You guys are in a fantasy alright! It is one thing to play in the same division as the teams that play in the bowl games, and play for the highest national title, but it is something completely different to actually compete seriously against those teams. No MAC school will be competing for a football national title in our lifetimes. Period.
I'm sure someone could easily say that. But, I don't think any of us have expectations of national titles as a D-1A football program. I want to be competitive, and be good. I want to see the top teams have to treat Akron as something more than a patsy. That will undoubtedly create more excitement for me than having a chance to win more games in a lower division that gets little or no attention from the general sporting world.
But, being somewhere in the national championship picture certainly isn't the impossibility that you suggest. Boise, Marshall, TCU, Ball State, NIU and Utah are just a handful of those who have been highly ranked, and right on the edge of a magical season, just in the last decade or so alone.
I'd rather have a shot at making the Top 25 than win a national championship in a lower division. I've got no BCS National Championship-esque delusions of grandeur, but I do think we could build a 20-25-type program.