Spin

He was asking why nobody was talking about seven MAC teams getting into bowl games. Try to keep up.

The correlation is, even though the Aeros aren't in MLB, the Gladiators aren't in the NFL, and the Invaders/Force/Crunch/Caps/City Stars were not in the Barklay's Premier League, they still drew well and broke attendance records. In the Force/Gladiators case they drew >18,000. The point is, this region will support a winning team. It doesn't have to be the top level of the sport, it just has to WIN.

Apparently nobody wants to talk about that. Why aren't you?

Akron Aeros Canton Invaders Cleveland Force Cleveland Caps Cleveland City Stars Cleveland Gladiators All set attendance records. Not everybody in NEOhio is infatuated with pretending to be top level.

The Morgan State game outdrew three of the MAC games. As did Massillon High School. I get it, status means everything to a lot of people. I just know first hand how this area will support a winner. No matter what level it is. From everything I've seen winning>status. And still no response about several teams that are no legally in the BCS because of their attendance. But nothing is going to change anyhow, just trying to have a discussion, which is why we're here.

Who the hell are you to tell me what I can watch and what I have to think? Get over yourself. Playing in your league isn't quitting. Failing to build a program that competes at the level it's in IS quitting. We've been in FBS for 25 years, it's time to compete, or go somewhere we can compete with what we are given. You guys want to be Ohio State, while the sincerity of the university to compete in football is closer to Stark State. I couldn't care less what the goals are of the university that don't deal with football when we are talking about football. Just as I couldn't care less what the volleyball program's goals are when we're talking about academic programs. I guarantee a 10-2 FCS school would put more asses in the Info, generate more positive news, and give the university a much better image than the mess we've had... If you're not going to be serious about FBS football, just don't.

1) What the hell difference does that make? 2) What would their record be in the SWAC? Pioneer? Ivy League? Since you're dealing with hypotheticals. Think they could run the table in the Pioneer? What if the NCAA actually enforced their FBS minimum standards on attendance and dropped 5 or 6 MAC teams to FCS. Add in Dayton, YSU, Indiana State. Duquesne. I doubt anyone would miss the Ohio's and the Northern Iowa's. But hey if you're satisfied with 1-11, and working and praying for a berth in the Little Seizures Bowl, knock yourself out. Chances are you have nothing to worry about. Nothing says "major bowl game" like getting toasted by Western Kentucky in front of 25,000 souls. Pre-inflation.

We didn't build it to average less than 10,000 for one win teams either. About a mile down Exchange St., Canal Park was built for a team playing in their own league, and set minor league attendance records. Cleveland set MISL/NPSL and AFL attendance records. YOU JUST GOTTA WIN. Not everyone is wrapped up in playing against FBS fodder and getting an ass kicking by a top program every year.

The pipe dream is big time college football fans thinking the 10-15 big time college football programs are ever going to let ANYONE ELSE in their club. Ask Boise State and Texas Christian. If you're not a legacy program, you're fucked. It doesn't matter how good you become. You guys heard the bitching and crying over NIU going to the Orange Bowl, it made me sick. The fricken Orange Bowl, that couldn't sell out if they were paying people to go. So playing UMess, Buffalo, EMU, and CMU is soooooooooooo much more glamorous than playing AA schools. You guys have delusions of grandeur.

You don't think those same people would be equally as excited for an FCS National Championship game? Let's ask Mount Union (D3) fans about that. I watched fans in this area react to NPSL championships in Canton and Cleveland, to the Gladiators runs in the AFL. We're not talking Premier League and NFL, they/we didn't give a shit. We had a great time, and the loudest most energtic crowds I have seen in NE Ohio. You would rather play for a spot in the GoDaddy.com bowl in Mobile, AL? I was raised on college football and the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Gator Bowl, Fiesta Bowl. Romantic, historic, the best of the best. But everything else is junk, the NIT of college football. And about the whole cash grab, how much money do you think NIU will even make at the Orange Bowl? Last I heard they were going to eat shit on all the tickets they had to buy and couldn't resell. And the MAC was going to assist them with a higher payout. I'd much rather be contenders than pretenders, which is what we will be with the current budget and legacy against the 10-20 schools eligible for a D1-A title and Heisman Trophy.

Agree 100%.

"Ohio is building a $15 million indoor practice facility. Soon every MAC school will have one. " Um, we have had one for awhile. No love for Terry? Yeah, wait til he gets his own players in there.

The common denominator;

I bet the second half made him rethink that...

Because they wanted to give Ohio, Toledo, and NIU cake schedules this year. Did I say that out loud?

This team eats their own clock even better than Shurrrrrmurrrrrrrr. And then runs up the gut.

There's ONE GUY on that whole fricken team you gotta watch, and there he went.

+1

The bottom half of the conference is ranked 139th and worse. NIU and Toledo (and Ohio I guess) are having great seasons, but not enough to prop up the bottom feeders...

Am I the only one who sees the change in our production and the way opponents play us (Kyle Pohl time? MAC caught up?) is also the same point in the season when we started fighting the heavyweights of the conference? Coincidence? Outcoached? Or just these much better teams have had solid recruiting classes the past 4 years? IMO it's the latter. Panic and benching is only going to hurt us against CMU and UMass. Toledo (and probably Can't) is going to take us to the woodshed, like we knew they would before the season started. Just as BG, Ohio, and NIU did. They're going to walk though our O line, they're going to cover our receivers like a blanket, they're going to walk through our front seven that we all knew lacked depth and size. Step in off the ledge.

Agreed, I'm torn between Toledo and NIU. Whoever it is is going to blow the shit out of whoever the East sends there, the real MAC daddy is Wed Nov. 14. If I had to pick I think NIU is better than Toledo, and has home field against them. But man is it tight.

Did anyone expect different? Against Northern Illinois???' Let's be real. This is a very good team, better than Ohio IMO.

Jeff Sagarin http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbc12.htm You think I go by National (popularity) rankings?