Monstrously promising scheduling idea from friend of the program @Jerkwheatery:
I want a Sun Belt/MAC Challenge every year in football. Played exclusively on a Tuesday and Wednesday nights.—
Chris Driver (@Jerkwheatery) March 25, 2013
BRING FORTH THE CAJUNS TO YPSILANTI. SEND THE HUSKIES TO JONESBORO. MURFREESBORO CRIES OUT FOR YOU, BUFFALO.—
Chris Driver (@Jerkwheatery) March 25, 2013
Only 5 of 24 scheduled November MAC games will be played on a Saturday. #MACtion—
Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) March 01, 2013
The 2013 MAC schedule is out, and we’re going to skip right to what we know you want and excerpt the weeknight games for the season ahead:
In the dystopian future of the Big East, BBVA Compass Bowl trophies will be a highly valued currency. (AP)
• “Group of five” still just sounds so ominous. Jeremy Fowler reports on the coalescing system the Big East, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt are working on to distribute playoff revenue from the new postseason system:
In this proposed system, more than half the group’s roughly $86-million playoff pot would be distributed among the Big East, Mountain West, Mid-American Conference, Conference USA and Sun Belt as guaranteed base shares, according to a source with direct knowledge of the discussions. The source expects those shares to be evenly split, but added discussions are ongoing. The second tier pays out based on a conference’s body of work — the top conference gets the highest amount, then “X” amount for the next-rated conference, and on down. The third tier pays a kicker to the conference with the highest-ranked team, which is guaranteed an access bowl bid or, if among the top-four teams in the country, a semifinal berth in the playoff.
• Harbros’ early broing days. Check out Dan Wetzel’s tale of relatively wee Harbaughs recruiting youngsters to their dad’s team at Western Kentucky, including an appearance by one Willie Taggart.
• Exactly how you would’ve guessed. Former Miami Hurricanes make up the biggest slice of Super Bowl roster pie charts, but two of the next five teams on that list are … Marshall and Utah? Marshall and Utah! Go ThunderUtes!
• From the no-jokes department. Compelling story via OTL on UCLA researchers and evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in living football players.
It’s unlikely that Jordan Lynch and NIU can slide into a BCS bowl, but when have we ever liked sure things? (AP)
Quick hits from Friday night’s college football conference championship games. For more on Week 14, check out our Championship Saturday Snaps, coverage of Louisville-Rutgers, Oklahoma-TCU and the epic clash between Alabama and Georgia, plus our complete Top 25 review.
• No. 19 Northern Illinois 44, No. 18 Kent State 37 (2OT). Jordan Lynch put on a show in Detroit, and NIU’s defense played the part of showstoppers in the 2012 MAC championship game. The Huskies won their second consecutive conference title, in their third consecutive conference title game appearance, but this is MACtion, dahling. And MACtion would never, ever wind up without a flourish.
Down 10-0 late in the first quarter and looking slightly discombobulated, the Huskies executed a bit of gridiron theater we might have expected out of the early-season Golden Flashes, back when they were returning fumbled punts the wrong way down the field and tackling their own teammates for safeties: They attempted a fake field goal attempt that was interrupted by their own timeout call, effectively icing their own kicker, who wasn’t even planning to kick. Problem? Not for a team with Lynch, who returned to the field after the break, converted fourth-and-three on his own two feet, then continued running for 14 additional yards. Viva MACtion!
Dri Archer and Kent State could be playing for a possible BCS berth. (Diamond Images/Getty Images)
Sports fans, you have two conference championship games to savor on the eve of the last college football-filled Saturday of the regular season. We’re sure you have so many questions.
Shouldn't the MAC Championship be played on Tuesday or Wednesday? Wouldn't that be keeping it real?
—
Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) November 26, 2012• What information do I, the discerning sports fan, require in order to consume this game? The Huskies and Golden Flashes are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. ET at Ford Field in Detroit. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and streamed on WatchESPN.
• What’s at stake here? A possible BCS bowl trip, though as ever with teams from non-AQ leagues, the shot is an outside one. Stewart Mandel has the Golden Flashes in the GoDaddy.com Bowl in his latest projections (oh, the ad campaign they’ll make for that one) and the Huskies returning to Detroit for the Little Caesars Bowl.
But there’s victory in this already, for one side: Wherever Kent State goes, it’ll be the program’s first bowl game in 40 years.
