After the MAC decided to realign the conference and place Bowling Green in the East division for 2005, the MAC Council of Presidents is now discussing the addition of new teams to the conference.

The council is asking MAC athletic directors to look for potential replacements for Marshall and Central Florida, who will leave the MAC after this season.

Bowling Green’s move from the West to the East balances the MAC with six teams in each division.

“We’d like to add one in the East and one in the West,” said NIU president John Peters, who serves as the chair of the MAC Council of Presidents. “From NIU’s perspective, we’d like a rival.”

NIU football coach Joe Novak had mixed feelings on Bowling Green’s move to the East Division.

“We were getting a real good thing going with them,” Novak said “Both sides enjoyed the rivalry, but it adds a bit of balance to our conference.”

Novak liked the idea of the addition of a rival for NIU.

“If it was to be a rival, it’d have to be a state school in Illinois,” Novak said. “It’d be nice to get another team out this way.”

The rival would have to meet the requirements for Division I-A basketball and football, Peters said.

The search for potential additions isn’t necessarily going to happen, Peters said.

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to expand,” Peters said. “It means we’re going to consider it.”

If teams are to be added, the main goal of the MAC is for the additional teams to strengthen the conference.

“We decided long ago we want to improve,” Peters said.

Central Florida entered the MAC solely as a football team and will now leave for the Big East in 2005. Another goal for future additions will be to add schools that wish to participate in all sports, unlike UCF, Peters said.

“We’re fairly flexible,” he said. “Obviously in the long term, you’d want a school to come in for all sports but some might not be able to do that right now.”