MAC Blogger Roundtable, BG edition

1) Throughout the summer the MAC has been mostly left out of expansion/raiding conversations EMU athletic director Derrick Gragg seemed to hint that there are serious thoughts about adding more team(s). Dust off you DeLorean and tell us what the MAC looks like in 2014. Who stays, who goes and who's new? What would you're realistically ideal MAC look like.

If you want my honest opinion, I don't think the MAC will add very much over the next few years. If anything, I think the best case scenario is that the MAC stays intact the way it is now.  I think that if C-USA gets raided, they could come in for Toledo, Buffalo, or Akron, each of which is in an urban environment.  Would anyone take Temple as a football-only school?  As for adds, I think if we want to look South, there are a couple Sun Belt teams which would be nice adds (Troy, Middle Tennessee), but I don't know that anyone would benefit from that, really.  Troy would also be a C-USA candidate.

2) Most teams out of conference schedules are now winding down. Who has had the most disappointing and the most surprisingly impressive set of OOC games?


Well, on the positive side, there are pretty slim pickings.  No team in the MAC has two FBS OOC wins.  Temple probably has the best resume, with a win over UConn and a Villanova team that is high quality FCS.  Toledo's win over Purdue is impressive, as is the NIU win over Minnesota.  Speaking of disappointing, however, NIU was within 6 points of Illinois and lost to a bad Iowa State team--they could easily have three BCS wins.

3) Which MAC Coach, new or not, should sit upon the hottest seat in the conference?


I think it is Doug Martin.  Kent has continued to languish and was set up for a decent start.  They are 1-2 and it is hard to see what they have, but I think they need some wins for Martin to keep his job.

4) I am asking out of order for a reason: Rank them first to worst

1. Temple
2. Toledo
3. NIU
4. CMU
5. BG
6. OU
7.  Miami
8. Kent
9. WMU
10. Buffalo
11 Ball State
12. Akron
13. EMU

5) Of the bottom five teams which one(s) do you think have the best chance of making some noise in conference this season? And of the top 4 who is most likely to fall apart?

You know, I feel like I should go to Western Michigan anonymous.  I always think this is their year, and it always isn't.  Thus is it always so.  Is it too needy, too predictable, too enabling for me to say WMU?  They are last in the MAC in turnovers...if they turn that around, it could happen, right?

OK.  WMU.  Buffalo is second.

As for falling apart, I think it has to be Toledo.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think any of them are going to fall apart, but the Rockets showed last year they are susceptible to injuries, and if they don't stay healthy, I could see them struggling.  But, I think that those four teams are very solid for the title run (and the bowl run) in the MAC.