angelic,

i must say, great game. Y'all let us hang around for awhile and i actually thought we might pull it out :D

Jones is awesome and y'all's offensive line just killed us. But i was proud of how we competed with the number 8 team in the land.

Go Hokies! If we have to lose to anybody, i certainly don't mind losing to y'all. Beat Miami and win the Big East. I think i'm starting to become a Hokie fan 364 days out of the year. Write your AD and have him put us back on the schedule, we need to make this a yearly thing :D

Kitso
KS 361 times more respect i have for the Hokies than the Tech in my home state

Absolutely remarkable...A Big MAC Attack.

Three teams from our conference (Toledo, Northern Illinois and Marshall), the Mid American Conference, played and beat BCS conference ranked teams today (Pitt, Bama and K. State) -- and Bowling Green almost beat Ohio State.

All of the ESPN guys are saying that it's time for the MAC to be in the BCS.

I think it's a little pre-mature for that, but the conference has been getting stronger, and this is quite a day for them.

edit: And, I didn't even think about what happened right here in my own back yard -- Miami of Ohio beat Colorado State. Not as big an upset, but in the past a Mountain West team would almost always have beaten one from the MAC.

Edit to add the colum below. Didn't feel it was important enough for another post, but thought it was interesting anyway:

The good glorious news for the Mid American Conference came in threes Saturday – Marshall shocking Kansas State out on the plains, Northern Illinois upsetting Alabama down South, Toledo knocking off Pittsburgh in front of a delirious home crowd.

Three victories over nationally ranked teams on top of an already brilliant month for the league.

It was also the kind of day that shows the gentle leveling of the playing field in college football, and makes a mockery out of the efforts of the six BCS conferences to continue to exclude less famed leagues from competing for a national title.

The BCS leagues will tell you the division between the haves and have-nots is clear.

Then things like Saturday keep happening.

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What the MAC did is the reality of today and, increasingly, tomorrow. It's the BCS that wants to pretend it didn't happen.

With each season of scholarship reductions, early defections to the NFL, renewed commitments by mid-majors to football and too-frequent NCAA sanctions on the big boys, the case for a more inclusive BCS system and eventually a playoff keeps getting stronger.

The BCS is a simple system. The eight slots in four games go to members of six conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big Twelve, Pac 10 and SEC, plus independent Notre Dame). A team outside of that group can get a bid by finishing in the top six of the BCS rankings, but twice teams (Marshall, Tulane) went undefeated and didn't come close.

It's a closed system, which is why the non-BCS schools – which may soon include what's left of the Big East – are fighting to gain access.

There is no question the best football is played in the BCS leagues. Most BCS vs. non-BCS matchups end in blowout wins for the big boys. The likelihood of a MAC team winning a national title is remote. But it is, in certain spots, getting closer.

"The [BCS conferences] have great players," says Western Michigan coach Gary Darnell. "But they don't have all of them."

The reality is the best of the mid majors can play with just about anyone in the BCS.

"We've been a top 25 team five of the last six teams," Marshall coach Bob Pruett says. "We've been able to compete with the middle-of-the-pack ACC and SEC teams. We felt we needed to play [the top] to see how close we could get to them.

"When we started two years ago Florida got us pretty good. Then played better against Virginia Tech last year and against Tennessee [this year]. Now we got one at Kansas State."

College football should let them try when it matters most, in a playoff system that would follow the blueprint of the basketball. A 16-team event that would award 11 automatic bids to conference champs – five of which are currently shut out. Give five at-large bids (likely all to BCS schools) and seed the event. This is the system in Division I-AA, II and III.

Play the first two rounds in early December with the higher seeded team as host. The semis and championship game begin after final exams and are held at preexisting bowl. Anyone who doesn't make the field can go play in an unimportant bowl game.

No. 1 Oklahoma would be rewarded with a round-one cupcake. The middle seeds would fight for their life. Like in college basketball, a playoff lets the upsets happen, lets the momentum roll. That, in these times of fiscal constraint, lets the money flow.

"The current process is generating about 50 percent of what the value is," says former NCAA president Cedric Dempsey, who retired 10 months ago.

A MAC (or WAC or Mountain West) team may never make it to the championship game. But even a single playoff upset would be a thrill for this convoluted sport. No one really thinks Butler or Kent State is going to win it all in basketball either, but their success helps makes March.

