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MAC football scheduling a tight fit in 08 |
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Friday, 02 February 2007 |
By BRIAN SMITH
Staff Writer
For Midwest Athletic Conference schools looking for a non-conference opponent in the 2008 football season, week two is shaping up to be a tight squeeze.
Midwest Athletic Conference football programs are playing the waiting game in their search for an extra non-conference game in 2008 after the conference decided to reduce the MAC schedule by a game after next season.
“We have a lot of teams waiting for the best deal,” MAC commissioner Tim Buschur said, who stressed the flexibility that teams will have if they cannot find the ideal opponent.
“As of this time it has been difficult (to find a match-up),” Minster assistant athletic director Tim Jay said. “I’d be a fool at this time to say what is going to happen in the future.”
Minster has spoken to multiple teams about a game for week two and assistant Athletic Director Tim Jay said three teams are interested. Those teams need to find a single-year contract for 2007 before any deal with Minster could be worked out.
On the Ohio High School Athletic Association web site, there is a database advertising open dates for football teams around the state. For week two of the 2008 season, there are 15 teams searching for an opponent.
The Midwest Athletic Conference takes up almost half of that list.
Finding a willing and worthy opponent outside the MAC might require can be tough for the teams.
“There are schools out there — but to be honest — teams a lot of MAC schools don’t want to play,” New Bremen athletic director Gary Jones said. “Fortunately, we had success and filled those dates (the first two weeks of 2008) up. Other teams are having a hard time finding a team that works.”
Local MAC athletic directors now are looking for non-conference opponents a year and a half in advance. But no one is panicking, given the difficulty historically MAC teams have had in procuring opponents willing to play teams from one of Ohio’s power conferences.
Both Buschur and Jones reiterated that MAC schools have the option of playing another MAC school in a non-conference game in 2008.
“I think we’ll be fine by then,” Buschur said. “MAC schools already had problems with week one scheduling with the old schedule.” He said there was no timetable for teams to schedule games, adding that while an AD in the past he was once forced to wait until mid-June to get a game set up.
Jay did not speculate on what the cut-off point is before MAC teams would turn to fellow members for a scheduling outlet.
“Where is that point? I can’t tell you right now,” he said.
If MAC schools cannot find a suitable partner in Ohio, they could turn to Indiana for a game, Buschur added. “That’s not the best option, but it’s better than having no game at all.”
The Midwestern Athletic Conference reduced the league season by one game, hoping to balance the demographic and competitive inequalities in the conference. The conference used a system that measured size and recent success to decide which schools will not play each other.
The change will allow smaller MAC schools to dodge the bigger powerhouses in the conference and schedule a more competitive game. Those bigger teams can go out and schedule a game that will carry more computer points in weeks one and two.
Or so the theory goes. The crop of schools to schedule week two in 2008 is hardly abundant. The non-conference schedule that week could look like a normal week of MAC football but without any conference implications, if the teams cannot find other partners.
Buschur thinks the short-term scheduling headaches are well worth the reward of extra computer points and playoff teams.
“This was not done overnight,” Buschur said. “It was discussed for four or five years, and it’s not permanent. We can reevaluate it in a few years if it doesn’t work.”
Jay pointed to the unanimous approval of the system by the conference’s athletic directors as a sign that everyone is behind the changes.
Buschur say the system is designed to get more teams into the playoffs and make the league more competitive. It is designed much like the Big Ten conference slate in college football, in which teams skip two teams every year.
“We needed to help out Fort Recovery,” Jay said. “They have been loyal to the MAC.”
The struggling Fort Recovery program has won just a handful of MAC games in the last decade. Taking one powerhouse off the schedule for them was one of the driving forces to the conference season changing.
Unlike that system, rivalries could not be maintained in some instances. “Some teams have six rivals,” Buschur said. “There’s no way to get those all in.”
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 February 2007 )
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