Did the MAC fail to do it’s job?

I’m still not sure what went on with the MAC and the Camellia Bowl. I’ve heard from two insiders that the conference traded it’s slot in that bowl for it’s slot in the Boca Bowl, which went to Akron.

But something’s not ringing true here, at least if wiki is to be trusted.

This year the MAC was set to have a primary slot in the Dollar General Bowl, the Camellia Bowl, the Potato Bowl, and the Bahamas Bowl

Beyond that we had backup agreements for the The Boca Raton Bowl (if either the American or C-USA cannot fill their contracted slot), the Quick Lane Bowl (if either the ACC or Big 10 cannot fill their contracted slot), and the Frisco Bowl (if the American can't fill their slot).

If we “traded” Boca for the Camellia I have to ask why?

We got the Quick Lane because of an open slot from Big10.

With UCF going to “the show” this year the American was one team short. That means either the Frisco Bowl or the Boca Bowl should have went to the MAC. That means instead of 5/7 MAC teams bowling you have 6/7. Buffalo or WMU would have been going to a bowl.

Instead the only backup Bowl the MAC got was the Quick Lane. We traded a primary bowl agreement for something that should have already been ours and two MAC teams are sitting home.

Now I get why those bowls would rather have CUSA teams. It’s not because any of them were better than UB. I made strong cases this past week on why Buffalo was a better pick than WKU, Middle Tennessee, and New Mexico State.

Despite UB being better I accept that Bowls are exhibition games, only designed to make a little money. Having a fan base close to the bowls helps and since most of the bowls are in the south east CUSA has a huge advantage.

My problem is that the MAC seems to have accepted that as well.

It’s the conferences job to make sure teams get what they are contractually due. Beyond that if the leadership was worth it’s spit they would put up a good fight for the members to get even more than they were due.

The conference utterly failed to do that this year.

I suppose we should be grateful that the MAC did not trade away the quick lane bowl for a bag of beans.

Two final things to consider.

The first is that even if we got Boca chances are UB would be home. I’d imagine because we played FAU once already they would want a different team, like WMU.

The second is that perhaps there’s a chance the MAC made a “future deal” trade or something like that. Whatever it may be they need to do a very ‘unmac’ like things and be transparent about it.