MDZip

With the exception of NIU the Zips beat every single team in the league this year, while it may hurt not getting the bye, this team ought to believe it can win it. The tournament is wide open this year.

Bowling Green is up on Ohio by 18 early. If that holds up we need Miami to win to get a bye. That would give us the four seed, but not sure if Can't or Buffalo would get the five. Miami would get the one by beating BGSU twice.

Of the four above choices only the Bubblers works. Heroes and warriors have too much of a positive connotation, while one-hitters is too positive in a baseball context. Now had the four choices been:Bong BubblersBrass HolesHemp HumpersWeed WhinersThen maybe we'd have a race.

So to make this more confusing Elton Alexander is claiming that the West (#2) seed comes into play. I don't see how you seed a tournament based on the seedings in that tournament but maybe he's right and that does throw some other scenarios into the mix. I would hope that the MAC web site posts all of the possibilities on their site before the weekend, but we usually don't get that kind of service.

According to ESPN, Can't beat Buffalo at Miami:OXFORD, Ohio -- Al Fisher scored 15 points, including six in a row in overtime, to lead Can't State to a 77-71 victory over Buffalo on Thursday night.No wonder we're so confused in this league.

Skip, I'll stand by my call - as a matter of fact I'll guarantee it. So either Miami or Buffalo will finish on top but not both since they play each other. Its just a question of whether the Zips or Falcons join them. We need to win, have Buffalo win and BUGS to lose (Go Bulls! Go Bongcats!) to give us the #1 seed. Any other combination and we get a lower seed. But if we win we can't get any lower than 4th and still get the first round bye so at least that is in our control.

And Can't beat Buffalo in OT. Four way tie at the top again.

We'll miss him a lot next year, thanks to him for four years of hard nosed play. Good luck to him in whatever he does after this and how about going out with a bang? - reach that 1,000 point plateau with a MAC Championship!

I don't think the tie-breaker is just Miami in that case. I think it's Miami and BG together since they have the same record, in which case it's another tie. How about this scenario, unlikely though it may be:Thursday:Can't beats BuffaloAkron beats OhioMiami beats BGSunday:Ohio beats BGAkron beats Can'tBuffalo beats MiamiFinal records:Akron 11-5Buffalo 11-5BGSU 10-6Miami 10-6Can't State 9-7Ohio 8-8Tiebreakers (Akron vs Buffalo):Head to head: Tie (1-1)Against BG/Miami combined: Tie (2-2)Against Can't State: Akron wins (2-0 vs 1-1) (Even if Ball State gets to 9-7, they beat Buffalo)Is this the last thread of hope we have to cling to? Can I have a ruling please?I think we have a shred of hope, that is the way the MAC tiebreakers work; any two teams tied in the rankings are considered as a group so I think your analysis is correct. It's a long shot but it's still a shot.

Wow, Joe Lunardi just released his latest bracketology with now Bowling Green representing the MAC. The new thing is that they are listed as a 16th seed. Man the MAC has fallen.

Looking at the bigger picture, it is disappointing that there is no chance to win the league regular season title, but this team has accomplished a great deal (and a great deal more than was expected) and still have just as good a chance of winning the tournament as anyone (as proof I offer that the Zips have beaten every team in the league save Ohio - which hopefully happens this week - and NIU at their place). The bad part is that they are not playing their best basketball right now, but we still could win the MAC tournament although I think it is essential we pick up one of the byes. Combine that with the article that was just posted about Zeke and the MAC better take their best shot at us this year.

His time with the Redskins was short.http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3946853

I see right through your clever plot, trying to instill overconfidence in the Flushes by ranking them first. I can see no other explanation. And by the way, David Kool was named third team academic All-American (the only MAC player to do so), so they got that going for them too.

Anyone heard the new Wendy's ad where she states that your fish (sandwich) needs a name "not like Zippy, but like a cod" or something along that line? My attorneys are already looking into it. This could be the windfall the university is looking for.

I really appreciate your "sad" use of time. Statisticians are my unsung heros. As an amateur statistician, I've wasted endless hours calculating "what if's." The older you get, the more you will appreciate that there are many sadder uses of time than crunching numbers. Yeah, but I'm 47.

Wow, and last year the MAC had a 9 seed. These things are cyclical and as others have pointed out in other posts the MAC is fairly young this year, but I'd take a 14 seed if we can just get into the tournament.

