One of Ohio football's significant rivalries might be put on hold in the near future.
Marshall, which fights Ohio in the Battle for the Bell each year, announced in November that it will leave the Mid-American Conference, along with the University of Central Florida, and join Conference USA for the 2005 season.
Marshall has drawn above-average attendance in Athens in recent years, but the difficulties of football scheduling likely will prevent the Bobcats and the Thundering Herd from playing each other for some time after Marshall leaves, Ohio Director of Athletics Thomas Boeh said.
We've talked about it
but there remain a lot of issues to be worked out he said. Football schedules are worked out so far in advance that it might take a little more creativity.
Currently, Marshall and UCF plan to begin play in C-USA in 2005. Boeh said that Ohio has non-conference football opponents scheduled as far off as 2011, and no spots are open until 2007. Ohio would have to negotiate its way out of already-scheduled games in order to open a spot for Marshall.
It depends on how aggressive we are Boeh said, and it depends on the motivation of both schools. This is happening so quickly that if we had to wait two or three years to set up a series
that would not be unusual.
As for UCF, Boeh said scheduling games against the Golden Knights is not as pressing.
It just makes sense for us (and Marshall) to play each other
he said. We don't have that kind of history with Central Florida. Marshall has been a rival of OU for several decades.
The loss of two programs also has conference-wide effects that will trickle down.
The decrease in membership from 14 football programs to 12 will lead to an increase in each program's portion of shared MAC revenues, said Gary Richter, MAC assistant commissioner for media relations
With fewer teams
shares would go up while the pot remains the same
he said. He noted, however, that while Marshall has been a full member of the conference, Central Florida was a football-only program and did not share basketball revenues.
Betty Sislak, MAC director of finance, said the conference uses a large portion of its revenues before doling it out to member institutions.
Any revenues that come into the league office go into conference-related expenses
she said. Beyond that
a lot is shared and distributed to the schools. How that's done is based on council decisions.
A significant source of conference revenues comes from bowl games. Boeh pointed out that neither Marshall nor UCF played in a bowl this season.
I don't think (their departure) will affect the competitive quality of the conference
Boeh said.
The 12 remaining programs will be enough to continue holding a championship football game under NCAA rules. Boeh said that he thinks the conference members will not likely pursue any programs to replace Marshall or UCF.
Our identity as a league is good right now
Boeh said. There's no real reason to reinvent the league
