The upcoming year could produce huge benefits for the MAC, especially in football.
I see a three part challenge.
1-Can the MAC repeat last year when some of the top tier teams recorded impressive out of conference victories, played quality football on TV, finished the season ranked in the Top 25, and won their Bowl Games?
2-Can there be an improvement in won-loss records and in out of conference play by some of the teams who last year did not have a good season? Indeed some of these teams have not had good seasons for quite a while. A reasonable goal is to have the MAC as a whole achieve a winning record. Last year was 84 wins and 89 losses.
3-Can all MAC teams achieve a minimum of 15,000 home attendance, regardless of whether the proposed new NCAA rule is passed or not?
I'm setting these three challenges as my MAC goals for next season. Can they be met? I think so, but I believe all MAC fans would agree that this is a major task.
If all three challenges were to be met, I think the rewards could be huge. It could move towards erasing the perception of the MAC as "a conference with some really good teams but also some really bad teams". It might solidify the status of the MAC as a national player. And it might help improve recruiting and scheduling throughout the MAC so that its future becomes even brighter.
The table is set for the MAC, C-USA, WAC, and Sun Belt to become the next nationally respected conference. I believe that next season could give the MAC a solid lead in this race.
LET'S GO MAC !!!
Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:2-Can there be an improvement in won-loss records and in out of conference play by some of the teams who last year did not have a good season? Indeed some of these teams have not had good seasons for quite a while. A reasonable goal is to have the MAC as a whole achieve a winning record. Last year was close--73 wins and 76 losses.
This was tantalizingly close. Surely, Marshall over TSU and Toledo over UNLV weren't too much to ask.
Of course they got unexpected wins over KSU and Pitt, but it shows how close things were.
Just as important here is the MAC must stop losing to Div IAA teams. That would have turned the tide last season as well (Buff and EMU had such losses I believe).
Get that fixed and things will keep rolling.
It will be quite a challenge for the MAC to repeat last year's success (i.e. 2 bowl wins, 1 team in the top 10 and 2 in the top 25, plus NIU at #26), so I don't think it's fair to go into the season expecting that anything less would be a disappointment. I would also point out that not only did the MAC make some noise at the national level (NIU early and our bowl teams later plus another high profile QB taken early in the draft), there was considerable improvement in attendance by a number of conferenc members (BG, Miami, and NIU). Hopefully we can build upon the newly developing fan bases at these schools.......obviously winning is the key ingredient.
Lastly, where there are "winners", there are also "losers", so I would have to say that I'd be very surprised if some programs didn't continue to struggle with this 15K "magical" mark set for attendance. I do think that the final NCAA attendance rule will be softened from the proposal, as it should be (IMHO). I don't have an issue with a reasonable attendance requirement (achieving 15K once every three years perhaps), but it should be a component of IA membership, not an arbitrary defining component intent on driving out long-standing IA programs.
The MAC really only needs to do #1. Doing the other two without the first would mean little.
Also the chances the MAC top teams will have their best OOC season ever or even their second best (with last year as the benchmark) is a real longshot. Your #1 goal is a big, big task.
And re: #2--what we really have to do is stop scheduling 1-AA teams at all. The conference needs more 1A home games. The 1-AA games are a no-win proposition.
My original tally of MAC wins and losses was incorrect because I excluded Marshall and UCF. So, including them, the correct tally for the MAC as a whole is 84 wins and 89 losses. I edited my original post to show this.
I wonder what happens when you factor out the 1-AA games.
Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:2-Can there be an improvement in won-loss records and in out of conference play by some of the teams who last year did not have a good season? Indeed some of these teams have not had good seasons for quite a while. A reasonable goal is to have the MAC as a whole achieve a winning record. Last year was 84 wins and 89 losses.
So that's 173 total games played between 14 teams. Over 10 games per team. Somehow your math is not quite making sense to me. Say each team played 4 OOC games.....14x4=64 total games.
I'll be the first one to say that Buffalo will not lose to another D-IAA program this year. Thank God we didn't schedule any. In all fairness though, last years loss was to Colgate, who made it to the Championship game.
HerdKixButt--The 84 wins 89 losses is the total for ALL games played by MAC teams last year.
Now as for meeting the three challenges I sketched out in my initial post, let's take a closer look at the first one. I think that the big step is in getting some early season out of conference wins. Consider this scenario:
9-4 and 9-5: a) Toledo wins at Minnesota. This would put the MAC right back in the national spotlight. B) And if Central Michigan wins at Indiana the MAC would really be hot. c) An Akron win at Penn St. would do the same. One win of these three would start the bandwagon.
9-11:A Toledo win at Kansas would keep the bandwagon going. If the MAC can have two good out of conference wins by this time, we're starting to meet the challenge.
9-18 Kent at Rutgers. This would be sweet but a loss doesn't stop the momentum. Northern Illinois at Iowa St. I'm banking on this one to keep the MAC Momentum rolling. A real plus would be a Western Michigan win at Illinois.
10-2 Ohio at Kentucky. We don't have to have this one but again it would be sweet.
The point is that given the schedule, the stage is set once again for the MAC to grab some national spotlight. IF Toledo could somehow win their first four games (at Minnesota, at Kansas, at Eastern Michigan, and home to Temple) the MAC would be well on its way to meeting what I call the first challenge. This coupled with one other solid out of conference win would do the job until conference games begin.
Here's my "MAC EARTHQUAKE UPSET" fantasy. Syracuse plays at Buffalo on 9-11. Man what that would do for Buffalo and the MAC.
GO BULLS!!
As far as fantasies go--GO BG on 9-4. Remember, that one is at Oklahoma.
I'd love for nothing more than to beat the WVU punks in the Big East. I believe we will. We have them at home, which is a big advantage.
@Penn State should be winnable also. We were 3 points away in 2002, and they had a much better team then.
Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:9-18 Kent at Rutgers. This would be sweet but a loss doesn't stop the momentum.
Kent is going to win at Rutgers and will have a winning OOC record this year. Of course we need to play Liberty at home to do it
wait a minute that's not funny
Quote:wait a minute that's not funny
Neither is that fact that we are going to have a "home opener" parade from the campus to Dix Stadium for the Liberty game. The KSU band will lead the way...it can make me tear up and cry .
FlashFan Wrote:Quote:wait a minute that's not funny
Neither is that fact that we are going to have a "home opener" parade from the campus to Dix Stadium for the Liberty game. The KSU band will lead the way...it can make me tear up and cry .
Hey that’s a long walk.... Lets hope it is somewhat analogous to Moses leading the Israelites out of the desert after 40 years of wandering to the Promised Land. BTW, have they built anything out there along the road or is it all still fields?
Go Flashes!
Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:HerdKixButt--The 84 wins 89 losses is the total for ALL games played by MAC teams last year.
Well I don't know about you but I have a suspicion that the MAC played about .500 ball against itself......
HerdKixButt Wrote:Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:HerdKixButt--The 84 wins 89 losses is the total for ALL games played by MAC teams last year.
Well I don't know about you but I have a suspicion that the MAC played about .500 ball against itself......
:rofl:
Seriously though.....didn't Buffalo lose to itself?
rocketfootball Wrote:HerdKixButt Wrote:Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:HerdKixButt--The 84 wins 89 losses is the total for ALL games played by MAC teams last year.
Well I don't know about you but I have a suspicion that the MAC played about .500 ball against itself......
:rofl:
Seriously though.....didn't Buffalo lose to itself?
Hey, it was only that one time! But that game is under protest.