• For whom are we to be watching? The Golden Flashes have a nasty running threat, particularly in the return game, in Dri Archer and another back, Trayion Durham, who cannot be left unattended. Archer is the nation’s top kick return threat, averaging more than 38 yards an attempt. He also leads the MAC in scoring and is the FBS’ fifth-ranked all-purpose runner heading into Week 14.
The Huskies have Jordan Lynch, and a bunch of other guys, and not to diminish their efforts at blocking for him or catching his passes, but Jordan Lynch is sort of overshadowing everything else at the moment. Right now, NIU’s quarterback is averaging more than 134 rushing yards per game, and he needs to gain just 92 tonight to set a new NCAA record for most rushing yards by a quarterback. Racking up 250 passing yards at Ford Field would also make him the first 3,000-1,500 player in FBS history. Friday MACtion, don’t let us down.
• Louisville 20, Rutgers 17. We’ll let SI.com’s Gabriel Baumgaertner tell y’all all about the antics of Teddy Bridgewater, but don’t go away without watching him let it all out postgame with offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. Bridgewater led the Cardinals to a primetime win, on the road, against the country’s fourth-ranked scoring defense. And then this happened:
How Bridgewater is even remaining upright at this point is anybody’s guess, but up he his, and no matter your particular partisanship, you must applaud. Have you a pulse? You will be moved. But don’t take our word for it. Listen to his teammates. Here’s Louisville offensive lineman Alex Kupper, after the game: “His legacy at the University of Louisville keeps building and building, and he’s only halfway through. He’s just an unbelievable player, the way he fights. When you’re playing next to him, if you do anything less, it’s shame on you.”
Rutgers still gets a share of the Big East title, and Cincinnati could force a four-way tie atop the conference standings with a win over UConn, but take it from Louisville safety Calvin Pryor, as the Cardinals mull their postseason possibilities: ”Whatever it is is better than going to the Belk Bowl!” [BOX | RECAP]
Jordan Lynch, pinballer of the year. (AP)
Our weekly highlight show of lesser FBS luminaries. Non-AQs and independents, be welcome. WE HAVE MUCH TO DISCUSS.
• On teams about to move themselves outside our purview. Like we said this morning, we had no sooner finished updating our magnificent work of college football realignment art than word came down we might need to add Middle Tennessee State to it. And right as we were wrapping up this here column, Florida Atlantic joins the fray, chasing FIU to Conference USA. Consider this another plea for a dead period in conference realignment, for the sake of everyone’s collective multitasking abilities, at least until the bowls are over. What on earth else are we going to talk about in February if we get all this conference-hopping sorted out before Christmas?
And what to do with some of these teams going forward? We have a while to figure it out, obviously, but how to cover this ballooning middle class created by the sinking of the Big East? Will the Blue Raiders graduate from Profiterole-dom as Temple did last year? We’ll probably dedicate way more thought to this than we should; but, again, best to save that for the offseason when we have nothing better to do.
• Conference races drawing to a close. Where we’re at heading into that weird hybrid weekend of regular and postseason games: Kent State and Northern Illinois meet Friday night in Detroit for the MAC title game. Tulsa hosts Central Florida this Saturday for the C-USA championship. The Mountain West remains deadlocked in that wacky three-way tie between San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State, with only the Broncos’ Saturday date with Nevada standing any chance of breaking it. The top two teams in the Sun Belt, Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee, play a final regular-season game Saturday that may as well be the conference title game. Utah State has clinched the WAC title outright with last week’s victory over Idaho. And Army and Navy will meet a week from Saturday for the right to hoist the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, with Air Force out of the race entirely for the first time since 2005.
• Bowltyme! Stewart Mandel’s latest postseason projections can be found here, along with a freshly-updated chart listing every accepted bowl invitation. Profiteroles playing this holiday season include Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl, Utah State in the Potato, San Diego State and BYU in the Poinsettia, Louisiana in the New Orleans, SMU in the Hawaii, Air Force in the Armed Forces and Navy in the Fight Hunger.
• “I think it all starts with a commitment to the university … the ability to have a clear vision.” While we technically agree with Colorado AD Mike Bohn that these are good qualities to seek in a college football coach, we have a humble suggestion: Next time, maybe don’t use those words right after firing a head coach two years into his tenure and right before making it outlandishly obvious through further words and sour facial expressions that you have nooooo idea what to do next.
