Podland

Big changes are coming to MAC football.  For years, there has been this scheduling rhythm....every year, Toledo, Akron, Kent, Miami, OU, and Buffalo were on the schedule.  The last 5 were the ones we needed to beat to make the MAC Championship.  (Not always, we were in the West for a while and there were an odd number of teams for a while.)

Let me give you an example.  I heard recently that Ohio U has lost most of best offensive players to the portal. My first thought was, OK, we are now ahead of them and all we need to do to get to Detroit is beat Miami.

But that's now how it is anymore.  It is a big switch in thinking.  It's going to make all the games count more--right now you can drop a cross-division game without being in trouble, as long as you took care of business in your division.  I'm not sure what the tiebreakers will be, but it will be important since it is very possible that you won't have played the team you are tied with.  It will mean that you won't benefit from a weak division.  It will also make the difficulty of schedule a key issue and a bit of random luck.  Except for your pod, the schedule will be random.  You might catch Buffalo (for example), on an up year or a down year.

It's a big change.  It's fair and it will be harder to make it to Detroit, in general.  (Or, I should say, the conference final). Nothing wrong with that.  Be the best.

To protect rivalries, they had to break the 12 teams into 4 pods.  Each team will play the teams in their pods every season.  The pods were needed because of the uneven rivalries in the MAC.  For example, you have BG and UT in the same pod.  You might say, hey, Miami is a rival, but you can't put Miami in that rival without separating them from Ohio....their rival.  Same with Kent and Akron.  The three Michigan schools are in their pod, which is good because that's the whole Michigan MAC thing, and then NIU, UB and BSU, who are without true rivalries, will fill in the gaps.

FWIW, BG has ended up in what is the toughest pod, if history is our guide.  Since 2001, half of the MAC titles have come from our pod. (Once UB gets on their feet, they would appear to benefit most from this arrangement).

Since 2001

• BG, NIU, UT: 11
• Ball State, Miami (OH), Ohio: 5
• Akron, Buffalo Kent State:  2
• Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan: 4

The other news was a read-between-the-lines type thing.  The Ford Field contract was extended only one year, which many think portends a return to home field conference title games, which is what is done at most G5 conferences. People seem to think that the wrong team is winning the conference--as in not the best team.  

Over the last ten years, the favorite has won half of the games.  Whether that's too much is a matter of opinion.  I'm not really sure why it matters--in basketball you want to increase your chance of winning a game in the Big Dance. But here, everyone goes to a bowl, they are equally meh and I'm not sure it's any better if you win than if you finish second.

Ford Field is a good venue.  Indoors and easily accessible by 10 of the 12 teams. Maybe I just have flashbacks from the MAC title game we did host...

Well, onward and upward.