MAC Reset

So here is the reset.

The top three in the MAC are set.  Buffalo, BG and UT will be the top 3.

The order is yet to be determined.  It isn't hugely significant anymore, but it does matter a little, depending on how things play out.

Winning the regular season is banner-worthy and also means the NIT is in play, although if Buffalo wins #1 seed that will be moot because no one thinks they aren't in the NCAA already.

There's still a chance for BG to win the title.  BG would need to win out and UB lose out, necessitating a BG win in Buffalo to end the season along with a Bull loss @OU.  But that would do it.

Probably the more likely scenario is that it shakes out for BG and UT to be in a semi-final collision course.

If BG wins out, they can't do worse than second.  However, should BG lose one of the last two and UT wins out, then UT would be 2 and BG would be 3.  UT has a much easier road coming home, with WMU and EMU, both at Savage.

Again, whether you finish #2 or #3 doesn't really matter, except we tend to forget that pesky quarter-final game.  We can look at who we'd play if things ended today but you can see it's pretty jammed up.  There's no team better than another team in there, but there might be better matchups.

For example, if BG is #2, they would play the winner of #7 and #10.  Right now that would be Miami or Ball State.  Miami has beaten BG twice, not sure how that plays, I'd think OK though.  I honestly think after the last game that BG would beat Miami.

If BG is #3, they would play the winner of EMU and Ohio.  You'd like to avoid EMU if you can just because they are so unpredictable and the zone is like a wild card thrown onto the table.  Also, you want to avoid a hot team, which OU might be becoming.

Anyway, there's a lot to be sorted out before that happens.  The key takeaway is that BG has to be focused in the quarterfinal and then probably will have to beat UT and UB on consecutive days to win the conference.  That's a tall order and illustrates how hard it is to win a title.  But it could happen.  That's the fun of it.

And it's great to be looking at this part of the standings at this time of year.