In college basketball, the scene of an African-American coach cutting down nets to celebrate a national title is nothing new.

The Mid-American Conference announced Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, that it will have a 6-game football season, meaning all 10 major conferences will play this fall. The conference will begin testing athletes four times per week, starting Oct 5. If all goes well, by the first weekend of November, there will be college football from coast-to-coast. The pandemic is still not under control in many states, but college football will go on in front of empty stadiums or limited attendance. Especially if you’re doing them on a daily basis.”___Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.westwoodonepodcasts.com/pods/ap-top-25-college-football-podcast/___More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25More AP college football: http://apnews.com/Collegefootball and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25

In many ways, the Mid-American Conference has little in common with Power Five leagues that first come to mind when fans think of major college football. In a typical season, NFL scouts might find one or two potential first-round draft picks playing at the 12 MAC schools that dot the Midwest. So is the MAC an anomaly, done in by its small budgets or is this a dire sign of things to come in college football? The MAC also shares about $90 million per year in College Football Playoff money with four other conferences. MAC schools, with athletic budgets in the $30 million range, rely heavily on payouts from road games against power conference teams.

Guarantee games, or buy games, are essential to many athletic departments that field Division I football teams but have far smaller budgets than those at Power Five schools. This season, 39 major college football schools have scheduled a total of 49 buy games worth an estimated $65 million. The pandemic has made everything about the coming college football season uncertain. If the season is cut short or rearranged, conferences will prioritize playing conference games, which usually have more value both financially and competitively. Kent State, from the Mid-American Conference, has three guarantee games this season with Alabama, Kentucky and Penn State worth $4.95 million.