MAC Blogger Roundtable - Better Late than Never

Thanks to a massively packed schedule I am late for this weeks roundtable. I will go beg for forgiveness from this weeks facilitator "The Falcon Blog".

1.  So the MAC picked up two wins over the Big Ten but lost an FCS game, as well as a game to South Alabama and Army.  On balance, good week or bad week for the MAC?

On balance a decent week but the last minute loss by Ball State and the flat performance by Buffalo kind of keep it from being "an awesome" week.

People, and I'm taking clueless people, will look at this week and say "Wow The MAC beat two Big10 teams". As someone who started following the MAC in 2006 or so even I can look at the week and say "meh".

The MAC has done it before and we will do it again. Now once in awhile we will have Ohio down Penn State or Toledo beat Michigan. When we see a week where all the "good" MAC teams win and one or two of the cellar dwellers pull off a nice upset we can uncork the campaign.

2.  Once again, it seems like the West is much stronger than the East.  If this continues, do you think the MAC should re-align the divisions to even things out.

As "bad" as the disparity is in football is not nearly as bad as it has been in Basketball. Hell in hoopsland the MAC has looked like Al Frankin taking Candy from a baby for nearly a decade.

We did not realign for hoops over the MAC West 7 year drought of futility why football?

The MAC East has quite a few football championships over the past ten years. Miami, Akron, Buffalo, and Bowling Green all have a trophy where as in the West the only trophies go to NIU and CMU.

Don't get me wrong I would like to see a MAC North and South where UB is paired with the Michigan Schools, NIU, Bowling Green, and Toledo but I don't see a huge benefit to outside of scratching a "realignment itch".

3.  Brady Hoke, Tim Beckman and Darrel Hazell are all former MAC coaches who are struggling in the Big 10.  What are the odds all 3 are gone by the end of the year and do you think any of them will coach in the MAC again.

I'd say Hoke is the only one in serious trouble. I think after three seasons where Michigan has struggled despite some talent he is in trouble. Then add getting set upon by the and he may already be a dead man walking. He needs to make some serious noise in the B10.

Look at the bright side, I suspect that Pete Lembo will be hired away from Ball state after the season and that creates a very nice fall back job for Hoke in Muncie. He can go after that MAC championship he never won.

Hazell and Beckman have more time. Neither Ilinois nor Purdue has a recent culture of winning and those two coaches have had just one and two seasons respectively to turn those programs around.