Another Issue Decided

Last night on the frozen tundra of the Glass Bowl, Toledo fell to a pretty good Ball State team. The loss will certainly knock the Rockets out of the BCS rankings. More importantly, the loss drops them behind Northern Illinois in the MAC West.  I watched a good deal of this game but there were some other distractions to be sure. There is some darn good football being played in this often overlooked little conference.

A few weeks back I ranked the various conferences and I placed the Mid American near the bottom of the pile. I have had to rethink that position numerous times this season. Right now I am thinking that the MAC is probably, top to bottom, the best of the non BCS leagues and is certainly better than one (perhaps two or three) conferences that make up the BCS.
I am not certain, in fact rather doubt, that the MAC has the best "non BCS" team in the country, but top to bottom is another matter.

If, and only if, I was asked to rate the "mid major" conferences right now it would look a little something like this....

1. Mid American: Has at least four teams that are capable of beating a lot of top 25 schools on a rather consistent basis.

2. WAC: The WAC? Yes. This year they have three teams that are capable of winning big. Louisiana Tech is well known, but Utah State and, believe it or not, San Jose State are very good teams. SJSU surprised a Stanford team early this year and came very close to winning. Tech came roaring back on Texas Agriculture and made it a very close game. Tough opponents that now have a good deal of respect for WAC football I would wager.

3. Mountain West: Has both Boise State and a resurgent San Diego State as current members. Fresno is no slouch either.

4. Sun Belt: This season they have had some nice victories over "BCS" schools. They have three or four teams that could be dangerous for a whole slew of BCS teams.

5. Conference USA: Right now this conference is dismal. There are only two teams that could be considered pretty good right now; Tulsa and UCF.

Oh, as far as the MAC goes. Another important one tonight with Ohio and BGSU squaring off. Right now the Bobcats can not afford another MAC loss and needs to be on guard against a rather capable Bowling Green squad.

What did you think I was going to talk about? Oh. That. A bit later perhaps.