MAC Blogger Roundtable...

1. It seems as though the MAC has been taking an increasingly structured approach to basketball scheduling (a round-robin of divisional play, a round-robin of inter-divisional games, and then the second round-robin of divisional play; most games on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons). What do you think of this approach? Do you want to see more of this structure, or would you rather have a MAC game spread throughout the week?

I am a big fan of the structured schedule.  As a fan, the Wednesday-Saturday routine makes life easier to plan.  It also keeps everyone playing with the same amount of rest, etc, as opposed to previous years where teams would sometimes have 3 conference games in a week.  As for the division-crossover-division pattern, as you will see below, I don't even understand why we have divisions anymore, so I'm perfectly willing to give that up.

2. With the MAC tournament using division-agnostic seeding, is there a value to continuing to use divisions in basketball? How would you want to see a divisionless basketball season scheduled?

Now that the division titles are meaningless, I 100% support dropping them and moving to one league, much as the Big East has done.  That's because our standings are not truly division-agnostic.  The fact that EMU could get a bye based on a schedule where they played NIU, UT, BSU twice and Kent only played them once is not division-agnostic.  I'm in favoring of rotating the schedule as the Big East does, and going with one league for the standings.

3. What's the minimum you still need to see from your team (i.e.tournament performance) to be satisfied with the season.

BG had everyone back and we had been pointing to this year for two seasons.  I think that it is safe to say we are disappointed in the results up until now.  Only a run to the final would show me that we are where we hoped to be.

4. Which team is your "dark horse" or "Cinderella" pick for the MAC tournament.

I'm not sure if they qualify as a dark horse, but I think OU could be very tough to beat at the Q.  From the non-bye teams, I could see either BG or EMU making a run.  EMU's style is tournament-friendly.

5. Rank 'em.

1. Akron
2. Buffalo
3. OU
4. Kent
5. EMU
6. BGSU
7. WMU
8. Miami
9. UT
10. Ball State
11. CMU
12. NIU