Quote:We won't have the one top 25 or top 40 team this year but we have some interesting teams with marque players.
The problem is, CMU probably won't go on a win streak. @Toledo, they were kept at arms-length pretty much the whole game. They rely SO much on Rawls (and Davis). They convincingly lost to Kansas, and got Stomped by Syracuse at home -- not in Bball -- but football -- without Rawls & Davis. Relying so much on that, you'll lose games you shouldn't lose, but win some games others didn't expect.
With WMU, they're "learning". During the Toledo game, Franklin was dinged up for a good while, but we still fought through for a barn-burner -- even though against Toledo's strong Run D we had nobody else to compete with well. However, WMU is wonky. See 1st half @BSU vs 2nd half @BSU.
Miami-OH is climbing up, UMass obviously is a real team now (albeit finding a way to lose in almost every game), and EMU is showing signs of life taking out Buffalo who's the hallmark of the "mediocre" line most years in the MAC.
I would rather see NIU go undefeated in the MAC and go 12-1 into bowls, possibly grabbing the BCS Bowl if Marshall & ECU slip up (which very well could happen). Or, at the end of conference season, be ranked. NIU seemed to be humming, but they went BACKWARDS. They struggled to beat Kent. KENT! UMass stomped them. Hence, CMU beating NIU wasn't that shocking. Before the game, if someone said "It'll be the same NIU team that played against Kent", if the answer is "Yes" that Rawls & Davis were to play for CMU -- the final answer would be "CMU will beat NIU, unless CMU totally shoots themselves in the foot."
And Toledo. Sheesh. Missouri is a skitzo team themselves, but Toledo solidly fell short at home against them. And they lost to Iowa State, as ISU solidly held them back in the 2nd half. Sure, ISU has a nice D, but they have no O. Toledo was not impressive there. Well, it would have been semi-impressive as, say, a 5-3/7-5 MAC team. But not representing a Top-Mac-West team.
BGSU? Talk about NO D. Sure, Ohio has a good D, and they kept them down -- but Ohio's team gives up points because their D is on the field so long, since their O sucks. BGSU is the opposite -- their great O can make their D look decent against a team that can't score points when BGSU hogs the time on the field.
So in the end, what do we have? A brutal anyone-can-beat-anyone conference (minus Kent State, and kinda-minus EMU for better teams @home).
I wouldn't dislike the "anyone can beat anyone" nature of the conference IF:
- Toledo showed up in 1st half against Cinci to beat them
- Toledo had a better game against Missouri at home, and held on to beat Iowa State
- NIU didn't get pasted by Arkansas
- CMU beat Kansas and at least went down to the wire against Syracuse
- BSU didn't lose to Indiana State (FCS)
- BSU held on to beat Iowa instead of handing them the game late
- Bowling Green had a Close game against Wisconsin
- Bowling Green beat W. Kentucky
- Akron didn't get stomped by Marshall, but made it a close game
Then, our conference would look good -- so we'd be allowed to punch each other in the face randomly. :)