In football... I mean wow.

The SBC has Troy, Georgia Southern and Appy who all would be favored against any MAC team. I have a feeling Kent might grab Toledo now considering the state of MAC football...

The conference is definitely weak this year. NIU had the West locked up with two games to go. The East seems to be anyone's show every year and no sustained success over there. If Buffalo wins the East then NIU will have played every team in the East division in the MAC Championship.

(11-15-2018 07:02 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  The conference is definitely weak this year. NIU had the West locked up with two games to go. The East seems to be anyone's show every year and no sustained success over there. If Buffalo wins the East then NIU will have played every team in the East division in the MAC Championship.

Ohio has consistently been competitive in the East and BG had a run a few years ago.

I do think the conference being down may be a reason why Buffalo has risen to the occasion in 2018, steamrolling in its West games.

Miami with its back-2-back Ohio and NIU wins is showing all that solid recruiting has finally matured. They played Buffalo pretty tough too in a loss.

Well we've only won a single bowl game the last two seasons, not like we've been the golden children of the G5 in that regard. Maybe we'll outperform low expectations this season.

But at the same time time the MAC could have 8 teams bowl eligible. When has that ever happened in the MAC?

(11-15-2018 09:25 AM)mpurdy22 Wrote:  But at the same time time the MAC could have 8 teams bowl eligible. When has that ever happened in the MAC?

It doesn't matter because in the MAC the magic number is 7 for a bowl (unless you get lucky).

(11-15-2018 09:39 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(11-15-2018 09:25 AM)mpurdy22 Wrote:  But at the same time time the MAC could have 8 teams bowl eligible. When has that ever happened in the MAC?

It doesn't matter because in the MAC the magic number is 7 for a bowl (unless you get lucky).

My point is, I would argue the MAC is not weak in football this year. Wins over Northwestern, Purdue and BYU and potentially 8 bowl eligible teams doesn't translate to weak.

(11-15-2018 10:19 AM)mpurdy22 Wrote:  

(11-15-2018 09:39 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(11-15-2018 09:25 AM)mpurdy22 Wrote:  But at the same time time the MAC could have 8 teams bowl eligible. When has that ever happened in the MAC?

It doesn't matter because in the MAC the magic number is 7 for a bowl (unless you get lucky).

My point is, I would argue the MAC is not weak in football this year. Wins over Northwestern, Purdue and BYU and potentially 8 bowl eligible teams doesn't translate to weak.

Look at our computer rankings. When I did my podcast, I only talked about top 65 teams. The best 1/2 of college football. That was between 12 and 20 G5 squads per week.

Right now:
63 UNT
61 GaSo
59 SDSU (beat EMU in OT)
57 Houston
52 NIU (prior to loss)
48 Troy
46 Temple (lost to UB)
40 UAB
38 App State
37 UB (prior to loss)
30 Army (beat EMU, UB and Miami)
26 Cincinnati (beat Miami and Ohio)
25 Boise State
22 Fresno State (beat Toledo)
21 Utah State
9 UCF

That's 2 top half of football teams...

126 BGSU
125 CMU
124 Kent
116 Ball State
100 Akron
92 Miami
90 WMU
87 Toledo
75 EMU
72 Ohio
52 NIU
37 UB

Our middle teams are ranked 92 and 90.
Our average total rank is 91.333

With the amount of bowl games only 4 teams actually should be representing college football if the top 80 teams play in all 40 games.

We have slipped behind the SBC and CUSA has a top25 team.

(11-15-2018 10:19 AM)mpurdy22 Wrote:  

(11-15-2018 09:39 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(11-15-2018 09:25 AM)mpurdy22 Wrote:  But at the same time time the MAC could have 8 teams bowl eligible. When has that ever happened in the MAC?

It doesn't matter because in the MAC the magic number is 7 for a bowl (unless you get lucky).

My point is, I would argue the MAC is not weak in football this year. Wins over Northwestern, Purdue and BYU and potentially 8 bowl eligible teams doesn't translate to weak.

Ohio's OOC loses were to Virginia (7-3; 4-2 ACC) and Cincinnati (9-1; 5-1 AAC) and I think they could have pulled off a win against one of them had Ohio been playing in mid-season form.

I think the MAC has been generally OK this year. It seems like we've just been beating each other up during MAC play and there's no real clear cut #1. Hopefully the MAC pulls off a few more bowl wins than we did last year though.

MAC title game will have little hype on the national stage. Both divisional champ will each have embarrassing league losses to their resumes. League as a whole needs a team similar to the 2017 WMU team every single year to maintain national relevance. This year ain't it.

(11-15-2018 08:04 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  MAC title game will have little hype on the national stage. Both divisional champ will each have embarrassing league losses to their resumes. League as a whole needs a team similar to the 2017 WMU team every single year to maintain national relevance. This year ain't it.

The tv viewers will watch 2 NIU drives and turn the channel. Boring as hell.

(11-15-2018 08:04 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  MAC title game will have little hype on the national stage. Both divisional champ will each have embarrassing league losses to their resumes. League as a whole needs a team similar to the 2017 WMU team every single year to maintain national relevance. This year ain't it.

2017 WMU? I'm guessing you mean 2016 unless you think last season's 6-6 Bronco team was the summit of gridiron perfection. And in reality the MAC isn't really relevant even if we have a big team like that, except for the bowl game and maybe one MACtion game.

(11-15-2018 08:49 PM)NIUSox10 Wrote:  

(11-15-2018 08:04 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  MAC title game will have little hype on the national stage. Both divisional champ will each have embarrassing league losses to their resumes. League as a whole needs a team similar to the 2017 WMU team every single year to maintain national relevance. This year ain't it.

The tv viewers will watch 2 NIU drives and turn the channel. Boring as hell.

Lol, probably very true. I'm a fan and I still find this offense excruciatingly difficult to watch.

(11-15-2018 09:12 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(11-15-2018 08:04 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  MAC title game will have little hype on the national stage. Both divisional champ will each have embarrassing league losses to their resumes. League as a whole needs a team similar to the 2017 WMU team every single year to maintain national relevance. This year ain't it.

2017 WMU? I'm guessing you mean 2016 unless you think last season's 6-6 Bronco team was the summit of gridiron perfection. And in reality the MAC isn't really relevant even if we have a big team like that, except for the bowl game and maybe one MACtion game.

Yes, meant 2016 WMU...they hosted College Game Day that season, played in a big bowl game against a top 10 opponent. There was a lot of national relevance that year for the MAC.

We could have a 7-5 team versus a 6-6 team in the MACC. And yes, I'm not as confident in UB beating BUGS as I was a couple weeks ago. When UB is bad, they are really, really bad.

(11-21-2018 07:47 AM)zibby Wrote:  We could have a 7-5 team versus a 6-6 team in the MACC. And yes, I'm not as confident in UB beating BUGS as I was a couple weeks ago. When UB is bad, they are really, really bad.

Last time that happened...

2005 MAC Championship: 7-5 NIU vs. 6-6 Akron

7-5 NIU
7-5 WMU
7-5 EMU
7-5 TOLEDO
4-8 BSU
1-11 CMU

10-2 UB
8-4 OU
6-6 MU
4-8 BGSU
4-8 Akron
2-10 KSU
.is the projected final.