Don’t ask me why, but opening night of the 2009-10 NBA season has me thinking hoops… Just not pro hoops. Instead, I’m thinking of the massive job new MAC commish Jon Steinbrecher has in front of him when it comes to reversing the league’s slide to college basketball irrelevance and Big Dance footnote that occurred during Rick Chryst’s tenure as commissioner.
As recently as the conclusion of the 2004-05 regular season, MAC hoops seemed to be just a step behind leagues like the Missouri Valley Conference, Mountain West Conference, and Western Athletic Conference, when it came to the upper echelon of non-BCS leagues. Since the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee snubbed Miami and Buffalo when it came to dole out At-Large invites to the Big Dance that year, the MAC has been in a basketball freefall.
Ken Pomeroy had the MAC rated as the 11th best conference at the conclusion of the 2004-05 season; they finished 18th in his rating system last season. That’s the same place the league finished in the Sagarin conference ratings as well. TeamRankings.Com had them 21st in their final 2008-09 power rankings. While CollegeHoops.Net ranks the MAC as the 17th best league in their 2009-10 preview, the fact is that 17 just isn’t good enough. Not for this league and not when you consider the proud history of MAC hoops.
And that brings us to the question of what the new MAC commish, who has said he’s going to focus on basketball, can do to help get the league out of the (semi) abyss to which it’s sunk. Here’s my to-do list:
1.Fix the MAC West:
I’ll be the first to admit that Steinbrecher’s ability to improve the dreadful level of ball currently being played in the MAC West are somewhat limited, but the league will not improve when the six sides in the MAC West are dragging the rest of the league down the way an anvil attached to a penny a wishing well would.
2.It’s Cool to Be on TV:
Props to the MAC for having most games available for watching over the web. However, the league’s television presence is worse than that of Sugardaddie.com. As near as I can tell, neither Sportstime Ohio or Fox Sports Ohio are so saturated with quality sports programming that they couldn’t televise at least one other MAC basketball game per week. Beyond that, other cable channels — HDNet, Versus, Spike — may be amenable to doing a MAC
game each week too. Steinbrecher just has to call them.
3.MAC vs. Name Your Mid-Major League Challenge:
Speaking of Steinbrecher making calls, the most important call he needs to make is to the commisioner of the Colonial Athletic Association, Sun Belt, Conference USA, and/or WAC to get some sort of MAC vs. whoever challenge going on. This would be like the ACC vs. Big Ten challenge that happens every season. Only it would be the MAC and it would give the league chance to extend it’s footprint. Plus, it would help all MAC teams with their OOC schedule (particularly Akron, who has yet to find a cupcake it won’t chow down, and Buffalo, which seemed to be on the verge of not playing any OOC games in 2009-10).
4.Get the Gyms Jumping:
A lot of Mid and Low-Major gyms suffer from a lack of both attendance and
atmosphere. That needs to change. Steinbrecher needs to work with the schools to dramatically increase student attendance at games. He needs to work with the schools to get students and non-student ticket holders on the road and traveling to games. Obviously, this costs money so MAC HQ may need to reach out to sponsors to help defray some of the costs. Their must be corporations who will happily pay for a couple busloads of students to go from Western Michigan to Central Michigan for a game so long as the kids where a t-shirt, hat or some shit like that.
5.Sell the Rivalries:
Sure, those in the MAC Nation know that Ohio vs Miami is a rivalry game, but who outside of the MAC knows? Do casual hoops fans know this? There are rivalries in the MAC every bit as intense and rife with history as those in BCS leagues, but the league has done a poor job of documenting and selling them. Folks in Toledo need to hate Western Michigan. Everybody in the East needs to have complete contempt for Akron. Having heated rivalries helps to get recruits, sell tickets, and get more games on TV.
I don’t know that the five things I talk about here will get the MAC back to that top tier of non-BCS leagues. However, I do know that something has to be done. The last time the MAC got multiple bids to the Big Dance was 1999. We can keep doing the same thing we’ve done the past several seasons or we can try some different things to improve the league. I’m curious to hear to what other MAC and non-BCS League bloggers think it takes to make their conferences multi-Big Dance bid.
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on Oct 31st, 2009 at 10:01 am
Nice article, Tim. The rapid decline of hoops in the MAC in general is troubling, as is the rapid decline in Muncie specifically. 11th to 18th in the matter of a couple of years should have been enough to spur the MAC offices into action. We’ll see if things improve in the next couple of years (but I don’t have a lot of hope). Though the BSU and UB football teams gained a lot of headlines last year, the conference needs to realize that basketball still is the best way for the conference to get national press. One or two great players, like a Bonzi or a Wally, and you have the potential to legitimately compete for national championships. Football doesn’t afford that option, with the BCS insider deal setup.
As for BSU, Ronny Thompson proved to be the gift that keeps on giving for the Cards. Though with Billy Taylor there are signs of life, I gotta think they are still a couple years away from assessing if his coaching will make BSU a serious program again. What it looks like they may have this year though is a very solid frontcourt. That’s a big switch from two years ago when Newell was the tallest player on the team at 6′5″. So, for that reason alone I’m excited to see how things go this season.
Good to be talking hoops again…