Sometimes a MAC team simply outshines all the others and plays on a higher level. They storm through the MAC season undefeated, and end up going to the MAC championship game nationally ranked. They clinch a trip to Detroit before the season is even over.

NIU was that team in 2013, 2012, and 2010. Kent also did it in 2012. CMU in 2009. But that only accounts for half of the division winners in the last five years. In other years, you have cases where no one in the division has a perfect record, and it comes down to the wire in the last week of the season. That's when the tie-breaker procedures come in to play, and you end up with "co-champions", which is just a fancy way of saying first loser. In 2010, Maimio needed Ohio to get upset by an average Kent team to slip in to the MCC.

My point is that while the Huskies may not be steamrolling their way through the MAC and on to Detroit like their last two seasons, they are still control of their destiny. I have not seen any other MAC teams outshining the rest of the conference this year, either, and that includes Toledo. We all know too well that teams that barely sneak in to the MCC can still go home with the trophy.