Combining regular season and bowl games:


1. Big 12
2. SEC
3. MWC
4. PAC-10
5. ACC
6. Big East
7. Big 10
8. Independents
9. C-USA
10. WAC
11. MAC
12. Sun Belt

Even though PAC-10 was 5-0 in bowl games, they still got their A$$e$ kicked by MWC in regular season and Utah is the lone undefeated D-1 school. Actually if Oklahoma wins, TCU will have lost to the 2 teams who were 26-1 and held the national champs to their lowest offensive output, and defeated BCS#9 - undefeated Boise State - in the Poinsettia Bowl. Also even though the MAC didn't win any bowl games, they are still stronger than Sun Belt on a bad day overall.

With the poor performance of MAC teams in bowl games and in particular Ball State's loss the MAC will be hard pressed to get a team into the top 25 again. The success of MAC teams against Big Ten teams speaks more to how bad the Big Ten has become than it does to the improved quality of MAC teams.

(01-08-2009 01:22 PM)HuskieBro Wrote:  With the poor performance of MAC teams in bowl games and in particular Ball State's loss the MAC will be hard pressed to get a team into the top 25 again. The success of MAC teams against Big Ten teams speaks more to how bad the Big Ten has become than it does to the improved quality of MAC teams.

In regards to your first sentance, I would say that it would be hard for another MAC team to make top 25 with the SOS that Ball State had last year. Hindsight is 20/20, and looking back on BSU's year, their biggest wins were against Navy and the other MAC East bowl teams, none of whom were top 25. Hypothetically, if NIU were to start the season with a big win vs Wiscy, they would be top 25 and deserve it.

As for your second comment, it shows both MAC has got better, and the Big 10 has got worse, the overall difference between the two conferences has got smaller.

Agreed in that BSU's SOS will mean we, as a conference, will have to work much harder to place a team in the Top 25 again. And perhaps deservedly so.

But I also think the "Play Boise State - or No?" controversy and all the "undefeated" talk created distractions. Florida and USC may play through all the media chatter, but not inexperienced teams rarely in the limelight like our conference members. Once Buffalo stained their season and Hoke signed off to a warmer climate, I wasn't optimistic about their chances in Mobile.

I said this elsewhere on the MAC board as well, but I think the MAC just doesn't bring as much intensity to the bowl game itself than do other bowl-savvy teams in other conferences. The level of fire among MAC teams seems obviously higher when we travel to big OOC games during the regular season, but something just happens in our bowl games. Are we (meaning players, ADs, coaches, etc.) too comfortable in talking about how it's a reward for the program, bowl week festivities, payouts, extra practice time, etc, that the game itself risks being an afterthought? A little too much "just happy to be here" when the opponent is licking its chops to get another win under its belt? Not sure if this is the case, but it's a theory.