In the last decade, Ohio has either won the East (twice) or finished second (5 times) for a total of 7 first/second place finishes. In the 5 times that Ohio finished runner-up, 4 times the eventual winner of the East beat Ohio. The only exception was in 2018 when UB had a better final MAC record despite Ohio kicking the snot out of them 52-17. Ohio has never finished lower than 3rd place out of a 6-team division in any of those years, and one of those years (2020) included the Covid season where the MAC played an unbalanced number of games because of cancellations. If you remove the Covid year from consideration, Ohio has finished 1st or 2nd in the East in 7 of the last 9 seasons of full play. If that doesn't speak volumes about the success and importance in deciding the East and who goes to Detroit, then I don't know what does. They either go to the MACC, or the team that beats them does in almost every single case.
As for what East teams do once they get to Detroit, there has only been one East team that has won a MACC since BG last did in '15. That was Miami in '19. In fact, the West has won 12 of the last 17 times. But which East team has been to Detroit the most during that stretch? You guessed it - Ohio - a total of 5 times, which is 2 more than any other East squad. It all goes to show that what Clawson used to preach over a decade ago still very much applies. And this is why the Ohio game is the most important game in the East.
