GP1

MSU hasn't won west of the Rocky Mountains since 1953.

I can't. Fixed. Thanks for pointing out.

In the 80s and 90s, they had an impressive and obvious steroid program.

Solid team all the way around, but not world beaters. I think you'll see a team similar in talent to MSU. Winning against Florida will be the difference between them finishing 3rd or 4th in the SEC East. This week could very well be a look-ahead game and a bit of a let-down game after a nail biter in overtime the week before. I would mix in a lot of back-up players in anticipation for the SEC starting. They have two winnable games after Akron against UofF and at LSU...then Alabama in Knoxville. It would be pretty tempting to play a risk free game if I was the TN coach and set myself up for a potential great start to SEC play. I'd take the Zips +48.5.

Nebraska has become the Arizona State of the Big Ten only ASU has less of a history and Nebraska has monumentally better fans.

Yes. Play one money game, one G5 and one FCS. 9 conference games.

https://sportsenthusiasts.net/2021/12/15/how-the-sun-belt-conference-football-membership-has-evolved-since-2001/ Good article on SunBelt expansion over the years.

So, you are saying my argument is incorrect and the changes the Sun Belt has implemented to their scheduling is not the correct thing to do? You're focused on the wrong things. This is one of the mistake MAC fans have been making for decades. If you want to the MAC to be viewed at as better than it currently is, Mack's mention of Buffalo on Monday Night Football has NOTHING to do with it. It's the "exposure" argument that has helped harm the league and prevented us from even becoming a Sun Belt. I'm not saying don't play P5. Play 1 per year. Win that one and people will talk as long as you don't get waxed by 1-2 other P5 schools. Everyone misses this point.....You don't go from starting the season 1-3, while playing 3 PF schools and 1 FCS, every year to 2-2 or 3-1 without breaking the lunacy of the scheduling disaster MAC athletic directors give MAC schools. For example, if you play 1 P5, 2 G5 and 1 FCS, there is a good chance of starting the season 2-2 unless you are really bad. 2-2 provides momentum and that extra win for a lot of teams is the difference between going to a bowl game and a winning season or not. Bowl games and winning count more than Mack's mention on Monday Night Football. Every few years, a team can go from 2-2 to 3-1 or even 4-0 with a win against a P5 school. It's rare, but can happen and we saw it last weekend. Winning starts with smart scheduling. I don't know why this isn't as obvious to you as it was to the Sun Belt and me. Other than money, there is no reason for Akron to play two P5 schools in a season at this point. If you are enamored with losing as much as some on this board seem to be, how about a 35-31 loss to a G5 school in lieu of a 52-0 drubbing by a P5 school. Isn't the game at least more interesting or are the blowouts too appealing? Did anyone actually watch the crap in East Lansing until the end of the game Saturday? If you did, you need immediate psychiatric attention. Marshall is not in the sun belt and I mentioned that above. ODU is in the sun belt as well as JMU.

When Alabama plays OOC on the road, they run the risk of referees actually calling the endless pass interference penalties they commit. Alabama does the same thing the Seattle Seahawks did the year they cheated their way to a Super Bowl. They committed so many pass interference penalties on almost every pass in every game, the referees couldn't possibly call every penalty so they just stopped after the first quarter. The next season the refs actually did their jobs and guess which would be dynasty went one and done in Super Bowls?

I remember a "dancer bar" in Norton called The Nest. They always ran advertisements in the ABJ and I laugh about them with a guy here in the Carolinas from Norton. He clearly remembers the ads said, "Swings, Polls. My Girls Do It All".

Yes. Get rid of Buffalo. I'll trade a conference that knows it's identity. I'm not sure how one player keeps the MAC relevant in the NFL talent discussion, but believe what you want to believe. Living here in the Carolinas, nobody every says, "Ah, you went to Akron. Didn't Khalil Mack play in the MAC". Seriously, nobody has ever said that to me. App States wins are interesting evidence to remain in our current scheduling disaster. Their one time success is an outlier, not the norm for almost all G5 schools. Big picture says current G5 scheduling practices are horrible for their conference and the Sun Belt proved it. Winning makes for winning programs. They have grown with the addition of schools....in the sun belt. Get it?

I don't know.

Are you listening to the former Sun Belt commissioner discuss the conference? The MAC could learn a lot from the discussion. My biggest takeaway is the importance of university presidents in that conference buying into changes in scheduling that don't result in teams starting the season 1-3 every year, and how that leads to more winning and the importance of winning over money. Basically, money doesn't create winning. Winning creates a momentum the results in more winning. Success in college football for G5 schools is about winning, not gobbling up money. MAC schools have scheduling all wrong. In fact, how the MAC schedules is in direct contradiction to winning. What was the key to scheduling changes for the Sun Belt you ask? Easy..... They encouraged schools to abandon the following scheduling method: 2-3 money games and one FCS team to start the season. Replaced that failing model with: 1 money game, 2 G5 games and one FCS. Georgia Southern has a schedule like this that creates a winning culture....how did that work for them last weekend? Marshall has a schedule like this that creates a winning culture.....how did that work out for them last weekend? App State has a schedule close to this.....how did that work out for them last weekend? Sun Belt Conference membership model does not involve admitting teams just because you think it's a good idea or the fans are bored with the current state. It purposefully brings in teams specifically in the footprint of the southeast with the exception of Marshall. The MAC is a midwest conference and with the exception of Buffalo, who could hit the bricks and nobody would care, the conference should stay that way. If you want a successful midwest conference at the G5 level in the midwest, keep Western Kentucky and MTSU out of the league. Get rid of Buffalo and shrink the size of the league and it will be better off for it.

