Wouldnt it be nice to compete with the power conferences in Div 1, while coaching at a mid-major school? Come join the MAC in Naismith, and help us build up the conference and give the big boys a run for their money...and recruits! Last season we had 7 human coaches, and we are hoping to add to that number this season. We finished as the #8 rated conference, and had 4 teams in the top 100 RPI (and a 5th team at #106)...including 3 teams that made post-season tournaments. There are a couple of well known schools available at Kent St and Akron. For our northern friends, both Central and Western Michigan are looking for coaches. If you enjoy being a bit further east, maybe Buffalo is right for you. We are a friendly group of coaches, with a very active conference message board...friendly banter and some occassional trash talking. Please join us!

How many seasons would it take me to get to division one?

There is no magic number. Depends on success at each level. A good guess would be 7ish.

I actually had my eye on the MAC when I decided I wanted to move up in Naismith. But then I took on a D2 rebuild, so we'll see how that goes. If I can both successfully rebuild AND don't like it enough to stay, I'll check y'all out. 

we will be looking forward to your arrival in the future tarvolon

I'll echo Andrew that The MAC in Naismith has been a fun conference to play in. Active coaches. We'll sometimes share notes about things like scheduling philosophy and how different offensive or defensive sets are working for us, and we definitely have some fun rivalries throughout the conference. Of course to ever really establish the conference, no matter how we schedule or recruit, we need to fill up with humans. Maybe that's where you come in?

Give me a shout over sitemail with questions or concerns.

Several veteran coaches appear to be trying to do this, but it's pretty difficult to do with the current system.  The primary issue in D-1 is that there are too few low initial rating, very high potential recruits.  In real life, mid majors that are successful to a great job of developing these kids, so while they may not be as consistent year to year, with bunch of uperclassman, they can compete for final fours. (Butler, WSU, VCU, Gonzaga, Xavier, etc).    

There are other minor issues(not enough human coaches in D-1, prestige at mid majors, etc) that make it difficult, but teams were competitive from mid majors until they changed recruit generation about I dunno, 20 seasons ago at this point?  I think many of the recruit changes were good, but some of them led to the complete demise of the mid major as a viable option in MOST circumstances.

i agree with you grant. and we realize that to truly have a shot at building our conference up to a level where we hope to compete with the big boys, we will probably need at least 10 human coaches

I'm applying for one of the jobs...should get it because it was a step backwards, unless someone better applied for it too lol

Posted by grantduck on 6/14/2013 9:53:00 PM (view original):
Several veteran coaches appear to be trying to do this, but it's pretty difficult to do with the current system.  The primary issue in D-1 is that there are too few low initial rating, very high potential recruits.  In real life, mid majors that are successful to a great job of developing these kids, so while they may not be as consistent year to year, with bunch of uperclassman, they can compete for final fours. (Butler, WSU, VCU, Gonzaga, Xavier, etc).    

There are other minor issues(not enough human coaches in D-1, prestige at mid majors, etc) that make it difficult, but teams were competitive from mid majors until they changed recruit generation about I dunno, 20 seasons ago at this point?  I think many of the recruit changes were good, but some of them led to the complete demise of the mid major as a viable option in MOST circumstances.

I don't disagree with your point on recruit generation. But, the misconception that mid majors in real life only compete via upperclassmen bothers me. The best mid major in recent history is 2009-10 Butler (one possession away from a national championship). They started three sophomores.

we have added 2 more coaches this offseason. that brings us up to 9. only akron, kent state and western michigan are left...

Posted by mrg1037 on 6/15/2013 1:40:00 AM (view original):

Posted by grantduck on 6/14/2013 9:53:00 PM (view original):
Several veteran coaches appear to be trying to do this, but it's pretty difficult to do with the current system.  The primary issue in D-1 is that there are too few low initial rating, very high potential recruits.  In real life, mid majors that are successful to a great job of developing these kids, so while they may not be as consistent year to year, with bunch of uperclassman, they can compete for final fours. (Butler, WSU, VCU, Gonzaga, Xavier, etc).    

