For being what most have said is a down year for MAC football, the conference stood up pretty well this bowl season. 4-2 with pretty close loses by BG and Miami being the only blemishes. Glad to see OU get the overtime victory last night.

Now we weren't playing P5 conferences but teams who float in our level of play. I think that is something the whole conference can be proud of. In this world of NIL and the portal, all mid-major teams are having a hard time keeping their best players. So it's a credit to these staffs to show as well as we did across the board.

We lost to two of those bowl winners (BG and Buffalo) and beat two (OU and Eastern), so its not like teams layed down for us this year. I think EMU had the most dominate bowl victory, they manhandled San Jose State. They very easily could have been MAC champs this year. Liberty beat a number of P5 bowl teams this season. UT should have had 2-3 more wins after several inexcusable, head scratching losses, especially BG??

We are fairly young and if we keep our best, we should have a bright few years ahead. We lose a lot on the DL, so I hope we have some up and coming beef to plug those holes. God help us with some OL portal transfers, but I thought we ran the ball the best we did all season in the bowl game only took us 14 games to figure it out.

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Nice post. LOL! Great minds do think alike. Go Rockets!!

It comes down to matchups and other variables such as coaching changes, gameday elements, etc. Previous seasons I would see MAC teams having regular season upset wins, teams in the top 25 and then lose all or all-but-one bowl games. It would make it tricky to argue that the MAC was the best of the non-power conferences, but it was obvious to me that we were the best based on our regular season performance. This year I'm absolutely positive that the MAC is the weakest of the G5 conferences and we go a best 4-2. Go figure. With the AAC having teams moving to P5, does anyone want to argue that the MAC is better? CUSA and Sunbelt have teams ranked in the top 25. Anyone want to argue that the MAC is better? The MACC team couldn't even beat a middle-of-the-pack 6-6 MWC team. Does anyone truly believe the MAC isn't the weakest conference despite being 4-2 in bowl games?

Yes!!! Great post season for the MAC!!!

One correction...only two close losses were by BG and Miami. We were real close to going 6-0!

Us MAC brothers should be proud!!! Looking forward to a great 2023!

Happy New Year guys!!!

Go Rockets! Go MAC!!!

It's better to win than lose, still, THe MAC was down. Way down relative to other conferences. Which is a whole better narative than barely beating .500 teams from other conferences. The MAC wasn't playing any teams at their best.

On the plus side, I believe I posted earlier only Toledo was favored to win. 3 upsets then.

The whole bowl season has been fantastic.
EDIT: MAYBE excepting today. Games have been a dog so far.

(12-31-2022 11:17 AM)Rocket Man Wrote:  Yes!!! Great post season for the MAC!!!

One correction...only two close losses were by BG and Miami. We were real close to going 6-0!

Us MAC brothers should be proud!!! Looking forward to a great 2023!

Happy New Year guys!!!

Go Rockets! Go MAC!!!

I fixed my post, thanks.

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For those wanting to relive:

Boca Bowl

Excellent showing all around for six MAC teams.

Prior to games of January 2 the MAC and Big 10 are tied for best winning percentage in bowl game. Big Ten has 3 teams playing on 1/2/23. It is likely the MAC will finish no worse than second in best conference winning percentage. Not bad for a down year.

The MAC is guaranteed the best bowl record with a .667 winning pct(4-2)

A strong finish for UT is good momentum for 23.

(01-02-2023 05:15 PM)IamN2daRockets! Wrote:  A strong finish for UT is good momentum for 23.

Yes sir!

(01-02-2023 08:55 PM)Boca Rocket Wrote:  

(01-02-2023 05:15 PM)IamN2daRockets! Wrote:  A strong finish for UT is good momentum for 23.

Yes sir!

Hope it turns out to be like 1999, when UT transitioned to Tavares Bolden at QB in his sophomore year. They finished behind Western Michigan that year, but stomped them in the final game of the year at UT in 1999. That seemed to give an early warning to the rest of the league what to expect in 2000. Then after beating Penn State in the first weekend, they ended up losing their only game of 2000 to the same Western Michigan team with Bolden unable to run due to a hip injury. WMU then lost the MACC to Marshall, a team UT smacked to the curb by a 42-0 score at the Glass Bowl. The most hilarious comment from that game came from Pruett, the Marshall coach when he accused Toledo of running up the score. It was 35-0 at the half, and Toledo's final score came on a +60 yard pick six from a LB (Corey Morris - who worked for my brother over the summer that year) and I don't believe UT even threw a pass the entire second half. Pruett must have been too busy mining his nose to have noticed that...

does seem like the narrative of a down year in MAC was perhaps a little overstated

(01-03-2023 03:18 PM)PaulJ Wrote:  does seem like the narrative of a down year in MAC was perhaps a little overstated

It's a relative thing isn't it? Each to their own measure I suppose but as long as someone really wants to push a narrative this league isn't in a very bad way, I'll play debbie-downer.

These are the team the MAC barely beat or lost to.

The bowl opponents have a combined 7 wins more than losses. Just over one win per team, a point 545 average. Three of those wins belonged to one team, Liberty, who entered bowl season on a three game losing streak. The last one by 30 to the last team allowed to bowl, with a losing record.

If that says to someone," hey, MAC is looking great or even normal or even alive," then who is to dispute that?

If the MAC wasn't down, then it's dead. I prefer down with an AD looking to find someone that can keep us from following any longer. If the narrative is, the league isn't down then would it be even better if the league had gone 6-0 against .500 FCS teams?

Any way you slice it, only one school in Ohio won their division, their conference and their bowl game and that school had neither “The” or “Ohio” anywhere in its name. And the school that starts with “The” did none of the above.

(01-03-2023 06:40 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  Any way you slice it, only one school in Ohio won their division, their conference and their bowl game and that school had neither “The” or “Ohio” anywhere in its name. And the school that starts with “The” did none of the above.

^^^ Absolutely!!