NCAA Football FanHouse

Is Era of Big Ten MAC-rifice at an End?

Mark Hasty — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:45:00 EST

Filed under: Bowling Green, Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Toledo, Western Michigan, Big 10, MAC

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.

For decades, the "MACrifice" has been one of Big Ten football's most endearing rituals. Some Saturday in September, a school with a direction or a city in its name would come to one of the conference's football temples and walk out bloodied after a 66-0 beatdown. The win would give the coaches a chance to work all the way through the depth chart and served as a final tuneup before the conference season began.

But why the MAC? Well, because they were there. The MAC's geographic footprint fits almost perfectly into the Big Ten's, and the MAC schools needed the money. Hence the uneasy big brother-little brother relationship between the two conferences.

Funny thing about little brothers. They grow up. Sometimes they grow bigger than their big brothers. Even if they don't, though, they always know just the right buttons to press to get the big brother's hackles up.

The MAC will never be a bigger football conference than the Big Ten, but the two conferences aren't as far apart as you might think. The largest MAC schools, like Kent State, Buffalo and Central Michigan, have larger enrollments than the Big Ten's smallest schools, Northwestern and Iowa. The states of Ohio and Pennsylvania are rich with prep football talent, and they can't all become Buckeyes, Nittany Lions, Bearcats or Panthers. Dreaming of the NFL? There are eight former Northern Illinois Huskies and eight former Kent State Golden Flashes on NFL rosters. Indiana and Northwestern each have only nine former players currently in the NFL.

Where the MAC schools can't compete is in terms of facilities and budgets. The Big Ten schools simply have more cash all the way around, even to fund academics. In terms of endowments, the MAC's wealthiest school (Buffalo) is more than a quarter billion dollars behind the Big Ten's least wealthy school (Iowa).

This just makes it all the more surprising to find out, as I did, that every Big Ten school has lost to a MAC school at least once. Granted, if you play enough games against any conference, no matter how weak, they're going to rack up a couple upsets along the way. The MAC's all-time record against the Big Ten, as of the end of last season, stood at a dismal 47-300-8. (That's a .143 winning percentage.) The tide has turned, though, and in case you forgot, here are the MAC's five biggest victories over the Big Ten in the past decade:

1. 2008: Toledo 13, Michigan 10. This game is notable for several reasons. First, Michigan was the only remaining Big Ten school which had never lost a game to the MAC. (Giant technicality: Ohio State's only MAC loss was to Akron in 1894. That predates not only the MAC but also the Big Ten.) Second, it showed how far Michigan had slipped. Third, even though the Rockets won in the Big House, it still wasn't enough to save coach Tom Amstutz's job. Imagine that. You beat Michigan in Ann Arbor and still get run off. That proved it was no longer any big deal for a MAC school to beat a Big Ten school.

2. 2007: Western Michigan 28, Iowa 19. The Hawkeyes came into this game 6-5, needing a win to lock up bowl eligibility for the seventh straight season. Western Michigan was having a flat-out bad year, coming into Iowa City with a 3-7 record. Hawkeye fans came to the game with the travel agency's phone number in their pockets, ready to book a trip to whatever bowl game their team would be going to after dispatching this MAC tomato can.

In the twinkling of an eye, the Broncos were up 19-0 as they scored on four of their first five possessions. The Iowa offense, meanwhile, moved slower than a Steely Dan album track. At halftime, the Hawkeyes had only six first downs and six points. The Hawkeyes wound up staying home for the holidays.

3. 2003: Bowling Green 28, Northwestern 24. Only twice in its history has the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl (formerly the Motor City Bowl) produced its intended MAC-versus-Big Ten matchup. This was the first time, as a Bowling Green program in its first season without Urban Meyer prevailed over a Northwestern team making its second bowl appearance under Randy Walker. This was a true nail-biter with the lead and the momentum going back and forth until Bowling Green took it for good with just four minutes to play.

4. 2008: Western Michigan 23, Illinois 17. This game, played at Ford Field in Detroit, was a must-win for the Illini. Ron Zook's team was 5-4 coming into this one. A loss would mean having to beat either Ohio State or Northwestern just to become bowl eligible. Illinois certainly didn't play like they needed to win, though, with Juice Williams throwing two interceptions and the team going an almost-unbeliveable 1-13 on third down conversions. The Illini were down 20-7 at the half, lost the game, lost their next two games and wound up not going to a bowl just one season after going to the Rose Bowl.

