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Killing time waiting for opening night in the MAC, my hackneyed view of some of the more intriguing questions heading into the 2006 campaign:
Some Burning Questions Heading into 2006

Which teams' fans have the healthiest dislike for each other?

The MAC has several traditional rivalries that have allowed for a healthy dose of dislike to develop. But, for a real serious level of dislike, two standout: Central Michigan - Western Michigan and Toledo - Northern Illinois. The CMU-WMU dislike stems from the longstanding rivalry between the two schools and is still among the top rivalries in the MAC, if not the nation. The Northern Illinois - Toledo dislike is a direct result of Northern Illinois' recent success and emergence as a perpetual rival to Toledo for the West division title. Keep these fans separated at any cost at your next barbeque.

I generally really enjoy your writing and your commitment to the MAC, but if you really believe that these are the best rivalries in the MAC, well, then you haven't really been around that long in my estimation...

At last year's NIU-UT game we all partied with the NIU folks and got along great. I think somebody other than UT fans are trying to build that rivalry-UT's beaten them so often it's gonna take awhile. BG on the other hand...now that's a rivalry. You got all the elements-proximity, reasonably balanced record against each other over time and the good guy (UT) -bad guy(BG) perception that has built up around a nation that has been mesmerized by this rivalry for years. NIU-UT? Naaaah.

NIU/UT?...baah. The three real rivalries in the conference are BG/UT (as my four year-old daughter says "The Rockets stink like two pieces of poop"), Miami/OU and CMU/WMU.

BG/Miami is up there, too but it doesn't have the heat the other three do.

Wow! I hate Miami. Let me say it again, I hate Miami. But I have to concede that the biggest reason is because Miami leads the series 38-19-5.

But, I am of the mentality that a lot of the rivalries stem from one team beating the snot out of the other. Ohio State and Michigan for example. Michigan leads 57-38-6.

NIU has a lot more reason to hate Toledo than we do. Yeah, they are one of only 2 teams since 2002 to beat the rockets in the Glass Bowl. But look at what UT was doing to them before this past year.

However, there was one section of the article that I was interested in:

Which out of conference games provide the MAC it's best shot at upsets?
Starting with the defending MAC champs, Akron, the Zips have a potentially winnable game at North Carolina State. Miami has an interesting non-conference slate with a winnable home game against Northwestern and could pull the upset at Syracuse. Continuing in the East, Ohio's road contest at Missouri is a strong possibility for a MAC win. In the West, Toledo has Kansas at home and road contests against Iowa State and Pittsburgh while Central Michigan opens at home against Boston College and travels later in the season to Kentucky and Western Michigan could pull an early-season upset at Indiana.

Collegefootballnews.com said that they believe the BCS school that needs to be concerned was Wisconsin against us. As much as I would like to believe that, I don't. However, and I know I'll get bombarded with angry responses to this, I think OSU better have their wits about them against NIU.

I really think NIU is the team in the MAC to watch this year. Everybody in Columbus is talking about Texas. They had best not underestimate NIU, if they know what's good for them. This game being the first of the season works in NIU's favor.

Yes, Troy Smith...blah, blah, blah.....Ted Ginn Jr...blah, blah, blah...Antonio Pittman...blah, blah, blah.

But, NIU's QB maintained a 71% completion rate, and they have Garrett Wolfe. Their defense is undersized, but they are fast. There is also thoughts that their d-line could be improved over last year as well.

I'm not a betting man, so I won't even go there. But, I am saying that this game could be interesting.

On a side note, I was in the beer isle of The Andersons today and I noticed something. I think the St. Pauli Girl is a lot hotter with her hair down.

Go Falcons!

Excuse me......."there ARE also thoughts...."

sorry for my 1am typo.

h2oville rocket wrote:At last year's NIU-UT game we all partied with the NIU folks and got along great. I think somebody other than UT fans are trying to build that rivalry-UT's beaten them so often it's gonna take awhile. BG on the other hand...now that's a rivalry. You got all the elements-proximity, reasonably balanced record against each other over time and the good guy (UT) -bad guy(BG) perception that has built up around a nation that has been mesmerized by this rivalry for years. NIU-UT? Naaaah.

What is this good guy bad guy comment?

