The Mid-American Conference has made people take notice on a national scale this football season, and it’s possible the really fun games are still to come.
The MAC has earned a reputation for producing high-powered offensive teams capable of producing upsets against big-conference teams, and part of that reputation comes from high-scoring MAC games that have been played on weeknights on national television. That's when the MAC has to play in order to gain the kind of national exposure a regional league covets, and that's just the reality the MAC faces in trying to compete with the big boys.
Zac Jackson talked to MAC Commissioner Dr. Jon A. Steinbrecher, who's in his third year on the job, earlier this week on a variety of subjects, from television revenues and keeping coaches in places, to the new structure of the BCS and the college football playoffs.
Their conversation is below.
Jackson: Wednesday night you had two very good games involving four pretty good MAC teams on national television. Northern Illinois and QB Joey Lynch, in particular, took advantage of the national stage. I'll assume you're happy with that. What is the state of the midweek-heavy television contract?
Steinbrecher: It puts you on a national stage when there's no other football going on around you. (Wednesday) night if you wanted to watch football, you were watching the Mid-American Conference. Quite frankly, that's priceless.
Q: You've had two cases in the last few weeks of a MAC team earning its way into the top 25, then quickly losing to another MAC team and falling out. That's the sign of a good, balanced league -- but it's also a blow to the league's national profile and that of the losing team. Any disappointment in the league kind of eating its own in that regard?
A: You said it. We have balance and great competition and a bunch of good teams. We're trending towards having probably six teams with eight or more wins, two teams with 10 or more wins. There are a bunch of really good teams. For the life of me, I can't figure out why Northern Illinois hasn't been ranked. It makes no sense to me. Same with Kent not being ranked before this week. That's part of the challenge we have. We haven't traditionally had one team separate itself for years on end earn that reputation. It's been pretty balanced. Northern is probably the closest thing we have to really putting four or five great years together in a row, but they've won (the title game) once and that was last year. That's part of the challenge. This national exposure helps. I think if people watch our games they see they're good games and they're played at a really high level. We're really happy with the quality of the football being played.
Q: On paper, you have three concrete bowl agreements and probably six bowl-quality teams. Given the national landscape, you have a chance to land good teams in non-traditional MAC bowls, too. Has the work on that started, and how important is it to maximize bowl exposure?
A: We're certainly hopeful we can land all six in a bowl and land them in the best possible situations. We have three primary bowl contracts, so those are taken care of. We have two backup agreements and we feel pretty good about those having openings. We've been working for quite a long period of time trying to find additional spots. It's an ongoing process. You monitor it, you talk to the bowl people, our athletic directors talk to those bowl folks and at the end of the day it comes down to the last week. On that last Saturday (Dec. 1) certain chips will have to fall into place and we'll see which way they go.
Q: Whether you call it a good year or a great year, people are paying more attention and the quality of play is probably better than it has been in recent years. Did last year's bowl season (the MAC was 4-1 in bowl games) sort of set the tone? Did you see this coming?
A: We knew we had good teams. We didn't know how deep they would go. Northern Illinois had wholesale changes on offense; I think they replaced their entire offensive line. Kent State we thought would be better but didn't know to what level. Same thing with Bowling Green. Part of it is a surprise and part of it is an expectation. I certainly am of the expectation that the top teams in our league can play with almost anybody.
Q: These great seasons come with a certain reality. It wasn't even November and people were talking about the "big boys" raiding the MAC for their next coaches. This week, Northern Illinois coach Dave Doeren even addressed it on record, saying he'll have to listen when the calls come. From the commissioner's seat, what's your take on that?
A: I hope we can hang on to people, but if they encounter a new situation that's in the best interest of their families and so on, then good luck to them. They've earned that right, and in that case it's incumbent upon our administrators to do a great job and find another really good coach. I think we've seen that our programs have shown the ability to reload. All that, it's just the nature of the business.
Q: Are your programs better equipped to, A, either keep coaches in place or, B, keep running at a high level in the event of a change than they were, say, five or eight years ago?
A: Absolutely. No question. Completely from top to bottom in the league you can see that things have been done from an infrastructure perspective, from a salary-based perspective, just a whole host of things at every one of our schools. It's a tribute to the commitments made by our schools during some pretty tough economic times.
Q: Another thing that goes in the harsh reality category. Kent State at Bowling Green Saturday, two really good teams playing basically for the MAC East title, and it's only on regional TV. Is that a disappointment?
A: I take it as a sign we're healthy. That's the nature of the TV deal we have. Most of our national appearances, particularly during November, tend to fall on weekdays. This year we pushed more games to weekends than previous Novembers. We try to mix and match that. That's a game that, if our schedulers had their crystal ball out back in February and March and had known how good Kent State and Bowling Green would be, obviously we'd have made a national slot for it.
Q: When coaches find out that to play on national TV they sometimes have to play on Tuesday night or Thursday at 6 p.m., are they on board? Do they understand what it takes to get that exposure?
A: They're pretty good. They recognize the value of the exposure we're getting. They understand and appreciate the parameters we have, too, where we're generally not asking teams to turn around on a four-day week and play in the middle of the week. They usually have at least close to a full week to prepare, and sometimes more.
Q: Kent State to the College World Series was a victory. Ohio to the Sweet 16 in basketball was a victory. Earlier this week, the new college football playoff and bowl structure awarded a guaranteed spot in one of the high-profile, high-dollar bowl games to the highest-ranked team from that "Group of Five" other conferences, a group that includes the MAC. Was that a victory, too?
A: Absolutely. Going into this negotiation regarding this new entity, whatever this BCS next generation was going to be, from my perspective the two critical issues were access and revenue and I think we did very well on both accords.
Q: The landscape has changed drastically in the last couple years, and really the MAC has only lost Temple, a football-only member. Are more changes on hold for a while? Does this new "Group of Five" discourage a down-the-road move of, say, a MAC team to the Big East?
A: I guess you never say never. So much of this is really tied into TV deals, and as a result I think you'll see movement 10-12 years down the road when TV deals come up again. Could we see movement before then? Sure. The Big East has talked of wanting to get to 14 teams. Conference USA has talked about adding two to get to 16. By and large I think the MAC is stable. We haven't lost a full member in a long time. I think that stability goes a little into why we're having the success we're having right now.
