Dec. 26 @ 8 - Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan vs. Florida Atlantic, ESPN
Dec. 28 @ 8:15 - Independence Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech, ESPN
Dec. 30 @ 8 - Texas Bowl: Western Michigan vs. Rice, NFL Network
Jan. 3 @ noon - International Bowl: Buffalo vs. Connecticut, ESPN2
Jan. 6 @ 8 - GMAC Bowl: Ball State vs. Tulsa, ESPN


Those are the matchups?

Who will win? Why?

How will the MAC do?

epasnoopy Wrote:Dec. 26 @ 8 - Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan vs. Florida Atlantic, ESPN
Dec. 28 @ 8:15 - Independence Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech, ESPN
Dec. 30 @ 8 - Texas Bowl: Western Michigan vs. Rice, NFL Network
Jan. 3 @ noon - International Bowl: Buffalo vs. Connecticut, ESPN2
Jan. 6 @ 8 - GMAC Bowl: Ball State vs. Tulsa, ESPN


Those are the matchups?

Who will win? Why?

How will the MAC do?

Central will win to finish off the season on a good note following their bad lost to Eastern.
Northern IL. will lose because they just aren't very good plus La Tech will have a good following there.
Western Michigan will lose in a shoot out against a good Rice team.
Buffalo's clock will strikes 12:00 after a great season, U Conn too much for the Bulls.
Ball St. win's against a good Tulsa team in the best game of the five. Great finish to a great season for the Cardinals

MAC go's 2-3. I hope I'm wrong and the MAC goes 5-0!

Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan vs. Florida Atlantic - Easy pick here. Central Michigan should win in blow out fashion. CMU will probably have 15x as many fans in what should be a home game for them. FAU probably has 500 or so tops. Still confused annoyed that what is supposed to be our top bowl game is dealt a SUN Belt at-large in two of the last three years.

Independence Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech - Tough pick. It really is a tossup for me but my head says LT by a very small margin. NIU has done well in all but two games this year. We have a great defense and good running game (when its clicking). I don't like how we ended the season but maybe we can redeem ourselves to avoid a second-straight losing season. LT also ended their season on a loss at home. I'd consider Navy a better team than Nevada though.

Texas Bowl: Western Michigan vs. Rice - I like WMU in this one. WMU has just as good of an offense and a better defense. WMU will have a lot of time to get healthy with some banged up WR's and DB's.

International Bowl: Buffalo vs. Connecticut - I like Buffalo. Both teams have great RB's but i think Buffalo has more offensive firepower with Drew Willy and Roosevelt. Can Buffalo stop Brown?

GMAC Bowl: Ball State vs. Tulsa - Ball State should win this one. But they also were expected to win the MACC easily too. Tulsa has been going downhill and has no defense. If the real Ball State team shows up they'll win. Ball State has a much better defense than Tulsa and an equally impressive offense.


4-1 bowl record

epasnoopy Wrote:Dec. 26 @ 8 - Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan vs. Florida Atlantic, ESPN
Dec. 28 @ 8:15 - Independence Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech, ESPN
Dec. 30 @ 8 - Texas Bowl: Western Michigan vs. Rice, NFL Network
Jan. 3 @ noon - International Bowl: Buffalo vs. Connecticut, ESPN2
Jan. 6 @ 8 - GMAC Bowl: Ball State vs. Tulsa, ESPN

Definitely the best set of bowls the MAC has ever had.

My guess is 3-2. I think NIU will have a tough time against LaTech and I could see BSU or WMU losing a game down south against comparable CUSA opponents. Buffalo I think is going to take UConn on a neutral site who looks floundering going into the bowl.

The MAC needs to work on securing more games against the BCS. Out of 5 bowls this year only 1 is a BCS opponent.