MatelaAntwerp wrote:

h2oville rocket wrote:At last year's NIU-UT game we all partied with the NIU folks and got along great. I think somebody other than UT fans are trying to build that rivalry-UT's beaten them so often it's gonna take awhile. BG on the other hand...now that's a rivalry. You got all the elements-proximity, reasonably balanced record against each other over time and the good guy (UT) -bad guy(BG) perception that has built up around a nation that has been mesmerized by this rivalry for years. NIU-UT? Naaaah.

What is this good guy bad guy comment?

He's got it backwards.

Flipper wrote: (as my four year-old daughter says "The Rockets stink like two pieces of poop"),

I love it!! My daughter, at about age eight queried me, as we drove past BG's campus, about why there was a cemetary in the middle of campus. When I told her I didn't know, she concluded that "It must be for all the people who die from embarassment that they have to go to BG".. Where do they come up with this stuff?

mmisbg wrote:Wow! I hate Miami. Let me say it again, I hate Miami. But I have to concede that the biggest reason is because Miami leads the series 38-19-5.

But, I am of the mentality that a lot of the rivalries stem from one team beating the snot out of the other. Ohio State and Michigan for example. Michigan leads 57-38-6.

NIU has a lot more reason to hate Toledo than we do. Yeah, they are one of only 2 teams since 2002 to beat the rockets in the Glass Bowl. But look at what UT was doing to them before this past year.

However, there was one section of the article that I was interested in:

Which out of conference games provide the MAC it's best shot at upsets?
Starting with the defending MAC champs, Akron, the Zips have a potentially winnable game at North Carolina State. Miami has an interesting non-conference slate with a winnable home game against Northwestern and could pull the upset at Syracuse. Continuing in the East, Ohio's road contest at Missouri is a strong possibility for a MAC win. In the West, Toledo has Kansas at home and road contests against Iowa State and Pittsburgh while Central Michigan opens at home against Boston College and travels later in the season to Kentucky and Western Michigan could pull an early-season upset at Indiana.

Collegefootballnews.com said that they believe the BCS school that needs to be concerned was Wisconsin against us. As much as I would like to believe that, I don't. However, and I know I'll get bombarded with angry responses to this, I think OSU better have their wits about them against NIU.

I really think NIU is the team in the MAC to watch this year. Everybody in Columbus is talking about Texas. They had best not underestimate NIU, if they know what's good for them. This game being the first of the season works in NIU's favor.

Yes, Troy Smith...blah, blah, blah.....Ted Ginn Jr...blah, blah, blah...Antonio Pittman...blah, blah, blah.

But, NIU's QB maintained a 71% completion rate, and they have Garrett Wolfe. Their defense is undersized, but they are fast. There is also thoughts that their d-line could be improved over last year as well.

I'm not a betting man, so I won't even go there. But, I am saying that this game could be interesting.

On a side note, I was in the beer isle of The Andersons today and I noticed something. I think the St. Pauli Girl is a lot hotter with her hair down.

Go Falcons!

Michigan hasn't beaten the snot out of OSU, at least not since the early 1900s when UM built-up a 19-3-2 series lead (or something like that). By the way, I think it is 57-39-6 now.

Bingo -- the OSU-UM rivalry has been very even over the course of the modern era. Each school has had good periods and bad. When Cooper was coach, UM owned OSU. Now Tressel owns UM. Overall it's been very competitive.

And for the record, A competitive rivalry will always be more intense than a rivalry where one side dominates. Ask Michigan State or Penn State about their "rivalries" with Michigan. Michigan doesn't even consider them rivals because they dominate both of them. Michigan's only true rivals are OSU and Notre Dame because those matchups have been more even over the years.

How anybody can not have BG-Toledo as the most heated MAC rivalry is beyond me.

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:How anybody can not have BG-Toledo as the most heated MAC rivalry is beyond me.

J4H: And not just anybody, but someone who runs a Web site dedicated to MAC sports.

1987alum wrote:

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:How anybody can not have BG-Toledo as the most heated MAC rivalry is beyond me.

J4H: And not just anybody, but someone who runs a Web site dedicated to MAC sports.

I still think that WMU and CMU have the best rivalry.

I don't respect UT. I think that it has to be there to be a good rivlary. I respect some of the fans. I like some of them. I just don't think the smack between the two schools is good at all, and UT fans as a whole aren't clever and funny.

My burning question is how does the MRO do a three-hour broadcast where they manage to talk with every coach in the MAC excpect for this year favorite (NIU) and the team with the best record over the past five years (BG)?

BG/UT, WMU/CMU are the best rivalries in the MAC...hands down.