Dividing the New MAC....

With UMass evening out the MAC somehow 14 football teams and 12 Basketball teams need to live together. It's time to start talking divisions.

The only conceivable way to ensure that the football and basketball divisions are the same is to separate the two football only, and two easternmost, members. This is not going to happen for two reasons. First is that Temple and UMass are natural rivals coming from the A-10 the MAC is going to want to keep both happy because, well, we would like them to stay awhile. Secondly the worst thing you could do Geography is separate these two teams.. UMass has two (UB, Temple), maybe four (UB, Temple, Akron, Kent) schools that are realistically bus trips means.

If you're wondering just how far you might be from some of the other MAC Schools here is the new distance grid (driving in the states only):

	AKR	BSU	BGSU	UB	CMU	EMU	KSU	MAS	MIA	NIU	OU	TEM	TOL	WMU
Akron	0	250	140	220	240	190	15	590	240	430	180	340	140	290
Ball State	250	0	150	460	240	240	270	860	70	280	220	540	175	200
Bowling Green	140	150	0	270	200	70	150	695	175	176	200	540	20	172
Buffalo	220	460	270	0	490	360	190	380	450	600	400	380	310	460
Central Michigan	240	240	200	490	0	140	320	900	320	320	390	710	182	130
Eastern Migichan	190	240	70	360	140	0	190	760	240	313	260	580	50	110
Kent	15	270	150	190	320	190	0	610	250	430	190	400	140	290
Massachusetts	590	860	695	380	900	760	610	0	830	970	700	270	680	830
Miami	240	72	175	450	320	240	250	830	0	320	170	580	200	220
Northern Illinois	430	280	175	600	320	313	430	970	320	0	490	830	310	210
Ohio	180	220	200	400	390	260	190	700	170	490	0	460	220	370
Temple	340	540	540	380	710	580	400	270	580	830	460	0	520	670
Toledo	140	175	20	310	182	50	140	680	200	310	220	520	0	150
Western Michigan	290	200	175	460	130	110	290	830	220	210	470	760	150	0

Because Temple and UMass will be in the same division it's most productive to talk only about football.

The following are the four most common ideas that fans are bantering about.

Scenario #1: Do No Harm

Try to keep the current East-West layout as unscathed as possible:

The Divisions:

East: UMass, Temple, Buffalo, Akron, Kent, Ohio Miami

West: EMU, CMU, WMU, Toledo, Bowling Green, Ball State, NIU

Whats Changed:

Bowling Green get's punted back to the West so that their annual game against Toledo does not burn the only cross over game they get.

The MAP:

Who's the most effected:

Bowling Green trades trips to Temple and Buffalo for NIU and Ball State shrinking their average commute by 115 miles. Everyone in the West get's another bus trip game, most of the teams in the east trade a bus trip to Bowling Green for either a flight or a long bus trip to Amherst Massachusetts.

Scenario #2: North and South

This is the lease likely scenario but it's worth mentioning:

Divisions:

North: Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Temple, Umass, WMU

South: Akron, Kent, Ball State, Bowling Green, Toledo, Ohio, Miami

Whats Changed:

The MAC (North) is no longer a bus league stripping one of the conference strengths (low travel cost) from seven of the schools.

The MAC (South) is, for the most part, an All Ohio League with BSU tagging along. Very nice geography but no way NIU or Temple/UMass will be too happy about this layout.

The Map:

Who's the most effected:

Northern Illinois has an average trip of more than 450 miles. Only three of six conference mates would be drivable. When Buffalo made the trip out to DeKalb this past season the team flew.

Scenario #3: The Old versus the New

Try to keep the long time conference mates together, geography be damned.

Divisions:

Old: Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Kent, Miami, Ohio, Toledo, WMU

New: Akron, Ball State, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Temple, UMass

What's Changed:

This alignment literally splits the MAC into two, I think it might be even worse than the 'Legends and Leaders' arrangement the Big 10 fell into.

The Map:

Who's the most effected:

Northern Illinois has an average trip of more than 550 miles.The only MAC School that is drivable to them here is Ball State. BSU is almost as bad off with Ohio and NIU being drivable.

This also breaks up Miami and Ohio, one of the more heated MAC pairings.

Scenario #4: Rival Pairings

The Priority is to keep as many rivalries intact as possible and work on building new ones.

Divisions:

Classic: Akron, Kent, Bowling Green, Toledo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan

Modern: Buffalo, Temple, UMass, Northern Illinois, Ball State, Miami, Ohio

What's Changed:

There is still one very long division but Northern Illinois is not quite on an island here. They still have the corn stalk game with Ball State and they also have a very drivable home game with Miami. Ohio is a long dive but 500 miles is doable every other year. They would still have three flights every two years (Temple, Buffalo, UMass) but that's manageable compared to the North/South model.

The Map:

Who's the most effected:

Buffalo has nobody within 400 miles (technically OU is 390 miles away). While 6 schools are long bus trips having Akron and Kent sitting in a different division just 200 miles away seems a might unfair.

So what do you think?