I found myself daydreaming about what WMU would be doing right now if they were preparing for the Orange Bowl.

damn...

I'll try and find the link... but a great article was written about NIU in the Orange Bowl, at first blasting the notion, Herbstreit style. But then defended it as well as anyone... but it's original point of view: It's dangerous for the MAC, if NIU gets blown out. If they do, with all the controversy & hype in both directions, the MAC is done for as far as reputation.

He said what if Western Michigan goes 13-0 next year beating Michigan State? Basically, if NIU gets blown out it will mean little. If they win, it will mean more. Basically, it's a gamble.

And as far as WMU having gone this year -- this year is the most opportune time a MAC team could have gone. The conference was strong, OSU disqualified, and many ranked teams falling to give way to high-record mid-majors.

If our team was as good as we SHOULD have been, it certainly wouldn't be a crazy notion. No game we played, including the 3 big OCC games, including better teams like Toledo & NIU at home, and even Kent State on the road (turnovers killed us; we were champions of that) -- was a game we could not feasibly not win. No game was there where it'd be some "big upset", looking down our schedule at the start of the season. All were winnable, no miracles needed.

And I'll say this: This year, we wouldn't need to have been undefeated. But we would have had to beat NIU, otherwise we'd get no MACC game. But if we lost to say, Kent on the road as our only loss or Toledo at home... and won the MACC game, we'd be 12-1. That "fantasy" out of reach by talent? Nope. Totally within reach. But doing so would have require not just decent but a great coaching staff + relationships to players and thus, consistency. Our schedule was not hard, but it was not easy -- and just needed consistency with our talent.