5, 2009: Central Michigan 29, Michigan State 27. Sure, it's too early to tell if Michigan State is just really bad this season, but this was the MAC's first victory over a team expected to contend for the Big Ten title. The hype was huge surrounding the Spartans coming into this season. This game proved that Michigan State had some serious issues and Mark Dantonio had not yet removed all traces of Sparty-ness from his team's system. Coupled with a loss to Notre Dame the following week, it now looks like MSU will have to fight just to make it to a bowl game this season.

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Is Era of Big Ten MAC-rifice at an End? originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toledo Point Shaving Scandal Was Made Too Easy by NCAA Regulations

Mark Hasty — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Toledo, Gambling, Police Blotter

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.

FanHouse's Greg Couch has already pointed out how the NCAA is of two minds about gambling, but there's more to the problem than accepting a casino sponsorship here and there. NCAA regulations which keep student athletes in a state of perpetual poverty are just as much to blame. They make it too easy for athletes to be swayed by gamblers.

I mean, those of you who went to college and lived in a dorm, answer me this: Back when you were a freshman, what would've been your price of betrayal? How much, or maybe how little, money would've convinced you to rat out the locations of all the beer (assuming it wasn't allowed in your dorm), weed, or other banned items, substances, and/or persons? (What, you didn't have somebody in your dorm who was trying to keep a girlfriend and/or boyfriend hidden from the RAs?) I'd have done it for $100.

So why are we surprised that a couple medium-time gamblers were able to recruit some athletes into their plan? Are we that worried about a repeat of the SMU mess that we have to make sure student athletes stay more impoverished than the rest of the student body? Everybody knows that the veneer of amateurism which covers Division I revenue sports is thinner than the meat on a prison sandwich, but does that mean a coach shouldn't be able to buy a bagel for one of his players? The coaches are about the only people who directly benefit from the revenue big-time athletics bring in to universities.

Yes, it would be nice if student athletes, who are not forced to accept scholarships at gunpoint, would always remain perfectly within the bounds of legal and ethical conduct. It would also be nice if coffee and doughnuts fell from the sky every morning at 10:30. It doesn't matter how airtight your rules are, nor how strict your punishments; your chances of getting compliance go way up if you make it easy to be good and hard to be bad. The athletes involved may get their just deserts, but it might not have happened if those two Detroit-area gamblers couldn't have afforded to buy their souls.

Toledo Point Shaving Scandal Was Made Too Easy by NCAA Regulations originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 08 May 2009 18:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Greetings From Flyover Country, Where the Football Hasn't Quite Thawed Out Yet

Mark Hasty — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:15:00 EST

Filed under: Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas, Miami (OH), Minnesota, Ohio State, Toledo, Big 10, Big 12, MAC, Police Blotter, General CFB Insanity

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.
You remember how dumb you thought that was. You think, "Surely no other conference would be so stupid as to allow the BCS poll to pick a champion." You are about to see how wrong you are.

Apparently the Big Ten doesn't think it's hated enough already, because they've just decided to use the BCS rankings as their final tiebreaker for a conference title.

Note that word "final." Head-to-head record still remains as the first tiebreaker, as it should. The second tiebreaker used to be the last gasp of the Division I-AA Football Championship Subdivision Tomato Can Rule, wherein the team who played the fewest FCS opponents would get the nod. Apparently, though, that tiebreaker has been tossed out too, which has probably made athletic directors in the Missouri Valley and Great West conferences very happy indeed.

So now tiebreaker No. 2 is overall winning percentage, followed by "last team to get a BCS bid stays home," and then, finally, BCS rankings. It seems to me that the likelihood of this ever being invoked rounds down to zero.

More troubling is the elimination of the FCS tiebreaker. It's no secret that I think good football teams have no business ever playing against lower-division squads,Appalachian State notwithstanding. I don't think much of value comes from these games, other than the crowd-pleasing W and the chance to give some of the second- and third-string players meaningful playing time. Competition creates competitors. How many times have we seen an untested Big Ten team puke all over the field turf in October and November? Or, even worse, how many times have we seen a .500 team from any BCS conference become "bowl-eligible" on the backs of the Nebraska States and Alabama Techs of the world?