I think a lot of us felt that a 4-3 would have been good since it seems we have a plethora of pretty good lineman but if a few (Sewell, Lemon) could be converted to a more natural linebacker position, that's even better. With the depth in the lne and relative weakness at linebacker, this could work out really well.

The MAC web site agreed with my seedings last time so since this is fun for me (yes, I know how sad that is), this would be the current seedings:1. Akron 9-4 (see below)2. Ball State 7-63. Bowling Green 9-44. Buffalo 9-4 (would you really want to see Buffalo as a 4 seed?)5. Miami 8-5 (head to head over Can't)6. Can't 8-57. Ohio 7-68. Western Michigan 6-79. Central Michigan 5-810. Northern Illinois 4-911. Eastern Michigan 3-10 (wins tiebreaker over Toldeo by virtue of beating BGSU)12. Toldeo 3-10Tiebreaker for first seed (head to head):AKRON: 2-1BGSU: 2-1BUFF: 1-3Buffalo eliminated, Zips hold 1-0 lead on BGSU

After we beat Bowling Green we want them to do as well as possible. Since the first tiebreaker of head to head with Buffalo is even, the next tiebreaker will be teams in order. Big if, but if we end up tied with the Bulls and BGSU ends up in third alone, we'd win the tiebreaker no matter whate happens against BG on Sunday (of course they'd then be a game up on us and then we'd have a whole separate set of problems). Anyway, I think it boils down to this - if win the rest of our games, we'd almost certainly be assured of a number one seed regardless of what anybody else does (including Buffalo). BGSU is the only other one that can make that claim so Sunday's game is pretty big. If we win the rest of them, the only way to knock us out would be for Miami to end up alone in third with us and Buffalo tied for first. With Can't and BGSU still in the mix that just doesn't seem very likely.

I thought they were already wearing them.Are they? I know they are wearing LeBron shoes, but I thought this version with the Akron skyline hadn't come out yet. I tried to look at pictures from the Ball State game and it looks close but deosn't look like quite the same shoe. Is it? As I look at more pictures from the game it doesn't appear that everyone is wearing the same style of shoe (see McNees, Steve). http://uaim.dyndns.info/photo_galleries/_A...e/021109015.htm

According to the MAC web site the tiebreakers for Men's basketball are as follows:1. Head-to-head competition2. Winning percentage vs. ranked conference teams (top to bottom, regardless of division; versus common opponents, regardless of the number of times played) - and if any teams are tied by record they will be considered as a group (as an example, Ohio, Ball State and WMU are all 6-6 right now so if the tiebreaker got down to them it would be your cumulative record against all three).I think to resolve head to head with 4 tied teams, I guess you'd take the cumulative record of all four against each other. That would be AKR: 3-1MU: 3-1Can't State: 1-2BGSU: 0-3You have to go to the 2nd tiebreaker for Akron and Miami since they are 1-1 against each other, both have a loss to Buffalo so that is even, Can't and BGSU would be considered a unit, both Miami and UA are 2-0 against them so you'd go down to the Ohio-WMU-Ball State Triad where UA and Miami are both 2-1, so we'd go all the way down to CMU where Miami lost and UA won, so I think the seedings above are correct (except BGSU and Can't would need to be switched) for the next two days at least. Also remember that BGSU holds a huge tiebreaker by beating Buffalo twice but they are in a big hole already so we really need to beat them again so that tiebreaker doesn't come into effect (especially if we all end up being tied with Buffalo). Or the "easier" route - win all four MAC games left and we're .

You never know what the easy route is really going to be. Give me the top spot any time (and a guaranteed post-season bid) which really doesn't influence the chance of making it to the NCAA's. Grab as high as seed as possbile. Everybody in the East (except maybe Ohio) absolutely has their fate in their own hands. I think 11-5 will win the East. Should be a heck of a tournament. And seeing what the West did on that final Sunday, I'm not wishing to see anyone in particular - let the chips (even if it's the Chipps ) fall where they may.

I hope there are plans to put these on both our basketball team's feet when they are available. Now that would be unique.

Buffalo went down to the Falcons. One game separates the top five teams in the East. Should be a fun finish.

I hear something... That may be the sound of a deflating basketball ...