The MAC is a conference on the decline. Gone of the years when you could count on the MAC to put a scare into the big boys on a consistant basis. Once in a while there will be a team that can put a scare into the big boys of the BCS confrences, like Ball State coming close to delivering the death knell to Michigans BCS dream. But I don’t see a repeat of Miami’s shokcing defeat of Big 10 champ Northwestern in 1995 ever again. Instead, the label of Giant Killer that the MAC wore so proudly for so long has moved west to the WAC and the Mountain West were the real Giant Killers now reside. There is good Football played in the MAC, the depth of the conference is as good as it has ever been. What the MAC is missing is a school that makes everyone else better. In the past Marshall was that school. The herd played in 6 straight MAC championship games, winning five of them in the heyday of Randy Moss, Byron Leftwhich, and Chad Pennington. But the Herd have moved to C-USA. But Marshall had fallen off before they moved on, but no one was able to step into their place an hold it. Miami had a fantastic year in 2003 and the thought was that Miami would become the class of the conference. Problem is that Miami has been steadily getting worse going from 13-1 to 8-5 to 74 and 2-10 last year. No one has been able to step into that vacum and hold onto that spot for very long. Toledo has the best record since 2000 but they only have 2 championships to show for it, and last season they went 5-7. For the MAC to earn back the stellar reputation they earned in the late 90′s someone needs to stake their claim to the top and defend it. This year everyone is on even ground, though the West is tougher by far than the East, more on that later though.
Standings
East
Kent State
Ohio
Miami
Akron
Bowling Green
Temple
Buffalo
West
Toledo
Central Michigan
Western Michigan
Northern Illinois
Ball State
Eastern Michigan
Game of the Year – Toledo at Central Michigan – September 8th
The easy way to do this would be to say that the game of the year will take place at Ford Field on the 1st of December, but that doesn’t quite get it done in my book. The MAC is like the Big 12, at least the Big 12 since 2001, this year insomuch that the confernce power base is skewed heavily one one direction. For the past few years in the Big 12 the south has easily been the best division with Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. I see the MAC in the same terms. The West division is stacked this year, it is so much deeper from top to bottom. That is not entirely the fault of the East, merely the by product of being the home of one of the nations worst programs, Buffalo, and then inviting another bottom ten program to join the conference, Temple. Still that being said if you took the top 3 East teams, Kent State, Miami and Ohio, and placed them in the West they would fall between 3rd and 5th. On the flipside of that, if you take the top 3 from the West and placed them in the East they would each be favored to win the East. With that in mind, I think that UT at CMU will serve to eliminate one school or the other from conference title contention at an early stage of the season. Even though this game is taking place in Mount Plesant, Toledo is my favorite for the game for a couple of reasons. First is that they have been the most consistant program in the MAC for the last five years. With that comes a high level of expectations as well as plenty of big game experience. Another reason why I have them as the favorite for this game is the coaching experience factor. Coaching experience matters in big games, thats about the only time it matters. In that case you have to like Tom Amstutz over Butch Jones. I do think that Central Michigan will have the best offense in the conference, it will be hard not to having the best set of tripplets, but they will lose a close game or two because of the tactical errors assosiated with employing a first time head coach. I think that Amstutz will out coach Jones and that it will be one of the deciding factors in the game. Toledo might not wow anyone with their production on either side of the ball, but they are sound in every phase of the game and will win the MAC because of it.
Conference Notes
The MAC is a conference with a long and proud tradition of taking under rated kids and molding them into top notch NFL draft ready QB’s. The tradition continues this season, Dan LeFevour, Nate Davis and Tim Hiller are all young QB’s the big boys missed that will should all get long hard looks from NFL types…The MAC has played host to some extremly tallented refuges from larger programs, the name Randy Moss should first come to mind. The latest appears to be Justin Hoskins, a Notre Dame transfer who has settled in at CMU behind Onterio Sneed. Don’t be shocked if he leapfrogs Sneed early in the season…The newest addition to the MAC is the Temple Owls. A program which has been taking check games from the big boys and going home in body bags since being removed from the Big East. Their opponents for the last two seasons have been a murders row of sorts, highlights include Arizona State, Wisconsin, Maryland, Miami (Fl), Clemson and Navy in 2005. Louisville, Minnesota, Clemson, Penn State and Navy. The MAC looks rather comfortable compared to that…You would be hard pressed to find a better continum of backs since 2000 than what Northern Illinois has put on the field. Michael “The Burner” Turner and Garrett Wolf combined for 10,105 yards in 7 years, a tiddy average of 1,443.57 yards per year. Call it a safe bet that Justin Anderson, or whoever wins the job, won’t match that.
All Conference Team
QB, Dan LeFevour, CMU
RB, Jalen Parmele, Toledo
RB, Kelvin McRae, Ohio
WR, Travis Shelton, Temple
WR, Bryan Anderson, CMU
WR, Donte Love, Ball State
TE, Chris Hopkins, Toledo
C, Cory Lichtensteiger, BGSU
G, Matt Miller, Ohio
G, Eric Tunney, CMU
T, John Greco, Toledo
T, Jon Brost, NIU
DE, Larry English, NIU
DT, Terrance Knighton, Temple
DT, Steve Friend, CMU
DE, Zach Davidson, WMU
LB, Joey Hudson, Miami
LB, Dan Holtzclaw, EMU
LB, Tim McCarthy, NIU
CB, Mark Parson, Ohio
S, Barry Church, Toledo
S, Fritz Jacques, Kent State
CB, London Fryar, WMU
K, Chris Nendick, NIUP, Chris Miller, Ball State
KR, Travis Shelton, Temple
PR, Naaman Roosevelt, Buffalo