And right now, in football, the MAC has made September.

So let them have a shot in December and January.

well, bowling green was within a touchdown, but IIRC they never really had a lead, and never controlled the game at all - so i don't know about 'almost winning', but they still played a hell of a game.

Know who didn't? ASU.

Any of you guys go to arizona state? because you came into kinnick and got frigging whooped. ASU looked terrible, they got dominated - best football game I've ever been to, crowd-wise, too. Amazing.

That's interesting. The game wasn't televised out here, but the scoreboard show guys made it sound like Ohio State struggled.

Ohio State plays an Ohio MAC team every year -- it's a great idea and keeps some money inside the state school system. When Ohio played them a few years ago, we went up 10-0 and were tied 10-10 at the half as I recall.

Of course the final score was 41-10 -- Ohio State.

The MAC teams have quality players on the first strings, but generally just don't have the depth to hang in.

DA,

Some sportscasters were saying on a recap that OSU hasn't lost to an in-state school since 1920. Is that true? y'all never got the best of the buckeyes?

Kitso
KS 361 times i think we're gonna rebound from our loss to VT and stomp pitt this weekend


ETA: WOOHOO!!! Just got my tix to the A&M-NU game in Lincoln! I"m stoked, goin down with my mom and two of our cousins. They're party animals for old folks, they kept me up till like 4 in the morning last night crusing the country for trouble :D Look out Lincoln, here comes Kitso

Kitso,

That's true, but just a tad misleading. Until this latest series with the MAC started -- probably six or eight years ago -- Ohio State probably hadn't played an in-state team for fifty years -- maybe more. At least I can't think of a game, and I was born and raised in Columbus.

I think that last time Ohio University beat Ohio State in football was 1908 -- or maybe 1906. The game ball used to be displayed in the old basketball arena.

Basketball is a different story. Ohio has beaten Ohio State a number of times that I can remember. As well as a lot of other big ten teams. Other MAC schools have as well.

What is important to remember is that Ohio State has about 50,000 students on the Columbus campus. The average MAC school in Ohio probably has about 15000. Ohio U. enrolls about 19,000 on the Athens Campus.

The athletic budgets of the MAC schools are a fraction of Ohio State's (or any other Big Ten team) -- so it's pretty tough to recruit against them -- especially in state.

That's one thing that made yesterday fairly remarkable. By the way, O.U. played a Big Ten team (Minnesota) and a Big Twelve team (Iowa State) this year in non-conference play, and was beaten rather handily -- but not embarassed.

In years past, the MAC teams would have been considered non-conference doormats to the teams from those leagues.

I think that cable tv sports channels have helped bring at least a small amount of parity. Before those, MAC and other conference of the like nearly never appeared on TV -- which didn't help recruitment either.

edited to add, the other thing about yesterdays wins is that they weren't against the bigger league's patsys, but some pretty strong programs.

More than you wanted to know.

.

any thoughts on the Sept. 27th NC State/UNC game?

that the Wolfpack should win handily.

good job on beating the classless clowns this weekend. I'm hoping for a repeat performance when A&M heads to lubbock.

Kitso
KS 361 days since the "Media Guide Incident"

thanks. awesome, we've lost to 'em so many times it gets a little disappointing. And seems like lately we're always favored but psyche ourselves out in the end.

Anyone see the Carolina/State game in Charlotte like 3 years ago?

Southern Cal #3 and climbing... :)

My poor Dawgs..:(

So happy my Pac-10 companions Oregon beat Michigan!

GO USC!!!!

My NIU Huskies are nationally ranked, the Cubs are in first place...is hell freezing over?? :)

-10 points for mentioning the Cubs in a College Football Thread ;)

especially cuz it's the Cubs.

Kitso
KS 361 days ago i KNEW the 'Stros were gonna lead the division, only to choke at the end

thought i'd bump this for the upcoming weekend.

A&M vs. #17 Pitt. on saturday. I predict A&M in an "upset" by 10 :D

and yes, i think Nebraska looked less than spectacular last night against Southern Miss. They're undefeated but they aren't spankin anyone.

Kitso
KS 361 times Gig 'em Aggies