Purpose of this topic is to discuss games during the ongoing 2022 season. Last weekend was awesome for college football on a multitude of levels. Recommendation. Full Ride is about to air on XM Radio 84. Rick Neuheisel is a brilliant commentator. It's about to start. If you can listen and aren't, adjust your schedule.

Out of curiosity, while they got destroyed, did they at least play better?

I'm going with more than 4 scores while at the same time predicting the Zips play better than last weekend. If MSU gets up early, it could be a long day for the Zips. MSU goes to Seattle next weekend to play Washington. They need to get their starters in game shape for a 4 quarter game next weekend so I don't see them calling off the dogs, regardless of the score, until the end of the 3rd quarter. In fact, with the exception of Maryland, their schedule is pretty brutal through the end of October. I like the 9 game Big Ten schedule. It is a sign of a conference confident in the product they are selling. Call me crazy, but I think the MAC is offering a good product and I'd like to see them do the same.

"until then" is 4 seasons away. Think about how much has changed in the last two. Is it so far out of the world of reality to believe they couldn't narrow college football at the highest level down to 30:40 teams? It's entirely possible and they are heading that way. So, what access do the rest have right now? The answer is, zero. The people at the television networks currently running college football don't give a hoot about anything other than maximizing shareholder profits. These people are much smarter than the athletic directors they are currently running over. Does anyone really think these monsters care about what happens to G5 schools? It's time to wake up before it's too late.

Television networks, the ones driving these decisions, want to give themselves time to figure out which 30-40 teams will be in their super conference. Four years might give them enough time.

Thanks for the question. Easy answer. Access to the invitational tournament provides the G5 schools with a level of delusion about a future in college football in which they will not be a part. This delusionary state prevents them from taking the actions necessary to find a spot in the world where they can find better success.

I hope you are correct and I'll get to that in a minute. It won't change the MAC. It will only make it worse. I don't hate G5. I love it and fixing whatever people think their problems are will not be accomplished with an automatic bid. My wish is for anyone who thinks the MAC should get an automatic bid. I wish these people would be required to be taped to a recliner in their living rooms and forced to watch the MAC winner get destroyed by the likes of Alabama for the entire game. If you promote trash, you should be forced to watch it. G5 schools should take the next four years to figure out what they want to be. Ready.....Set.....Go!

UNC finished below. 500 last year. They will again this year. Prediction: Mack Brown gets fired. Bonus Prediction:. This off season there will be more than one fan base that thinks Mack Brown is the solution to their coaching problem making Brown the new Jim Grobe.

Fair enough. I'll be in the ever increasing group of people not watching the crap they are shoveling through the television. It won't be long until players opt out of invitational tournament games also.

If you think winning bowl game is nothing more than a trophy and t-shirts, you have never experienced a bowl game. There are thousands of people a year who travel to bowl games with nothing at risk other than the experience. They are awesome. Players, students, alumni and fans get to travel around the holidays for a game and friendship around their school. We should encourage this experience. How many fans can really afford to travel to 2-3 bowl games? Almost none. By the time the invitational tournament is over, the stadiums will be empty. Enjoy watching Alabama blow out the likes of Utah 50-0 in these "meaningful" games.

Americans get to have more trash shoveled into their living rooms during the holidays. Awesome!

This is the best description of events surrounding a game I did not attend I have ever read. Well said. How people feel while at a game, in part, is what you might consider to be the "customer satisfaction". My customer satisfaction requirements, in order, are: 1. Good football. For me, squeaking out a win against an average 1AA team is not very satisfying. 2. Good parking. There is pretty good parking around The Big Dialer. Beer provides me with plenty of entertainment so I don't really look to anyone else to provide me with any entertainment while I get loaded. 3. Good food. I'd love a report on the quality of food at the stadium. 4. More beer. Is the beer in the stadium good? 5. Clean bathrooms. I'm a stickler for a clean bathroom. Were the bathrooms clean because points 2 and 4 lead to the bathroom. 6. Was the stadium generally clean? 7. The other stuff. This is are where the scoreboard comes into play. I shouldn't go to a D1 football game and see a semi-functioning scoreboard. All the other bells and whistle such as sound effects don't do anything for me. I find most of it stupid, but people like it and I'm pretty good at ignoring it. If they got points 1-6 right, I'd be cool with missing on 7 unless it was just as horrible as described. If I was a casual fan, it wouldn't keep me from attending a future game.