Slim

What if Toledo and Ohio both lose one more game ... and either the Bulls/Kent win out? That's a three-way tie for first. Can Bulls be No. 1 via tiebreaker!!!!!

Personally would take WKU and UMass ... interesting to see how FB divisions look with WKU/MTSU.

Might not be alone ... both of Kent State's SEC transfers (win from Georgia and post from Vanderbilt) have yet to practice due to unspecified injuries. At least one, and possibly both were projected starters.

Last year did not count on the books ... players can repeat which is why there are so many transfers. Seniors last season are seniors again this season, ditto on down the line.

Personally ... with the 'extra' years several players have taken advantage of - I think this is the perfect season to redshirt one or two guys. Would love to see it from several teams around the league. Nothing worse than talent sitting, anticipating, but getting no run. That's why, in the past, you would often see a lot of the powerhouse teams with just 10 guys.

Removed them last season to go to 20-game MAC season. Tradeoff is playing two teams only once every year. Schedule this year also eliminates 'rivalry Friday' the last game of the season. Granted this was no big deal to UB (paired with BG) but the rest of the MAC was greatly impacted: OU-Miami, Central-Western, Akron-Kent were not just quality games, but often had a huge impact on tournament seeding. Not to mention these were great TV games with big crowds. MAC needs to find a sweet spot with its BB scheduling. Also don't see that 'bye' week late in the season when teams only played once. In a 'neighborhood' league like the MAC, this was huge, if only for the mental break. The other loss, w/no divisions, was the ability for UB/NIU to get a distant travel game cross-division game off the books early before second semester started. Now I see UB/NIU playing 'cross division games' late in the season which are a killer, when on the road. Lots to look at ...

Key to Toledo winning the MAC last season ... Pandemic aside - was only playing Ohio and UB once. As most MAC teams do with a target on their back, UT had some late-season losses but overall record and locked-in tie-breakers made the Rockets a comfortable conference champ. That said UT's MAC Tournament draw - in the end - was not as easy as Ohio's meaning it went through Buffalo instead of Kent (a team they beat twice), and the Bulls made them pay. Just sayin ...

This makes sense, particularly considering there are (a) roughly just a third of the D1 membership that plays D1 football and (b) only roughly a fourth (if that) from those schools are truly power football teams. Strong as the SEC is, realistically only half or less can truly be considered a 'power' team. For the sake of argument, let's say Ohio State is the Jerry Quarry of power conference teams. How many SEC-B12-PAC12-B10-ACC teams in a given year can measure up to them? 5-10 at most. I say let FB go its own way. The NCAA should police and govern the rest of the sports harshly but fairly to clean this stuff up. Let the cheaters cheat among themselves in FB.

I think the NCAA - gutless as the organization/Emmert is - should mandate (for basketball) no more than 20 conference games and a max of 30 regular season games (not counting NCAA/Conference Tournaments). It should also mandate for any team to get an at-large bid to the tournament it must be 2-games above .500 in league play and/or have 2 or more Top 35 RPI non-conference wins. This Syracuse NCAA formula (.500 ACC 8-2 non-con) has got to stop.

Let's look at this from another angle: ... The MAC is probably the most solid mid-major conference in the country, fb/bb. Instead of looking to exit, I would be looking at teams like Iowa State and Cincinnati (a charter member of the MAC)to find a way to bring them into the league. Surely that would mean re-doing the ESPN TV deal (which is still one of the best on the books) and perhaps changing conference championship payouts from equal shares to % based on reg season titles/NCAA Appearances and so forth. Yes, that's probably a tougher negotiation overall - but for a team like Cincinnati, which missed out on the FB Playoffs last season - it (and Iowa State) might find easier and more consistent FB Playoff entree by winning the MAC. ... The other longterm benefit - much like when Marshall joined the league - is it will force the rest of the MAC to step up or get left behind. Buffalo is already making that move. Toledo is trying. After that most MAC teams seem to focus on one main $$$ sport (NIU-FB, Akron-BB). That could change. Finally Cincy would give the MAC a 7th Ohio team which may not sit well with some and Iowa State may be step outside of the MAC's traditional footprint which may not sit well with some (but should be a plus in my mind). But overall, I believe trying to expand 'up' is better for the MAC as a whole, and for individual teams looking for greener pastures elsewhere, over expanding out (WKY, Marshall and others), or individually leaving for another league.

Frankly ... every MAC team should be thinking like this. Any opportunity to add 'upper crust' talent to the league should be taken advantage of.

Just looking around the MAC have noticed Central Michigan has picked up a several experienced transfers whic h should make them an interesting team to watch ... And Kent State as usual picks up some interesting guys late; one from Rhodes Island, one from Georgia and one from Vanderbilt. two were rotational players (RI, Ga.) while the other had more splinters than points/rebounds combined.

Looks like it ... but they did sign 3 recruits in November. All freshmen. Nuga is in the portal and Pippen is done so they have some holes to fill.

Here's the deal ... if this goes to trial then ALL the players involved in the game, if not the fight, could be called as witneses. Not a good look for either player or either school.

Played w/o Nuga (18 ppg 5.5 rpg) and Hamilton (9.9 ppg/7 rpg). Team Averaging almost 82 ppg before those two went down. Nuga out for the season (knee), not sure about Hamilton.