MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

The MAC opens the bowl season with the Ohio Bobcats vs. the Marshall Thundering Herd on December 26th in a match-up of former MAC rivals. Ohio returns to Detroit, the site of their loss to CMU in the MAC Championship, for the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl, formerly the Motor City Bowl. Interestingly enough, the two will begin a 6-game series next season as the 9-4 Bobcats will look for the program’s first ever bowl victory. Temple will face UCLA on December 29th in what should be a very entertaining game in the Eagle Bank Bowl in Washington DC.  The Bowling Green Falcons will battle surprising Idaho on December 29th in Idaho’s backyard at the Humanitarian Bowl.  Northern Illinois will face a very tough South Florida team on January 2nd.  The conference finishes its bowl schedule with their best team as Central Michigan will battle Troy on January 6th at the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.

Central Michigan defeated a game Ohio Bobcat squad 20-10.  The Chippewas were led by superstar QB Dan LeFevour who threw for 255 yards with two scores in the victory.  Central Michigan will play Troy on January 6th at the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, while the Bobcats will face Marshall in Detroit at the Little Caesar’s Bowl. For the entire bowl schedule to see where all 5 MAC teams in bowl games are playing look to Football-Bowl.com

With mid-week games the norm the remainder of the year, we take a quick look at the bowl picture for MAC teams in 2009. 2008 saw the MAC send a record-tying 5 teams to bowl games, only to see all 5 teams lose. Thanks to the bowl tie-ins and mediocrity across the college football world, even a 6-6 Northern Illinois went bowling a season ago.

In 2009, four MAC teams have been eliminated from the bowl conversation. A 6-6 record is needed to be considered, and with just three guaranteed bowl berths, MAC teams need teams like Louisville, Purdue, Illinois and Washington to lose again to better the chances of sending more than three teams to bowl games. Now that we have 34 bowl games each year, a 7-5 record will almost assure a team of a bowl game, but we have learned in the MAC that if a team is going to get screwed that team will likely come from the Mid-American Conference.

At 7-2, Central Michigan and Temple look to be in very good shape for bowl berths. Given both team’s schedules, 8-9 wins is likely and CMU could very well go 10-2 and head to another bowl game in Detroit, this time in the newly-named Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl. 6-3 Ohio and Northern Illinois face off later this month and both have hopes for not only postseason play but also division titles. 5-5 Kent State has a tough road ahead and their loss to Akron hurts their chances greatly, while at 4-5 Bowling Green has a schedule that could line up a 3-0 end of the season.

Prediction: Four or five MAC teams will make bowl games in 2009 including Western Division Champion Central Michigan and Eastern Division Champion Temple. Ohio, NIU and Bowling Green all end 7-5 as the bowls have to decide between MAC teams with similar resumes.

On January 5th the Ball State Cardinals will play in their first bowl game in years as the 7-5 Cardinals will face off with 7-5 Rutgers from the Big East. The 2008 International Bowl preview is now live featuring all you need to know about the game that will kickoff at 12 noon ET on the 5th in Toronto, Ontario. The Intenational Bowl was first played in January 2007 and featured the Western Michigan Broncos losing a thriller to the Cincinnati Bearcats 27-24.