NCAA Football toledo Rockets

Last Saturday, Northern Illinois went into West Lafayette, Ind., and beat Purdue convincingly. (Don't let the 28-21 final score fool you: NIU dominated that game from the second quarter on.) It was the Huskies' first victory over a Big Ten squad in 21 years and an important milestone for a program which was once among college football's very worst. Second-year head coach Jerry Kill has now taken his team to a bowl and knocked off one of the big boys. On the road, no less.

You'd hardly know it, however. Big wins by underdogs usually lead to an avalanche of media coverage, but NIU's historic victory sank without a trace. Why?

Because it's not news anymore when a MAC team beats a Big Ten squad.

Nobody really wants to admit it, but gambling helps make sports popular. It's why practically all media outlets, including this one, make a point of providing all the point spreads they can find.

There comes a time, though, when the action on the game become bigger than the game itself. On Wednesday, six student athletes at the University of Toledo were indicted for taking part in a point shaving scheme allegedly masterminded by two Detroit-area gamblers. The 30-page indictment (PDF file) names two former Toledo football players and four former Toledo basketball players as part of the scheme but does not allege if any games were successfully "shaved."

The university maintains it knew nothing about any possible point shaving. That may be true, but the culture of college athletics made a scandal like this all but inevitable.

Hey, it's always football season at FanHouse. Welcome to "Greetings From Flyover Country," a new weekly feature that will keep you up to date on Big Ten, Big 12, and MAC football. We'll also cover any Midwestern stories which have national repercussions, along with rounding up the week's arrests and suspensions.

We start this week with a decision bound to have people from San Ysidro to Bangor scratching their heads. Please give a moment's thought to the worst aspect of the last postseason. While the Big 12 championship was settled on the field, the Big 12 South championship wasn't. Instead, the conference gave the division title to Oklahoma, because they use the BCS rankings as a tiebreaker.

I guess beating Michigan in the Big House just ain't what it used to be.

In a day when one of the more notably girthy college football coaches has reportedly agreed to step down after this season, another particularly large coach has announced the same. Tom Amstutz, the head coach of Toledo has announced that he is done after this season.

Amstutz was a former Toledo player and an assistant. He took over as head coach after Gary Pinkel left for Missouri. This was the last year of his contract and he had not been offered an extension by Toledo.

In Amstutz's first five seasons the Rockets went 45-18 and went to four bowl games. His name would come up as a potential hire at the end of every season in the coaching carousel. Amstutz, though, was a Toledo alum and comfortable as the Rockets head coach.

Basically it's what you'd expect. A Mid-American Conference team, Toledo, beat up the once great Michigan Wolverines 13-10 on Saturday and the players did exactly what any college kid in the entire country would do, went out to the bars and celebrated.

The problem is, not all of us are the team captain or 6'5", 250 pounds as Nick Moore and Albertson Alexandre are and we are not getting in fights outside of bars or approaching a cop and tapping on his gun. Both players were arrested, facing fines and potentially jail time if convicted.

Rockets wide receiver Nick Moore, who had a school-record 20 catches for 162 yards, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct intoxication, a minor misdemeanor, outside of Ryno's Bar & Grill on 2633 West Bancroft. UT defensive end Albertson Alexandre was charged with obstructing official business, a second-degree misdemeanor.

Moore, a senior and team captain, and Jason Link of Columbus were involved in a fistfight at 2:30 a.m. Sunday in the establishment's parking lot, according to police.

The growing pains of completely changing the style of offense at Michigan continues, with an extra emphasis on the pain portion. This time the Wolverines saw a 24-game winning streak against MAC opponents snapped. Michigan lost at home to Toledo, 13-10.

The Wolverines actually had a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime, but K.C. Lopata gakked a 26-yard field goal with 9 seconds left, guaranteeing Michigan a return to Schadenfreude.

While Michigan wasn't as cosmically mistake riddled as in the Notre Dame game, they made enough big mistakes to cost them. The biggest without question happened midway through the 1st quarter.

Toledo fumbled the snap and Michigan was able to recover. That set up the offense at the Toledo 33. After six consecutive rushes, it was 2nd and goal at the 5. Steven Threet's throw off his back foot went to Tyrell Herbert in the endzone. Herbert, however, plays for Toledo and took it the other way for a 100 yard pick-six.

That was the only Toledo touchdown of the day. Otherwise, while Toledo accumulated over 300 yards of offense, they could only manage 6 more points.

Michigan had a 10-7 lead at the half, but Michigan Coach Rich Rodriguez pulled QB Steven Threet in the second half in favor of Nick Sheridan, a walk-on sophomore. Sheridan threw two picks, though, to be fair they both went off the hands of the Michigan receivers.

The missed Michigan field goal at the end probably spares Toledo Coach Tom Amstutz a lot of second-guessing for going for a 4th and 2 at the Michigan 32 with 1:37 left in the game. Rather than safely punting it and making sure Michigan had to start from at worst the 20, and probably taking a little more time off the clock, they through a screen for no gain. That gave Michigan better field position and a little more momentum with the stop.