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MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher ‘disappointed’ but optimistic about future relationship with B1G
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Every conference has love for itself. The B1G loves the B1G.
The SEC loves itself. Every conference feels this way. But, what conference outside of the B1G loves the best conference in the country?
The MAC.
Each and every year the MAC plays the Big Ten in non-conference games. For 14 straight seasons, a MAC team has beaten a Big Ten team. That’s right. Fourteen.
RELATED: Why the MAC’s streak against the Big Ten will continue in 2019
The MAC loves the B1G not just for bragging rights — when it inevitably does pull off a win — but also for monetary reasons. For instance, Buffalo was scheduled to travel to play at Ohio State on Sept. 19. The Bulls will no longer be able to play that game due to the B1G announcing its conference-only season that will be played in 2020.
The Bulls were set to receive $1.8 million for playing in Columbus. That’s big boy money.
This year, the MAC was scheduled to play the B1G in 11 non-conference games.
MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher talked a bit about the B1G announcing it was going to a conference-only schedule this fall:
“I hadn’t anticipated the decision being made quite so soon, but I knew all of our conferences have been talking about an array of scheduling options,” Steinbrecher told Eleven Warriors on Tuesday. “And so, where they’ve gone with it, would I have preferred they didn’t? Yes, but they made a decision to prioritize their conference schedule. So be it. Now it’s let’s work through the details and get it figured out (…)
“We really enjoy matching up with our Big Ten peers. We’re in the same footprint, we’ve worked closely together. Many of our coaches and administrators have been back and forth between the various schools in our league. We collaborate on a lot of things and work together on a lot of things. So we enjoy those competitive opportunities.
“We have really, really warm and productive relationships with the Big Ten Conference and their member institutions, and would anticipate that that will continue.”
Kevin covers Big Ten football for Saturday Tradition.