The sporting internet watched with alternating horror and bewilderment as Jon Embree, Bohn and Colorado’s president and chancellor made statements and fielded questions on Embree’s ousting. You can watch the whole thing here, a fact which may be an indictment of the Colorado leadership in and of itself, read a summary of events here or get the general idea from those of us who watched it unfold in real time:
An emotional Jon Embree at his press conference. You can tell how much the job meant to him.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) November 26, 2012
A player just said from the back of the room “Thank you coach. We love you.” Embree said, “I love you too.” — Kyle Ringo (@KyleRingo) November 26, 2012
“We don’t get second chances.” Jon Embree on black head coaches. — Jason Kirk (@JasonKirkSBN) November 26, 2012
Embree on short-term turnarounds. “Basically, you can get mercenaries.” [Bobby Petrino startles to life in his coffin] — edsbs (@edsbs) November 26, 2012
embree’s basically saying, “if you wanted me to win this year, it was gonna cost cash money. untraceable CASH.” — Bomani Jones (@bomani_jones) November 26, 2012
And remember, Bohn hit this CU team with the same speech he used when he fired Hawkins. Players in that room heard it before — Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) November 26, 2012
Rex Burkhead goes out with a bang. (AP)
Snap Judgments from Friday afternoon’s action. For more, check out Saturday’s early Snaps and our complete Top 25 review.
• No. 17 Nebraska 13, Iowa 7. Bo Pelini was asked in his postgame on-field interview whose decision it was to insert the oft-injured Rex Burkhead into the Huskers’ final regular-season game. He laughed. “His!” The senior standout, absent for much of this season while nursing a knee injury, made the most of his time on the turf, leading Nebraska’s ground attack (69 yards on 16 carries) and scoring the Huskers’ only touchdown of the contest on a three-yard run in the third quarter.
Those of you who find our occasional gleeful odes to MACtion tacky are in for a real treat with today’s box score, where you will find just one player with an individual stat line totaling more than 100 yards. (The lucky lad: Taylor Martinez, who completed 9 of 14 passes for 63 yards and rushed for an additional 41.) Burkhead was trailed by Ameer Abdullah (50 rushing yards on 14 carries) and Braylon Heard (46 yards on four carries). For the Hawkeyes, James Vandenberg completed 11 of 24 pass attempts for 92 yards and threw two interceptions. Mark Weisman led Iowa in rushing with 91 yards on 29 attempts.
Vandenberg also gave the Hawkeyes their only lead of the game, with a one-yard rushing touchdown late in the first quarter, a lead Iowa hung onto until Burkhead’s run. And for a moment there, late in the fourth quarter, it looked as though we might have a ballgame on our hands again. Given the ball on a Nebraska punt at their own 27 with about three and a half minutes to play, the Hawkeyes executed two consecutive six-yard plays before Vandenberg threw his second interception with just 2:11 remaining on the clock. And practically before time had expired in the stadium, we had that all-important BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TICKETS: ON SALE NOW email land in our inbox. The Huskers have earned at least a share of the division title and will play Wisconsin in Indianapolis on Saturday, December 1. Nebraska won their first meeting in September, 30-27. [BOX | RECAP]
What glories yet await Cory Dorris and the Golden Hurricane as Conference USA play continues? (AP)
Our weekly highlight show of lesser FBS luminaries. Non-AQs and independents, be welcome.
Tis the season for car commercials with big-ass bows and conference math. We attempted to explain, in bewildering detail, how the MAC races could shake out from here in our Wednesday night MACtion preview. We are here to inform you (with some glee, as we adore late-season chaos) that the MAC has far from the most convoluted conference race situation at the moment. Very quickly, the current states of the remaining non-AQ conference races, as teams not named Navy or BYU begin to prettify themselves for postseason suitors:
• Conference USA: Two teams with perfect 6-0 league play records top the two divisions: Central Florida in the East and Tulsa in the West. After Saturday, one squad’s record will bear some blemish when the two clash in Tulsa, but don’t expect that to affect the race. The Knights have only UAB to clear after that in the regular season, and hold a head-to-head advantage over East Carolina, the only other team in the division with fewer than three conference losses. Tulsa’s championship game aspirations could still be spoiled with a loss tonight and another at SMU November 24, assuming the Mustangs (4-2 in league play) beat Rice in the meantime.
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