The MAC Attack

[The Gloaming]

By DAVIS

Toledo over Arkansas, Bowling Green blasts Maryland, Northern Illinois quiets the Shoe for an afternoon. Ohio University is 3-0, Western Michigan hangs with Sparty and sure as poop, a MAC school probably beat Purdue cause thats what everyone does. How good is the MAC?

Not that good.

Let’s be honest, we all love a great underdog story. Rudy, Rocky, George Mason, Florida Gulf Coast, Appalachian State and NC State, who can resist the tales of teams that weren’t supposed to be there, going up against recruiting machines and big universities. Well that’s the MAC, the little conference that can but doesn’t most of the time. We loved seeing Bret Bielema eat his words against the Rockets at home but that wasn’t a shocker, the Razorbacks weren’t very good and Texas Tech reinforced that message . Bowling Green embarrassed Maryland at home but that wasn’t a shocker, Maryland isn’t very good. And now we are hearing it out of Columbus that Northern Illinois is a quality football team, that they win 11 games a year and they could play in the big ten. True, the huskies have been the cream of the crop in MAC land and could absolutely play ball in the big ten but where the hell are the marquee wins? Nah, good luck finding those. Bowling Green, Toledo? Nope, no big wins. Rest of the MAC? Wins over Marshall and Utah State? Do those count!?

It seems that teams from the MAC like to sneak up on Power 5s a few times a year and pull off the monumental upsets. The Mid American Conference shares territory with the big ten so naturally the two conferences love to work out deals to play and we see the two match up often, sometimes big ten schools playing the MAC twice in a season (osu plays NIU and Western Michigan this season). NIU took ohio state to the wire on Saturday, even having a chance to tie or go for 2 and win the game so naturally everyone thinks the Huskies are a very good team. The same huskies who beat Murray State and UNLV, hanging with the buckeyes. Was it a testament to how good NIU was or how pedestrian ohio states “explosive,” offense was(is). NIU benefited from the Quarterback mess at ohio state, and yes, it is a mess. But the high powered offense that NIU supposedly had, no. Whatever helps you sleep at night Columbus.

Northern Illinois hasn’t won a game of substance…ever. They have however beat Iowa, Purdue, Northwestern in the last two seasons. Northern Illinois is a good big ten team and a great MAC team.

What the MAC does well is recruit the same territory that most big ten schools recruit and then maximize the most out of those recruits, kudos to the coaching. The problem for the MAC is that they recruit the same territory that most of the big ten does landing them corn fed boys from iowa, indiana, and other nothing-going-on-states. So with the two conferences playing each other multiple times a year, you are going to see MAC teams beat up big ten teams and vice versa. It’s not really shocking even though the MAC isn’t a Power 5. The conference is just as good as most of the big ten outside of osu/msu/…..wisconsin? Perhaps those teams should leave the big ten for greener pastures? I kid but seriously.

Let’s just call it this: Bret Bielema should keep his mouth shut, Maryland is bad and ohio states offense is a mess. Sometimes the underdogs win or make it interesting but they are dogs for a reason.

[OICU812]

Troll again.

[noreply66]

The guy is just trolling along

[OICU812]

Ha I see what you did there NoReply

[dazed&confused]

Thought I'd waste a few minutes of time to read this. Sure enough, I'll never get those minutes back.

[1987chieftains]

Thought I'd waste a few minutes of time to read this. Sure enough, I'll never get those minutes back.