excuse my ignorance --- but why Miami

[Dr. Reality]

I understand football, but I don't understand the scheduling or the decisions made regarding games won vs games lost and the play-off
selection. Bowling Green has the best overall won-lost record in the MAC -- 8 and 4. They're also tied with Central Mich. with the best lost and won record in the MAC -- 6 and 2. Miami is 6 and 6 overall, and 5 and 2 in the MAC. Yet, Miami is in the play-off and BG is not. I know that Miami beat BG, but what about winning per centages, don't they count?? Just call me dummy or even ultra dummy and I apologize if this question has been asked/answered before. I just didn't read it.

[TG1996]

The only records that mattered in this case were those against the MAC East, because Temple made for an unbalanced schedule (Miami actually played fewer MAC games, I believe.)

[Metz]

It'd make more sense if all the teams in the league played the same amount of games in the season. The MAC appears to have a BIG flaw here IMO.

[Class of 61]

I understand football, but I don't understand the scheduling or the decisions made regarding games won vs games lost and the play-off
selection. Bowling Green has the best overall won-lost record in the MAC -- 8 and 4. They're also tied with Central Mich. with the best lost and won record in the MAC -- 6 and 2. Miami is 6 and 6 overall, and 5 and 2 in the MAC. Yet, Miami is in the play-off and BG is not. I know that Miami beat BG, but what about winning per centages, don't they count?? Just call me dummy or even ultra dummy and I apologize if this question has been asked/answered before. I just didn't read it.

It's because of the fact that we have 13 teams in the MAC (thank you Temple)... the only way they could make this work was to count ONLY the East Div. games (in our case)...for all intents and purposes, the West games we played were similar to OOC games, only to be used as a tie breaker if all else failed...actually, Buffalo, Miami and BG were in a 3 way tie for the "championship" of the East Div., but MU won BOTH head to head games, so they're in to the MACC game, despite a worse overall record. And Miami actually played one LESS MAC game, again, supposedly because of the "odd" number of MAC teams.

[nwofalconfan]

So I guess we are tri-champs of the East with Buffalo and Miami? When do the t-shirts go on sale.

[NWLB]

I seem to recall saying the rule about cross-divisional play could come back to screw somebody, and so it is. It wouldn't be the first time such a rule has screwed BG either.

The MAC title game, as its not a playoff/tournament, they send who wins the division, and that figures to be Miami as the MAC wants to figure it. That the rule, not "who has the best record."

Ironically, Miami got screwed in 1995 when they sent Toledo to Las Vegas, even though the Skins had a better record, tied Toledo, and frankly were a better team. But those were the rules.

[Schadenfreude]

Ironically, Miami got screwed in 1995 when they sent Toledo to Las Vegas, even though the Skins had a better record, tied Toledo, and frankly were a better team. But those were the rules.

If memory serves, Toledo was 10-0-1. The tie was to Miami (8-2-1), which lost out on the MAC title by also losing to Ball State (if memory serves).

Miami had beaten the Big Ten champion. But they didn't win the MAC that year.

[NWLB]

I think your right on the record. They lost to Ball State in their first game of the year, 15-17, lost a few weeks late at Michigan, and tied UT, who was actually 11-0-1, but beat Nevada twice in that year, the second time being in the Bowl game.

That was indeed the year they beat Northwestern, which was a replacement game arranged by Notre Dame I think. By the end of the year, the common talk was that the Redskins were frankly better than the UT team. Such being the case it wasn't a tiebreaker, they did win it straight-up. It was that nobody gave them much respect that year, or the year after. I recall the UT fans whined for years about the MAC and media not giving them their "due." In this case, it was that they weren't ranked higher than 24 in the polls at the end of the year. Never mind the fact that the season started with BG getting all the press, which fell into their laps by the end of the year.

And of course, Marshall marched into the league and won't let go until they left.