2018 MAC OOC Games

Saw northerns a while back, they must be thinking they’re going to have a good year in conference...

Just some observations:

• 10 of 12 teams have an FCS game. Miami & NIU chose not to have one.
• NIU has the most challenging OOC schedule
• Utah travels to NIU; Maryland goes to BGSU; Kansas goes to CMU; Miami (FL) goes to Toledo; Syracuse goes to WMU. Who said Power 5 teams won't travel to MAC stadiums? You have to give them a reason.
• Army plays 3 MAC teams. Cincinnati plays two (traditional foes). Howard plays two. Delaware State plays two.
• For FCS games (10), MAC plays MEAC schools 5 times, the OVC, Northeast, Colonial, Big South, & Southern once.
• For Power 5 games (23), the MAC plays the BIG10 12 times, ACC 5 times, PAC12 twice, Big12 twice, & SEC twice.
• For Other FBS games (10), the MAC plays MWC 4 times, AAC 3 times, C-USA twice, and Sub Belt once.
• For Independents, there are 5 games.

Impressive if the MAC wins some games and competes. 

And of course if the power teams that play them are leaders in their conference that would really be impressive. 

The G5 leagues usually can point to their top teams as teams that can compete with low level power 5 teams.   That is just short of playing at the highest level.  IU in the B10 for years was a doormat, and I have never thought of them as competing at the highest level.  

Not sure media coverage of games where the Cards are blown out of games is exactly what we want. Or big press coverage just because we play a big school.

 If you look at the press coverage in Chicago papers of last years Illinois game, the press barely mention BSU with few complete sentences describing anything we did, even in a game where we definitely competed! 

Well, that's partly my point.  We want coverage in the B10 footprint for recruiting and because our alumni are mostly in the midwest.   We'd love to get into the national press for a mention now and then.  Chicago, Indy,  we are barely mentioned by those B10 reporters.   The only way we will get coverage on a national basis is to play teams with a national following, but those teams, just like the Chicago coverage of the Illini really don't cover our participation in the game to any degree....  Getting coverage in Indy where we have a large number of alumni is like pulling teeth. 

I would not hold my breath that we get much more than a listing in "yesterday's scores" anywhere for most games.