20 Random Summer Thoughts, Musings, Ideas and Brain Farts on BG Football #13

I've blogged before about my feelings that the MAC is falling behind from its glory days of only five years ago, when Leftwich, Rothlisberger, Hoeppner and Meyer roamed MAC venues. I thought it would be interesting to see how the MAC fared against OOC competition.

I started first with BCS Conferences. As you can imagine, the story is not pretty. Overall, we were 5-36 against the BCS, broken down as you see below. (And no, Temple dude, you guys LOST to Connecticut. Is football a one play game? Give it a rest.)

• ACC 0-3
• Big East 1-8
• Big Ten 2-16
• Big 12 2-6
• SEC 0-3

And who, you might ask, are the BCS teams that lost to the MAC? Let's just say its not an honor roll of BCS teams. Not one BCS Bowl team lost to a MAC team.

• Syracuse (home game for MAC).
  
• Minnesota
• Iowa State (twice--one of them in MAC venue)
  
• Iowa

You could argue, in fact, that no BCS team should ever lose to a MAC team, given that their head coaches earn more than our entire staff does. And, you absolutely cannot argue that the fact that these games were almost all on the road makes it very difficult for the MAC to win. Only 7 BCS teams played in MAC venues, and that includes Cincinnati @ Miami.

Still, hard as it is, it just seems like it used to happen more often than it does now.

While we're at it, let's look at non-BCS games, too. We were 7-5 in those games, if you count Western Kentucky as I-A. That includes wins over:

• Louisiana-Lafayette (on the road)
• Idaho (on the road)
• Navy
• Western Kentucky (twice)
• Army
  

And losses to:

• Tulsa (AHHHHH!)
• Wyoming
• Navy (twice)
• Army

The other interesting thing about this is the sheer number of games we play against the BCS (41) and non-BCS (12). I guess that's the role money plays, and the desire for that 12th game by the big boys. Our AD says he wants to try and adjust this....let's see how it goes.

Finally, the I-AA/FCS, where no fan wants us to go, and where you never want to lose. I think most MAC fans would be surprised to know that the MAC played only 7 games against the FCS. And, only two of those were losses....ND State and Southern Illinois (two very strong I-AA teams that would probably compete well in the MAC) picked up wins.

Meanwhile, the MAC defeated Delaware State, Howard, Gardner-Webb, Liberty and Central Connecticut State.