(01-16-2011 04:21 AM)Sultan of Euphonistan Wrote:  

(01-16-2011 12:08 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  When I said Everyone I mean AQ schools because they obviously don't respect non AQ let alone the rated worst non AQ conferance. And the analyst's... well they dont hate the sunbelt, but they certainly don't give them the time of day to show or prove themselves. If there is a story about Arkansas state or a story about a C-USA school/WAC or any other nonAQ conferance, you bet they will take the story about one of the other schools. The name Sun Belt is just laughable right now in College football as a whole. Honestly so is the MAC, but if you ask some random people on the street about College football, they will definitely say that they have heard of Bowling Green or Toledo over North Texas or Florida International...

My family was originally from Florida before they moved to New York. They of course have heard of Florida International, Florida Atlantic, and many other Sun Belt schools. They have not heard of most of the MAC teams and the ones they have heard of they did not know they played in division IA (such as knowing Kent State exists but they did not know that they had a football team that could potentially play in a bowl until I went to KSU). They thought Bowling Green was in Kentucky (did not know about the university either) and never have heard of Toledo having a major school/football team. You would not believe how surprised they were to hear Toledo has been very successful over the decades. You are doing what my parents have done, you have let your regional knowledge color your perception of the football world. While Florida International is not a big name to you it is for them and I can assume Toledo is much better known here than down in Florida. Now the casual fan out west? I have no idea what they think, I would assume they might know WAC and MWC schools and have relatively little knowledge of us or the Sun Belt but that is pure speculation on my part.

You picked an example of a someone from Florida...? talk to someone on the west coast that hasn't lived in the Midwest or south. Still not the point the point is that The SBC is looked at as the bottom conferance and the MAC will not get surpassed by the SBC because of a 2-1 defeat in bowl games.

Oh I agree that a 2-1 record will not change the pecking order and I think my last sentence mentioned that I do not know what someone from the West Coast would know (I would imagine they know neither the MAC or Sun Belt). I lived out in California at one point but I am not from there so I do not know and asking people on these boards would likely not help since it seems that many of the people on these boards are not what I call the "casual fan". I of course will cheer for the MAC and now so does my family!

The SBC is getting better, but so are we, and they are not getting good enough to immidiately surpass us because of Geographical recruiting.

The MAC will bounce back, I expect KSU, MU, NIU, UT, TU, and CMU to all have good seasons next year. WMU, BG, OU and EMU will all be improving also. This conferance can be the least competitive, and the most competitive. I think we will be very competitive at the top next year, not the bottom like the past few years. The MAC teams could have worse records next year but be better quality than this. Maybe a MACC with 2 conferance losses....We'll see.

I also heard somewhere that 65% or something like that was underclassman starters this year. No link or anything but if that's true that speaks big things about the young tallent in this conferance.

(01-16-2011 09:19 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  The SBC is getting better, but so are we, and they are not getting good enough to immidiately surpass us because of Geographical recruiting.

The MAC will bounce back, I expect KSU, MU, NIU, UT, TU, and CMU to all have good seasons next year. WMU, BG, OU and EMU will all be improving also. This conferance can be the least competitive, and the most competitive. I think we will be very competitive at the top next year, not the bottom like the past few years. The MAC teams could have worse records next year but be better quality than this. Maybe a MACC with 2 conferance losses....We'll see.

I also heard somewhere that 65% or something like that was underclassman starters this year. No link or anything but if that's true that speaks big things about the young tallent in this conferance.

Oh I certainly hope so. Just gives me more to cheer in football season next year!