MAC Blogger Roundtable

1.  It's rivalry week with Bowling Green taking on Toledo and Miami taking on Ohio.  What is the best rivalry in your opinion in the MAC and why?

As someone who's team has no MAC rival I am going to have to go with Central and Western Michigan.

I just see a lot more chatter between those two fan bases regardless of the sport or how evenly the teams may or may not match up. There were also quite a few years when the only thing between WMU and the MAC West was CMU.

Maybe it's because of the MAC rivalries Central and Western Michigan are the most alike. Those two schools could literally switch campuses and it would take the students a week to notice (It might take another week for them to care).

Ohio and Miami and different types of institutions, Toledo and Bowling Green are in different settings, Ball State and NIU are in different states, and Akron and Kent....

Hmmm Akron and Kent..

Ok maybe there are *TWO* pairs of relationships in which the schools are almost identical. Still I am going to go with CMU and WMU.

2.  NIU has opened up in the 18 spot in the last-first BCS standings, albeit behind Fresno State.  If both teams manage to win out, should both teams bust the BCS or just one of them and which one?  (put aside the MAC bias for a moment)

The rules are the rules. If both teams finish in the top 16 and the AAC champ is lower than both should BCS bust. Who deserves it more? That is a little more difficult to figure out.

For NIU to get there they have to go through Ball State, Toledo, and whoever wins the east. For Fresno they will likely have to beat Boise again in the MWC championship. That right there is a very nice feather in the cap for the California dogs over the Illinois Dogs.

3.  What has been your biggest surprise/storyline thus far this season and why?

So far it would be Adam Redden

Redden was converted from a Safety to something of a hybrid line backer in Lou Teppers scheme. Going into the season I really had my doubts about Adam but he has been serving up big plays, and crow all year long.

Lou Tepper has a reputation for being a guy two involved in his own system. He has historically used it no matter what his teams personnel looked like. LSU fans consider his name a four letter word for how he tried to mold their defense.

It seems Redden is the last piece of the puzzle he needed at Buffalo for the scheme to work.  Redden's level of play has twice won him player of the week awards from the conference and it has has really allowed Khalil Mack free reign to be a wrecking crew on the other side of the defense.