You said the MAC made great money off their TV contracts and they don't. $700k for all sports--basketball and football--is not a lucrative football contract.
That's not what I said. I said at the G5 level, the money is too good, one of several reasons schools are not looking to drop football.
As far as Buffalo goes, I agree with you on the stadium and the weeknight games, our struggles are lack of fan support, but these things damage our ability to build a fan base. At the end of the day, our only hope is for the product on the field to improve.
I have always maintained the most damaging to building a fan base is the incompetence coming from the administration, AD's office and the tepid support for UB from the state. This has resulted in what was a solid program in the 70s only to be dropped entirely, resurrected as a D3 program, graduating to a moribund D1 program for years, then to a vision of becoming the next big time athletics brand and retreating to a woefully under-promoted NY's Public Powerhouse. One must have a vision, stick to it, build it, stay true to it even in the face of taking step back on occasion, and continually bring along people both inside and outside the university along who are totally committed to the vision. Lacking that football is likely to continue as a rudderless program.