Mid-American Bandwagon Episode 50

Hustle Belt: for Mid-American Conference fans

Folks, with your help, we’ve officially made it to 50 episodes. This has been an incredibly fun journey - thank you all for stopping by and listening each and every week! Let’s get right into this weeks’ episode.

In this weeks’ news segment, the boys recap the MAC results at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Kent State discus thrower Gabby Bailey was the highlight for the MAC representatives in the field - she finished 6th in the discus, good enough to earn First Team All-American Honors. A trio of other MAC athletes earned Second Team and Honorable Mention All-American recognition, so we think it’s safe to say that the MAC athletes who competed represented the conference well.

In some football transfer news (seems to be a lot of that, lately), NIU QB Ross Bowers announced that he would be transferring elsewhere for his final season of college ball. A two year starter for the Huskies, his veteran presence will certainly be missed. This seems to clear the way for Michigan State transfer Rocky Lombardi to take over under center this fall, though we will see what happens when fall camp opens up in August.

In some volleyball news, Ball State hired Donan Cruz as their new men’s volleyball coach. Cruz will replace Ball State legend Joel Walton, who led the Cardinals program for 23 years. Cruz is coming off an incredibly successful run at NAIA Grand View University, having won two national championships in his ten years as head coach.

In some branding news, Eastern Michigan announced a partnership with marketing professional Jeremy Darlow to help EMU athletes take advantage of the new Name, Image, and Likeness rules. This seems to be a trend among division one athletic departments, and the Eagles are the fourth MAC school to announce such a partnership. At Akron, the Zips announced a new five year deal with Nike to allow the apparel giant to outfit all of Akron’s athletic teams.

To close out this weeks show, the boys introduce a new segment - “Why Are You a Fan?” Zach and Sam want to understand each fanbase in the MAC, and what better way to do that then talk to the fans themselves? To start this off, the boys welcome on fellow Belter Zack VanNieuwenhze (aka @thevannzee on Twitter) to talk about how he became an Eastern Michigan fan. We look forward to continuing this segment throughout the summer, and can’t wait to learn more about the passionate fans at each of the MAC schools!

As always, thanks for stopping by this week folks, and thank you for the continued support over the past year. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here next week!

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