct approach.

(Seriously. Bowling Green is about the geographical center of this conference.)

I voted for North Dakota State. James Madison would also be a good addition, but the premise of this question is "in 2025." I bet James Madison joins an FBS conference before then.

The MAC doesn't need to add anyone unless they lose someone to the AAC. Since Buffalo is getting a lot more attention, it would make sense that the MAC would be on the lookout for a replacement.

UMass would be okay as long as they relinquish their other sports from the Atlantic 10.

A likely better addition would be James Madison.

The best addition would be someone from the northern edge of Conference USA, BUT that league would likely have to dissolve before any of its remaining members consider moving to the MAC or Sun Belt.

(10-06-2021 07:23 AM)All4One Wrote:  The MAC doesn't need to add anyone unless they lose someone to the AAC. Since Buffalo is getting a lot more attention, it would make sense that the MAC would be on the lookout for a replacement.

Exactly. There's no good reason to expand to 14 at the moment, so the expansion to 14 hypothesis is about the entirely unpredictable details of some future change ... making it impossible to do any sort of fact-based analysis.

And expansion to 13 would be silly, so the premise of the poll ... ONE school to add ... doesn't fit the expansion to 14 anyway.

So I answered based on "in the unlikely event that the MAC is raided as part of the current realignment" ... say, the American wants to keep a Great Lakes / Ohio River Basin presence after losing Miami ...

... I'd be with JMU, the same as when UMass had the contractual right to come all-in.

Marshall is like marrying someone you had married and divorced twice ... it suggests an inability to learn from experience. No conference realignment is eternal, but if realignment placed Marshall in a position where they would want to rejoin the MAC, they would be working on their "escape route" before they had even completed their entry.