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The conference is deep this year. Most of those West teams with bad records are better than they might seem.

However, the top end of the conference is relatively weak compared to the top end of the MAC of recent years. I don't see Akron, Kent, Ohio, or Buffalo making a serious case for an at large bid, unless one of them absolutely catches on fire.

Almost every year, the MAC eats itself and nobody is CLEARLY good enough for an at-large. This year, we should expect no different.

I hope I'm wrong.

BleedOrange wrote:The conference is deep this year. Most of those West teams with bad records are better than they might seem.

However, the top end of the conference is relatively weak compared to the top end of the MAC of recent years. I don't see Akron, Kent, Ohio, or Buffalo making a serious case for an at large bid, unless one of them absolutely catches on fire.

Almost every year, the MAC eats itself and nobody is CLEARLY good enough for an at-large. This year, we should expect no different.

I hope I'm wrong.

Unfortunately, I think you're absolutely right. OU had a great chance to make a statement early this year against UC and UK and came up short in both games. I look at the East Division and wonder where we're going to get our wins. Not because I think we're bad, but because the East is really tough this year. The West is pretty much dreadful, but I think Ball State would be right in the thick of things if Peyton Stovall was not hurt. To your point, though, I don't see the top 2 teams in this league being anywhere near as good as Kent State and BG in 2001-2002, for example, and we all know how many MAC teams got in that year.