There are other minor issues(not enough human coaches in D-1, prestige at mid majors, etc) that make it difficult, but teams were competitive from mid majors until they changed recruit generation about I dunno, 20 seasons ago at this point?  I think many of the recruit changes were good, but some of them led to the complete demise of the mid major as a viable option in MOST circumstances.

I don't disagree with your point on recruit generation. But, the misconception that mid majors in real life only compete via upperclassmen bothers me. The best mid major in recent history is 2009-10 Butler (one possession away from a national championship). They started three sophomores.

in the cases of current/recent real life mid-major stud teams...both Butler and VCU have incredibly talented young coaches who find players to fit their systems and their boys run their sets better than most power conference teams. so from an HD perspective...we have the chance to be "those coaches" in recruiting players that might be flawed in an area, which might scare off big 6 teams...but excel in what we need to them to do. and by setting up our depth chart and game plans to take advantage of our players skill sets and our opponents weaknesses. but the one aspect we dont have the ability to do is just be a better Xs and Os coach like Brad Stevens and Shaka Smart. i would offer that their players offense/defense IQ grades would probably rise faster in an "HD-like scenario" than most of their coaching counterparts

if anybody has a division 1 qualified account in Naismith that they arent currently using...so far we have added 3 human coaches this offseason in the MAC, and are now up to a total of 10. only Akron and Western Michigan are still available. please feel free to join us! signups conclude tomorrow afternoon

its that time again...job changing days in Naismith begins tonight at midnight. this past season, in our quest to eventually compete with the "big boys"...we added a few strong coaches in the MAC and ended up as the only "non big 6"  conference to send 5 teams to post-season tournaments, with 2 of those teams going to the NT. as our new coaches continue to bring in their recruits and build up their programs, and the conference as a whole continues to improve...we believe in another season or two we will be sending 8+ teams to post-season tournaments. there are currently only 2 job openings in the MAC...Akron and W. Michigan. come join us and take the reigns at one of these schools, and be a part of a growing and fun conference...our message board is always active. we are also trying to start a perennial conference challenge against another very good "non big 6" conference in Naismith...the Ivy League. so if something like that sounds interesting to you...the MAC conference in Naismith might be for you! However, if you consider yourself a little too "high class" for us blue collar MAC grunts...then maybe you might be interested in joining the Ivy League Conference...they currently have 6 openings that i am sure they would love for you to help fill. We hope to see you soon!

Posted by andrew5975 on 8/1/2013 8:50:00 PM (view original):
its that time again...job changing days in Naismith begins tonight at midnight. this past season, in our quest to eventually compete with the "big boys"...we added a few strong coaches in the MAC and ended up as the only "non big 6"  conference to send 5 teams to post-season tournaments, with 2 of those teams going to the NT. as our new coaches continue to bring in their recruits and build up their programs, and the conference as a whole continues to improve...we believe in another season or two we will be sending 8+ teams to post-season tournaments. there are currently only 2 job openings in the MAC...Akron and W. Michigan. come join us and take the reigns at one of these schools, and be a part of a growing and fun conference...our message board is always active. we are also trying to start a perennial conference challenge against another very good "non big 6" conference in Naismith...the Ivy League. so if something like that sounds interesting to you...the MAC conference in Naismith might be for you! However, if you consider yourself a little too "high class" for us blue collar MAC grunts...then maybe you might be interested in joining the Ivy League Conference...they currently have 6 openings that i am sure they would love for you to help fill. We hope to see you soon!

Actually, the Ivy League also sent 5, but only 1 to the NT.  Sadly Penn was the first team to miss the NT.  The Ivy League is also a good conference if the MAC schools do not meet your liking.  I appreciate the love you have the Ivy League as well.