The more exposure the conference gets, it's better for us. You want our future recruits to know the teams in our conference and the brand. Otherwise it's just like the D2 days of playing no name teams like Augustana, St Cloud, and Mankato in front of small crowds. There is a hige difference between those teams and UNI, SIU, and Youngstown. I want recruits to know they will be playing at cool stadiums with large road crowds. Players want that. Heck a selling point I'm the big 10 is you get to play at other cool stadium like the big house.
So when sdsu, Illinois state, southern Illinois get new stadiums and more exposure it's a good thing. As long as we keep up
My thoughts are if you don't start seeing teams like Indiana State and Missouri State invest in the conference, football, and TV get them the fuck out of here. We need teams who want to win and draw. I would get Eastern Illinois in a heartbeat over Indiana State who obviously couldn't care less about football by the looks of the crowds. If you don't draw 10k regularly you are small time and not committed. (Yeah eiu has a capacity of only 10k but more potential in a better conference)