With the Toledo win over Bowling Green, Toledo should edge back into the top 25 polls again. With BG loosing that game and going to 3 losses and with Toledo now being eliminated from the MACC picture (no sane person really expects NIU to give away a game to Ohio, do they?), I think that the MAC just lost their final hope, slim as it already was, of getting an invitation to the access bowl and the BIG $$$ that go with it .

It was a long shot anyway as the AAC would get the invite over any MAC team if Houston or Navy and possibly even Temple is their champion----it would have probably taken South Florida (or Temple and some luck) winning the AAC to have opened the door to the MAC, a long shot at best, but even that small chance has now disappeared.

In 2013 when BG upset NIU in the MACC game that also likely cost NIU and the MAC a big BCS bowl type BIG $$$ pay day and, unlike this year, that year looked to be a pretty safe bet for the MAC until NIU choked at Ford Field.

Frankly I was surprised that the refs in the 2013 MACC game were not aware of the financial implications of the game and did not make a greater effort to protect the conference's financial interests, after all collegiate football is entirely driven by BIG $$$$$ these days.

There are a lot of MAC teams like Toledo who haven't been to the championship game in a long time that would bring an influx of fans. Toledo more than others because they are closer. At this point, BG and NIU fans have been there, done that, and the fans may be making bowl plans. There is a practical limit to how many times people can take off to go to post-season games. Some years, fans will have to choose between the MACC and the bowl game.

(11-19-2015 11:56 AM)T-Town Wrote:  With the Toledo win over Bowling Green, Toledo should edge back into the top 25 polls again. With BG loosing that game and going to 3 losses and with Toledo now being eliminated from the MACC picture (no sane person really expects NIU to give away a game to Ohio, do they?), I think that the MAC just lost their final hope, slim as it already was, of getting an invitation to the access bowl and the BIG $$$ that go with it .

It was a long shot anyway as the AAC would get the invite over any MAC team if Houston or Navy and possibly even Temple is their champion----it would have probably taken South Florida (or Temple and some luck) winning the AAC to have opened the door to the MAC, a long shot at best, but even that small chance has now disappeared.

In 2013 when BG upset NIU in the MACC game that also likely cost NIU and the MAC a big BCS bowl type BIG $$$ pay day and, unlike this year, that year looked to be a pretty safe bet for the MAC until NIU choked at Ford Field.

Frankly I was surprised that the refs in the 2013 MACC game were not aware of the financial implications of the game and did not make a greater effort to protect the conference's financial interests, after all collegiate football is entirely driven by BIG $$$$$ these days.

It damn sure looked like they were trying to do what you suggest the year before with Kent State not getting flagged a single time, despite some obvious ones that everyone saw.