Before we sound the siren and send all the Bowl Championship Series schools running from future Mid-American Conference games, let's take a second to get our breath and calm down. The MAC is still not a legitimate threat.
That's not to say I don't want it to be or that it couldn't be. I want it and it could. But it's not. Not yet.
"But Mike," you are saying as you sit in your English 305 J class pretending you are not reading The Post. "What about the big MAC upsets this past weekend? What about Northern Illinois going undefeated?"
Well, friend, you are right, the MAC has done some amazing things this season, but that doesn't solidify anything. The MAC may be on its way up, but there is still a mid-major equilibrium of sorts. While Toledo knocks off a top 10 Pittsburgh team, Buffalo gets brushed by Colgate. While Marshall destroys the national championship hopes of Kansas State, Western Michigan gets a 40-point spanking from an unranked Virginia team.
You see the MAC has grown by leaps and bounds the past few seasons, and indeed there are MAC teams who deserve to put on big boy pants. Unfortunately the whole conference is far from being ready to step to the elite.
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Mike Cottrill
