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Official: SAC to the MAC
- Thread starter SDHornet
- Start date
BuckeyeHornetFan
Active member
I’ve seen several people making a big deal out of these weeknight games, but is it really?
They only do the Midweek MACtion thing in November. Looking over about a half dozen schedules from 2025, the most any MAC team played Tuesday/Wednesday games was four (Massachusetts). Some only played one (Ball State) or two (Buffalo).
So, at most we’re looking at two home games played on Tuesday or Wednesday nights in November, and possibly only one.
That’s not that big of a deal, far as I can tell. And the novelty and exclusivity of it might actually turn out well. I mean, what else is going on Tuesday/Wednesday nights in November? No NFL games. No MLB games. Maybe only the occasional KINGS game?
I kinda anticipated TV/streaming viewership might be pretty good since the sports betters don’t have much else going on midweek and a cursory google search reveals the following:
So, while in-person attendance could definitely suffer — remote viewership should be really good according to the info above. Did Sac State forgo revenue in this deal? I hope not considering the $$$ they had to pay to get in.
Lastly, one could point out that November home games in Sacramento/NorCal doesn’t present the same cold weather challenges that occur in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York.
So perhaps Sac State’s home attendance might not suffer the same level of drop off as all the other MAC teams. We shall see.
FootballAlum84
Active member
I’ve never personally attended a weekday college football game so my experience and opinion could be void but it just feels like you lose some of the pageantry. Do do you lose out on big tailgates and the excitement of “Gameday”? Lose out on families making a day out of the game, can’t while someone is at work or high school kids have practice, whatever the case may be. Hopefully we end up on the minimal weekday game case. Nothing more exciting than a college football Saturday!
FootballAlum84
Active member
I also wonder who will be the first Big Sky team we pay to come in to town
Green Laser
Active member
I would focus our non conference games on PAC and MWC regional opponents, Fresno, San Jose, Nevada and the rest of the PAC and MWC. Good chance to build new regional rivals. Both conferences are short of conference opponents. Whole new world of possibilites now that we are FBS!
I would sure hope we did not forgo revenue to get in the conference. One of the reasons Wood stated for leaving the Big Sky is the lack of revenue provided by the conference. To jump to a more costly level and get no revenue would not make sense. I think the only way this makes sense is if we can get to the MWC or new PAC 12 conference in five years. Not expecting a big jump in attendance for the conference games. I think the best outcome of all that has happened is getting to the Big West for all the other sports. Should have happened years ago.
FootballAlum84
Active member
At least in year one there could be fans from the MAC excited to travel somewhere new. Not that they will come in droves, but hoping they will travel better than the majority of big sky fans. I feel with added excitement of being FBS, around 20,000 for home games this year is completely reasonable to expect. Outside of a quirky one or two midweek games…
FootballAlum84
Active member
I don’t fully know the difference between conference revenue and TV contracts. But let’s say the rumor was true that we did forgo conference revenue, does that essentially mean that games we are playing televised we will receive zero dollars from?
FootballAlum84
Active member
I just took notice that the PAC released their conference schedule and everybody is playing someone twice to fill the needs. I would have to imagine some of those schools would be interested in not playing a team from their conference twice.
But if the schedule turns out 8 MAC games, 3 from the PAC and maybe we keep one FCS MVSU or Youngstown. Just WOW. The last crappy thing I would say is that the PAC schools I feel still will have us in a chokehold over agreeing to come to Hornet Stadium to play.
But if the schedule turns out 8 MAC games, 3 from the PAC and maybe we keep one FCS MVSU or Youngstown. Just WOW. The last crappy thing I would say is that the PAC schools I feel still will have us in a chokehold over agreeing to come to Hornet Stadium to play.
Excellent post and spot on. The FBS invite was huge because it was completely beyond Hornet admin control. Everything from this point forward is all in Hornet admin control. I fully anticipate Dr. Wood to leverage this FBS status for donors, corporate sponsors and ticket sales to get the momentum on a stadium going.
Yeah not too worried about the Maction games, especially if it's just one a year. Since we'll be the only west coast G6 team in a conference with an ESPN media deal, I hope they give us the Friday night ESPN2 time slot in lieu of the BSC games. That would be poetic justice.
Our youtube troll is at it again (not linking to his video because fvck that guy). I love how badly he missed on calling out Dr. Wood's FBS ambitions and instead of eating crow, he is doubling down and cherry picking more negative narrative with some completely irrelevant comparisons. The meltdowns generated from Dr. Wood delivering on his FBS promise have been enjoyable to watch/read. Straight into my veins!
There are a lot of folks on YouTube and Twitter who were invested in our failure.
Now their credibility is shot. They're in shambles.
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BuckeyeHornetFan
Active member
I mentioned the same thing in a prior post. If they agreed not to share any conference revenue while also paying such a large entry fee —that’s a very one-sided and potentially program destroying deal.
I certainly hope forking over 18M to join means they are sharing in the conference media rights deal in some capacity.
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Green Laser
Active member
2025 MAC Average attendance by team;
Toledo 21,199
Ohio 20,007
W. Mich. 20,194
Bowling Green 18,566
C. Mich. 16,277
E. Mich. 14,842
Buffalo 13,808
Miami 11,658
Kent State 9,875
N. Ill. 9,309
Ball State 8,968
U. Mass. 8,789
Akron 7,729
Toledo 21,199
Ohio 20,007
W. Mich. 20,194
Bowling Green 18,566
C. Mich. 16,277
E. Mich. 14,842
Buffalo 13,808
Miami 11,658
Kent State 9,875
N. Ill. 9,309
Ball State 8,968
U. Mass. 8,789
Akron 7,729
Green Laser
Active member
We'll have to see what the final deal is but I assume we won't receive a payout for the remainder of the current media deal which runs through 2027. As a football only member, we won't receive a full share of the media deal anyways.
Keep in mind we didn't host the Causeway to bolster those numbers. The hype machine Dr. Wood has built around football plus the shine of being FBS should result in a strong turnout at the gate.
