MAC conference media day plans on more ‘MACtion’ than ever.
DETROIT, Mich. – “MACtion” is back, and judging by 2015 Mid-American Conference media day, there’s going to be more “MACtion” than ever.
As the power five conferences — the best athletic conferences in the nation — grow in influence, the MAC has adapted, trying to stay influential on the field, in the classroom and new policies going forward.
In his “State of the MAC,” commissioner Jon Steinbrecher mentioned an intense focus on mental health, reevaluating the amount of hours student-athletes have team-related responsibilities and even lyrics from The Grateful Dead.
Here are a few talking points from Ford Field on Tuesday:
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Football will have women officials
Steinbrecher said the conference will introduce female officials into football games, not because they’re women, but because they worked hard to get to that point.
It’s a refreshing introduction, coming at a time when female coaches have been hired as assistants in the National Basketball Association and National Football League.
“What we should all be about is that if a person has the interest and the skill set to do the job, they should be facilitated the opportunity to do so,” Steinbrecher said in a separate interview. “That’s the bottom line.”
Cutting athletic programs to save money
The University of Akron announced it would cut its baseball program earlier this summer. The school closed a performing arts hall Monday.
Although it’s unlikely to happen to the football program, especially given the fact that a $61.1 million stadium opened in 2009, it’s not something Zips coach Terry Bowden hasn’t completely ignored.
“There’s always pressure to win, but I don’t see any more pressure than anything else,” Bowden said. “We have bills to pay at Akron.”
But we also have a beautiful stadium and we have the finest indoor facility. Would I rather have no complaints and no facilities? No, I think I’d rather have the unbelievable facilities that we have, and have to find a way to pay for them.”
As for the Akron players, it’s a situation they try to avoid.
“I’m a football player,” said linebacker Jatavis Brown. “So I don’t really get between all that. Yeah, it’s bad that they’re losing their jobs and I feel sorry for them, but we try to stay away from that.”
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Hip in Detroit
Recently the MAC has unofficially considered Detroit to be a second home, behind conference headquarters in Cleveland. Football’s championship game is here, a bowl game featuring a MAC program is here and of course, media day.
But it was awkward when a journalist said “the MAC has been in Detroit before it was hip and cool to be.”
Perhaps the best reaction to the comment came from Akron defensive lineman Cody Grice. With style in mind, Grice wore a flamboyant red and black paisley-patterned velvet suit jacket. The jacket went along with “#36” trimmed in his head. Oh, and he was strapped with a GoPro camera. “I don’t know, man,” Grice said. “It wasn’t ready for us, man. It wasn’t ready for us.”
@charliehatch_
