Over The Pylon

Quick, auction off this jersey while it is still worth something!

Is this is the summit for the Mid-American Conference football? Hard to argue against it.

In the past year we’ve had a MAC team play in a BCS game.

In the past week we’ve had a MAC player drafted No. 1 overall.

Granted, this was a weak draft class. Granted, Erik Fisher plays the prestigious position known as offensive tackle. It still counts baby. So much so Central Michigan is literally trying to cash in on all things Eric Fisher.

We could go into how improbable Fisher’s selection is. Such as if he is so good how did Central Michigan lose to Ball State the last three seasons? A Ball State team that scored zero selections in the draft.

Let’s not be bitter. Instead celebrate that someone in our back burner conference could get the attention of scouts so well. MAC football matters right now. As we know that has rarely been the case.

Heck, in the last few years I agreed with critics that the MAC might be better off playing FCS ball. Financially that still might be the case. However the college landscape has changed so much over the last couple of years the MAC is in a great spot.

The Big East (or American Athletic) has been reduced to a corpse not worth joining anymore. Conference USA is a mixed bag of schools that makes no sense. The WAC is gone and the Sun Belt is begging for FCS schools to come in.

The MAC’s greatest advantage has turned out to be their location. The Great Lakes blueprint has kept it stable in the conference expansion talks. The Big Ten is not going to add a MAC school because it has the TV market. Other conferences don’t have any teams in the region to attract a defection. Joining Conference USA or the Mountain West is not worth the added travel expense. Same for the remains of the Big East.

The only scare to the MAC now is the idea of the Big 12 raiding Northern Illinois. If the Huskies keep winning and going to BCS games it could be possible? If West Virginia is not too far away to play in the Big 12 then a MAC school could feasibly do it too. Maybe the ACC tries to get into the Cleveland and Detroit markets? Both seem unlikely but so was Syracuse moving to the ACC five years ago.

The MAC is one of the most stable and cohesive conferences left in FBS. Only the SEC and PAC-12 are ahead in my book. Big Ten fans are not pumped about Rutgers and Maryland coming to town. Only college presidents are.

So UMass, still want into the whatever is left of the Big East?

Filed under: BallStateFootball, CUSA, MAC, NFLDraft |