How bad is the MAC?

[JohnStOnge]

I watched Central Michigan lose to a Sun Belt team already. Now it's Rice up 31-0 over Western Michigan still in the third quarter.

Has the MAC overtaken the Sun Belt as the most awful FBS league?

[catamount man]

No. Sunbelt BLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[petethepenguin15]

No not even close. Ball State and Buffalo are still good teams.

You look at the sun belt who do you have Troy?

Well, they already lost in their bowl against So Miss

[JohnStOnge]

No not even close. Ball State and Buffalo are still good teams.

You look at the sun belt who do you have Troy?

Well, they already lost in their bowl against So Miss

Yeah but Florida Atlantic beat Central Michigan. And it wasn't any fluke. I watched it. Florida Atlantic was just better and more athletic. Louisiana Lafayette beat Kent State 44-27 this year too. I guess I'll have to look and see if there were any other head to head matchups.

I gotta tell ya, too. I don't know if I'd pick Ball State or Buffalo to beat Troy. I don't like Troy but I don't know if they wouldn't win the MAC.

[bobcatfan06]

Congrats to Coach Bailiff. I wish Texas State would have woken their dumb arses up and let you have what you wanted instead of forcing your hand to leave and go to Rice. Class act, and Texas State screwed up letting you go.

[JohnStOnge]

Ok. I could only find three head to heads.

Louisiana Lafayette 44, Kent State 27
Florida International 35, Toledo 16
Florida Atlantic 24, Central Michigan 21

I know that's not the end all and be all, but I think a real question has been arising over the past couple of years as to whether or not the Sun Belt is truely the weakest FBS conference. I think the MAC is definitely giving it some competition.

And I'll add to my last post. If Sun Belt champ Troy was playing MAC champ Buffalo, I'd defintely put my money on Troy. I'd probably give a slight nod to Ball State over Troy this year, but it'd be very slight. Put it this way: Ball State would not have come anywhere close to being undefeated if it had played Troy's non conference schedule this past season (at Ohio State, at Oklahoma State, at LSU).

[nwFL Griz]

Ok. I could only find three head to heads.

Louisiana Lafayette 44, Kent State 27
Florida International 35, Toledo 16
Florida Atlantic 24, Central Michigan 21

I know that's not the end all and be all, but I think a real question has been arising over the past couple of years as to whether or not the Sun Belt is truely the weakest FBS conference. I think the MAC is definitely giving it some competition.

And I'll add to my last post. If Sun Belt champ Troy was playing MAC champ Buffalo, I'd defintely put my money on Troy. I'd probably give a slight nod to Ball State over Troy this year, but it'd be very slight. Put it this way: Ball State would not have come anywhere close to being undefeated if it had played Troy's non conference schedule this past season (at Ohio State, at Oklahoma State, at LSU).


Agree on all points. Which is why I never bought into the Ball St hype.

[gmoney55]

Hasn't the MAC always been basically equal in crappiness with the Sun Belt? I never considered one better than the other.

[TexasTerror]

Sun Belt is the younger of the two conferences and is rapidly moving up. They need better bowl arrangements, but the conference has caught up with the MAC for the most part and has made some huge inroads on catching C-USA.

And as far as WMU going down to Rice -- the Owls are a much, much better team this year than many would give them credit for. I expected Rice to win by 11-20 points. Clement. Dillard. Casey. Three of the best players to suit up for Rice over the last 25-30 years.

[blueballs]

The MAC is bad enough that UCF paid a few million dollars to LEAVE the conference a few years back.

[whitey]

Both conferences are pretty bad. But I feel like both might be catching up to at least Conference USA since the Big East raided them after the ACC raided the Big East. Maybe C-USA is just having a couple down years though...I dunno....just doesn't seem like it.

Unless another major shakeup occurs I feel like for the immediate future you are going to continually see this:

Tier I: ACC, Big 10/11, Big 12, Big East, Pac10, SEC
Tier II: Mountain West, WAC
Tier III: C-USA, MAC, SunBelt
Tier IV: Notre Dame (haha! jk)

[gmoney55]

More fuel for this fire....UConn 38, UB 20 in a game where UB needed a fumble recovery in the endzone and another inside the five for their touchdowns.

[I Bleed Purple]

Kind of shows why the MWC and WAC don't like to be associated with the other non-BCS FBS conferences.

[dgreco]

Both conferences are pretty bad. But I feel like both might be catching up to at least Conference USA since the Big East raided them after the ACC raided the Big East. Maybe C-USA is just having a couple down years though...I dunno....just doesn't seem like it.

Unless another major shakeup occurs I feel like for the immediate future you are going to continually see this:

Tier I: ACC, Big 10/11, Big 12, Big East, Pac10, SEC
Tier II: Mountain West, WAC
Tier III: C-USA, MAC, SunBelt
Tier IV: Notre Dame (haha! jk)

I think the MWC should be a Tier 1 conference, they continually prove it. You could say they are the only know BCS conference that is a tier 1 conference.


Kind of shows why the MWC and WAC don't like to be associated with the other non-BCS FBS conferences.

The WAC isn't at the level of the MWC yet, but they never make fools of themselves.

[ngineer]

Considering how competitive Temple was this year in the MAC says alot.

[seantaylor]

MAC puts out the best QB's in the pros.

[I Bleed Purple]

The WAC isn't at the level of the MWC yet, but they never make fools of themselves.

Overall, yes, but say the third ranked WAC team any given year is likely to beat a fifth ranked MWC team. MWC does have three top tier programs, four mid, one low, and San Diego State. BYU, UofU, and TCU are the elite. UNM, CSU, UNLV, and Air Force are in the mid, and then Wyoming.

The WAC is slightly less powered. One elite, one upper mid, four mid, and three really low. BSU of course is the top. I put Fresno in upper mid, Hawaii, Nevada, and maybe stretching NMSU and La Tech. in there, and then USU, Idaho and SJSU, all three really bad.