MAC Blogger Roundtable, Bull Run Edition

Our host this week in Bull Run...


1) Parity, a good thing or a bad thing. Outside of Toledo at the top and Akron, Kent, Miami, and Buffalo at the bottom every team has looked about equal. Is this a good thing for the conference or would it be better to have just four very prominent teams.

This is one of the great questions facing humanity.  Some people will tell you the sports are more popular when there is a clear villain.  And, some will tell you that having a clear pacesetter makes all the other teams better.  Others will tell that parity helps to keep everyone interested.  I'm in the second group.  I'd prefer it if there was parity at a higher level, but I do think that this kind of parity makes every game interesting and keep people following through those disappointing November weekday games.

2) Coaches Hot Seat. The Following MAC coaches are showing up on the ever popular coaches hot seat list. Pick one and tell us why is it or is not fair to have them there (disclaimer Clawson is on the list but I can't imagine why so I am leaving him off)


Yeah, Clawson's seat is 0% hot.  He's not in trouble.  From your list, I'm going to say that Enos is in the most trouble.  There were people screaming for his removal last year in his first year.  The program seemed pretty solid and fell apart pretty quick, and he might be in over his head.  If you want my guess, none of these guys lose their job.  Should Cubit be on the list?

3) Best new hire. Of the four(?) new coaches in the conference who, at this point, seems to be the best hire.

I'm going to say Lembo.  Doeren took over a team where the Coach moved up, which means he jumped into a situation where things were pretty good.  Lembo, on the other hand, has taken over a program where the Coach was fired and improved things pretty much right away.  Treadwell and Hazell are paying their dues.

4) Ron English is flying high and the EMU *EAGLES* might be going to their first Bowl if they take care of Business. Surely their Coach is going to start getting some looks from other programs (if you can win at EMU right!). Is Turner Gill's experience in Kansas a cautionary tale to schools who look for that one new up and coming coach? How many years of winning should a mid-major coach put forth before a big time program drops millions on them.

It is a very good question.  Lots of coaches have discovered that things are not necessarily better at that bigger school.  On other other hand, you get paid a LOT of money to find out.  I have been pretty shocked how quick some of the coaches get plucked up--Mike Haywood for example.  It seems to me that you'd want to see a coach at least win through one recruiting cycle before you'd go moving them up, but I don't expect it to happen.  With the money in college football, guys can always just be bought out after a couple of years.

5) We all know the MAC does not necessarily award Bowls to the best teams. In MAC contracted bowls the bowl committees, not the conferee, get to pick their representative. Assume the MAC is going to get four Bowls but there are five bowl eligible teams. Make a case for your team, or a team you think is likely to be that 5th wheel.

That's a toughie.  If the Falcons were 7-5 and had a shot at the bowl, I'd argue that they were one of the comeback teams in the country with a 5 game improvement over 2010, making it a good story.

6) It's looking more and more like either (a) Temple won't be going to the Big East or (b) there won't be a big east football space to even invite Temple. Is the MAC, even with UMass and Temple, a stable football conference for the next year or two?

For a year or two?  Yes, I think the MAC is stable for a year or two. Eventually, the big boys are going to force all the mid majors into dropping into FCS or they will form their own non-NCAA football association and then keep all the money for themselves.  That could take longer than two years, but I think that's where everything is going.  There would be worse things for the MAC than this.

7) Rank'em

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