This is a great game. For those of you that don't normally watch MAC games, I urge you to give it a chance. Northern Illinois leads 17-14 at halftime.

Im convinced that NIU is vastly overrated, if they lose this, their out of the top 25 for good.
Should go down to the wire.

Dude, the game was last night. Toledo wins.

Oops, I worked a bit late last night as you may have guessed :bang:

Yeah, no big deal.

SDSundevil Wrote:Im convinced that NIU is vastly overrated, if they lose this, their out of the top 25 for good.
Should go down to the wire.

NIU probably was over-rated. We (Toledo) now host Bowling Green in our last game. If we win it we will win the MAC West Division Title and play in the MAC Championship game. If we lose, there could be a 3-way tie for the division title. BG is probably a much better team than NIU, even though Northern Illinois beat them 34-17 earlier in the season.

Bowling Green been putting up some offense, but its a down year for the MAC not too many quality wins this year, unlike a couple years ago.

SDSundevil Wrote:Bowling Green been putting up some offense, but its a down year for the MAC not too many quality wins this year, unlike a couple years ago.

I agree, but I honestly think it had a lot to do with matchups. The strongest teams to start the year were Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, and Marshall. Here are their matchups:

Troy 17
Marshall 15
@ Marshall - don't know what happened there, but ask Missouri


Ohio State 24
Marshall 21
@ OSU - who wins in Columbus?


Georgia 13
Marshall 3
@ Georgia


Maryland 23
NIU 20
@ Maryland


Iowa State 48
NIU 41
@ Iowa State - ISU is currently tied for 1st in the BIG 12 North


Oklahoma 40
BGSU 24
@ Oklahoma - on the road and they still scored 24 points against Oklahoma


BGSU 70
Temple 16
@ Temple - God Temple is awful


One thing you can see is that outside of the Marshall vs Troy game, these were all games on the road for the MAC team. It has been that way pretty much all year. MAC teams beat two BCS teams on the road this year, which isn't that bad considering some of the games. BGSU played Oklahoma who looks like they will play for the national championship and they were still in the game with a chance in the 4th quarter. Marshall played at Ohio State and at Georgia. Sure OSU hasn't played well this year, but they hardly ever lose at home. Wisconsin is the only team to beat them in Columbus this year. NIU played at Maryland and at Iowa State and almost won those games with their backup QB (the starter was hurt and missed both games).

Miami University played at Michigan and at Cincinnati in their losses. Cincy has been a weird team. Losing some games bad and then smacking teams like a ranked Southern Miss. Michigan is fighting for a BCS spot still.

Last year the MAC had more favorable matchups against BCS teams and that is why they won. NIU beat Maryland and the game was at Northern Illinois. Marshall beat Kansas State when the KSU starting QB was out with an injury. Toledo beat Pittsburgh and the game was at Toledo. Bowling Green beat Purdue on the road and that was definitely a huge win. Miami was the best MAC team last year and went 13-1 and finished 10th in the country. Yet their only game against a BCS opponent was a 21-3 loss at Iowa. NIU beat a very average at best Alabama team and then a similar Iowa State team.

It is pretty obvious to see the matchups were much tougher and none of them were really at the MAC teams home field like last year. That makes a big difference.