Let me just start out by saying this… I LOVE MACTION.

Weeknight college football? Fantastic. What can compete with it? #Funbelt? Nope. (In case you were wondering that is the Sun Belt Conference’s version of MACtion and it is terrible.)

So what is MACtion? MACtion is football in the Mid-American Conference. Specifically, it is the weeknight football games they play through their deal with ESPN. Last night, that game was Bowling Green at Toledo; a game Toledo won 27-20.

So how well is the business plan working? Well many critics say not too well. In an article written by Bryan Vance for SB Nation, you can see that the ratings aren’t exactly top notch.

MACtion averaged 500,000 viewers and a .37 rating for their weeknight games last year in November. MACtion made the MAC the eighth most watched conference in college football last year.

This year, according to ratings from sports media watch, MACtion is averaging 436,000 viewers per game (this is excluding last night’s game. Ratings are unavailable for it as of this post.)

While those numbers are based off of only two games of MACtion so far this year, it sure doesn’t look like more people are watching MACtion. You would think after last year the MAC would see the numbers and try to figure out how to actually become competitive in the college football market. 500,000 viewers per game is not impressive, especially since all games on ESPN2 this season are averaging 976,000 viewers.

Well clearly they like the business model. The MAC conference signed a contract in August to stay with ESPN and keep MACtion going for another 13 years. The deal gave each school about 500,000 more dollars per year, and it solidified the MAC’s future in television.

So it brings me back to the question: Why keep MACtion around?

To me, first and foremost it’s the brand name. MACtion is becoming a household name. What do you do on a Wednesday night in November when there is no Thursday night football and no College Football Rankings Show? How do you get your college football fix? You watch MACtion!

Was just asked “It’s Wednesday night. Why is there football?” Um, it’s Wednesday night. Why shouldn’t there be football? #MACtion — Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 20, 2014

Okay so MACtion has become a brand. It trends on social media. It is fun to watch! Often times the games are meaningless and high scoring. Often times you can watch bad football on a weeknight! Should that be enough to keep it around?

Well there is also the money aspect. Many opponents of MACtion say that because of the decrease in attendance, the schools don’t make as much money as they should. A Daily Chronicle article said two years ago NIU lost 30,000 dollars of revenue during their weeknight MACtion game because of lower ticket prices.

Well let me ask you, which is a higher number? 30,000 or 500,000? I would say it’s the half a million dollars that each school gets from their deal with ESPN. Let’s face it, there is no way to predict what the MAC would have received if it didn’t have weeknight games, but chances are it would be substantially less than what they get now.

MACtion began in order to give the MAC some exposure. There is no way the conference would have had games on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPNU when the major conferences are going to take those Saturday spots every time. The conference would have been banished to ESPN3 and not get the same amount of exposure.

This season, at least four MAC teams should go bowling in a bowl game. Every year from 2001-2003 only two teams made it to a bowl game, despite the fact that in 2001 six teams were eligible, in 2002 seven teams were eligible, and in 2003 six teams were eligible. The bowl game exposure is there.

You can argue all you want about drops in attendance, about tradition, about the fact that MACtion makes the conference a joke, but the fact of the matter is without MACtion… there would be no point of MAC football.

-Michael Stern

Follow @MSternTLB

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