The Mid-American Conference’s subtle sidestep into the national spotlight began when Temple University beat Ohio University 14-10 on Oct. 21 on ESPN2. This is always a big deal in the MAC office. It might say something like, “ESPN is televising one of our games! This is great exposure! Yeah!”

Just to remind them: It’s a Tuesday. Football on Tuesday would be as foolhardy as airing “Saturday Night Live” on a Thursday. Some concepts were just meant to be confined to certain days, and football on weekends was one of them. Granted, college football has gotten away with the occasional marquee game on Thursday night, but football on any other weeknight usually means the conference is desperate to get on television. That’s the MAC in a nutshell.

Every week for the rest of the season, at least one Mid-American game will be aired Tuesday night on one of ESPN’s lesser networks. Starting Nov. 5, the trend will spread to Wednesday nights. But that’s it — no other days. Well, except for the occasional Thursday or Friday game. But no Sundays. The MAC puts its foot down on that. Skimming through November’s lineup of games, one might think MAC accidentally picked up a college basketball schedule.

The reason football works so well in America is the downtime between games. Fridays are for the varsity boys, Saturdays are for the college chaps, and Sundays are for the pros. Throwing in “Monday Night Football” and the Lions’ annual beatdown on Thanksgiving, that leaves the middle of the week for people across the nation to make excuses to their friends why their team lost, think up reasons they might win next weekend, adjust their fantasy football rosters and — if there’s time — actually get some work done. But to literally air football on those nights, well, even hardcore football zealots can get burned out.

The MAC certainly wants to get some traction in the college football world. UT shocking Michigan and Ball State’s national ranking definitely helps. But the conference might want to look westward to see what else is working.

The Mountain West, a mid-major conference similar to the MAC but probably more revered, launched MountainWest Sports Network, or “The Mtn.,” which is a round-the-clock cable station dedicated to MWC athletics.

It’s a noble idea, and even if the MAC doesn’t have the funding, interest or ingenuity to pull this off — or if it has a policy strictly forbidding anything I thought up — it should definitely consider opportunities to air games that consist of more than brief coverage on ESPN2. Maybe one where analysts discuss the game beforehand for more than 30 seconds, introduce the world to more than one person from each team and don’t devolve the on-air discussion into Texas’ national championship hopes by the third quarter.

If the MAC can’t fill 24 hours a day of MAC sports, then just get some filler material. It doesn’t even need sports-related programming. Entice the insomniac and college crowd with syndicated episodes of TV shows nobody seems to air anymore, like “Wings,” “The Critic” and “Mystery Science Theatre 3000.” Then, bam, hit them with a thoughtful breakdown of Western Michigan’s linebackers.

Also, let me posit one other requirement on this MAC cable channel, if the conference is so benevolent as to take my idea: make it a rule that the station completely goes off the air on Tuesdays.

Matt Sussman blogs at his site, http://futonreport.net/.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 1:20 am and is filed under Futon Report, Sports.
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