MAC Daddy

1. The Mid-American Conference has taken center stage in college football this week. They had a game on Tuesday and Wednesday, and two games tonight. The MAC Game of the Week is tomorrow when upstart Temple visits Akron.

Temple has a bit more pressure on them, as all four games played this week have been won by the favorites. Ohio won at Buffalo to improve to 5-1 in their conference. They have two tough games to close out their schedule against Northern Illinois and Temple.

In the other division, it looks like it could easily come down to the last game between Northern Illinois and Central Michigan. Both teams won this week against Ball State and Toledo, respectively.

There is always incredible intrigue in the MAC.


2. In the Big East, #24 South Florida was dominated on the road, losing to Rutgers 31-0. USF is now out of the running for their conference championship, while Rutgers kept their hopes alive and will likely garner some top 25 votes with an overal 7-2 record. With two winnable road games coming up for the Scarlet Knights (at Syracuse and at Louisville), they could be a surprising 9-2 going into their season finale against West Virginia.


3. Mailbag. It can take me hours to sift through my email because of the popularity of this blog. Just today, the mailman delivered three bags of fan mail. But I will just choose this email sent to me from my friend Josh, who lives in Connecticut.

"If Boise St and TCU go undefeated, than I think they both should go to a BCS bowl. Pat Forde even says that."

I agree with Pat Forde, if he did indeed say this. They would both deserve a BCS bid. But I don't think it will happen.

According to my BCS projections earlier this week, I've got Oregon State, Texas, Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, and Cincinnati as the champions of the six BCS conferences. TCU and Florida would grab other automatic berths. And there would be two spots left for the at-large pool. These two spots would be taken by USC and Miami.

The problem is that the BCS wants big-money teams with tons of fans nationally that bring along high TV ratings. None of the non-BCS schools accomplish this, regardless of how good they actually are.

The following would be helpful for Boise State to get an at-large BCS bid (assuming, of course, they go undefeated but finish below TCU):

A. USC wins the Pac 10 and goes to the Rose Bowl. If USC is an at-large candidate, they will be taken. It doesn't matter who is more deserving; the Trojans would be in a big-money game. But Boise would be selected over Arizona, Stanford, Oregon State, etc. Only Oregon would be considered over Boise, but I can't see a three-loss Ducks squad being picked over Boise, especially since BSU defeated Oregon.

B. Oklahoma State to lose again. The Cowboys have two losses, but if they win out, it would be hard for the Fiesta Bowl to pass up on a Big XII team, who they have a contract with. Their last three games are against Texas Tech and Colorado, before their finale at Oklahoma.

C. It would be nice for Penn State, Wisconsin, and Miami to all get losses as well. All three teams have two losses right now, but have big names and big fanbases. It would be tempting to take any of them over Boise State. It would also be a tough decision between Boise and Iowa, or even Boise and Georgia Tech (as the Yellow Jackets are so close to the Sugar and Orange Bowls).