Okay, it's not fair to say the games aren't good for anything. They're very good for the FCS schools, who usually get a big fat check that doesn't bounce. And fans like victories. Still, for us fans, the only value college football actually has is entertainment value, so I hope you'll pardon me if I believe that a 24-20 squeaker against a non-BCS conference team is more fun than a 66-3 blowout of a school that was playing Division II ball four seasons ago.

AROUND THE LEAGUES

Big Ten: Indiana moves quarterback Kellen Lewis to wide receiver in reaction to the Hoosiers' terrible basketball season, which was so bad people might start to notice IU has a football team ... From the "nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" department: Ohio State may use the Wildcat formation to take advantage of Terrelle Pryor, because nobody will expect any shenanigans involving Pryor, right? ... Minnesota running back Duane Bennett returns from a torn ACL to take part in spring practice while the rest of the team tries to figure out what "spring" is.

Big 12: Iowa State to install spread offense ... In other news, Iowa State to install offense ...Snowstorm cancels spring practice in Lawrence; Taco Bell drive-thru personnel reminded not to forget the chalupa ... ESPN blogger says Baylor is the only school in South division whose "marquee sport" is not football ... Also claims water is wet, feet are useful, and John Belushi wasn't really a samurai.

MAC: Miami drops game with Colorado, setting off a massive ten-team non-conference scheduling debacle...Toledo takes Miami's spot, gets CU in Toledo this season, hopesDan Hawkins is the Rich Rodriguez of the Rockies ... Circle it: Temple at Akron on ESPNU, Friday, November 13.

AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' ... Or Maybe They Are

Arrested: Iowa DE Adrian Clayborn, for allegedly assaulting an the Iowa City cab driver.

Suspended: Kansas WR Dezmon Briscoe and DT Jamal Green for the ever-classic "undisclosed violation of team rules."

Demoted: Texas Tech WR Edward Britton, for ripping the thin veneer of normalcy which covers big-time college football academic reasons.

Greetings From Flyover Country, Where the Football Hasn't Quite Thawed Out Yet originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:15:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toledo Planning to Lighten Up on the Sideline, Watch Tom Amstutz Depart at Season's End

Chas Rich — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:35:00 EST

Filed under: Toledo, MAC, Coaching

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.

University of Toledo athletic Mike O'Brien said he and football coach Tom Amstutz came to a ''a mutual agreement last weekend'' that Amstutz would step down as coach of the Rockets program.

Amstutz, 53, will move to a position as the director of special projects in the Alumni Relations office beginning in January. Amstutz is 57-38 in eight years as coach. He is 2-6 this season, including an upset win over the University of Michigan.

''I'm proud of the body of work I've had at the University of Toledo, '' said the man affectionately referred to as Toledo Tom. ''Now is a good time to be passing the torch.''

The past three seasons have been disappointing, with a 12-20 record. There have also been numerous problems off the field, as the program has dealt with a gambling scandal. Even this season, after upsetting Michigan in Ann Arbor, players were arrested after celebrating a little too much.

Toledo Planning to Lighten Up on the Sideline, Watch Tom Amstutz Depart at Season's End originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:35:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Two Toledo Players Arrested After the Win Against Michigan

Shane Bacon — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:34:00 EST

Filed under: Toledo, MAC

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.

According to the report, the police showed up on the scene and sprayed mace on the crowd of around 30 or 40 people, which obviously makes the drunk collegiate students a lot less likely to become aggressive towards the mace-sprayers.

Alexandre, a junior from Miami, repeatedly approached the officers, ignoring numerous commands to leave the area, according to the report. After approaching an officer and tapping his firearm while trying to get his attention, Alexandre was taken into custody, according to police.

Well, that's an intelligent move. Not only are you stumbling around drunk, but you're approaching the cops when they ask you to stop and you have the nerve to touch the officer's gun. Why didn't one of them just pull a Tweeder from "Varsity Blues" and steal the cop car? I'm sure that fine's pretty manageable.

Two Toledo Players Arrested After the Win Against Michigan originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:34:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michigan's Painful Transition Continues

Chas Rich — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:05:00 EST

Filed under: Michigan, Toledo, Big 10, MAC

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.

Michigan's Painful Transition Continues originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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