Ohio wins MAC East, NIU poised to win MAC West
The 2011 MAC East Division Champions are the Ohio Bobcats. Ohio, winners of the MAC East for the 3rd time in 6 years, defeated Bowling Green tonight on the leg of kicker Matt Weller’s 5 field goals including the game winner with 2 seconds to go. Ohio, who trailed much of the second half, trailed 28-19 early in the 4th quarter but was able to score the final 10 points of the game to win the MAC East with a week to go in the regular season. Ohio (8-3, 5-2 MAC) hosts rival Miami (4-7, 3-4 MAC) on Tuesday, November 22nd on ESPN2 to close the regular season. The Bobcats own wins over both Temple and Kent State, the lone two teams with 3 losses remaining in the MAC East.
Ohio’s opponent in the MAC Football Championship Game is still to be determined, but the Northern Illinois Huskies (8-3, 6-1 MAC) control their own destiny needing only a home win over Eastern Michigan (6-4, 4-2 MAC) on Friday, November 25th on ESPNU to advance to the title game or a loss by Toledo in one of their final two games. NIU seeks their 3rd appearance in the MAC Championship in 7 years having lost in 2005 to Akron and last season to Miami.The MAC Championship Game will take place at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan on Friday, December 2nd at 7 pm ET.
Both Ohio and the winner of the MAC West will receive bowl game bids per the MAC’s bowl tie-ins with Ohio currently looking at the GoDaddy.com Bowl per the latest bowl game predictions. The other MAC teams that made the bowl projections include Toledo and Northern Illinois while Temple, Western Michigan and Ball State are all bowl eligible. In addition, Eastern Michigan and Kent State both can become bowl eligible with EMU needing a single win and Kent State in need of two wins in their final two games to finish 6-6.
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