Power Ranking of Moments From a Beautiful Ugly Cold Rainy Tuesday Night of MACtion
If you're living in the midwest United States, which is not located in the midwestern part of our country at all. It's more like the middle east. So if you live in the middle east, you know the weather last night was shit. It was cold. It was rainy. It was the type of weather that makes for ugly, ugly football. And the football being played in that ugly, ugly weather last night was MAC football. Some might call it the ugliest football of all. But I call it beautiful. This is what the ESPN's, and the Brandon Walkers, and the T-Bob Heberts (who I like very much, but sometimes suspect is an ESPN plant sent to Barstool to preach their gospel and take the magic out of college football)... these are the football teams they want to cut off at the knees. The football teams they want to separate into their own sub-D1 FBS category so that we NEVER have to risk the travesty of something like this happening in the College Football Playoffs.
Imagine not wanting to give these teams a shot? Imagine wanting to take the G5 spot out of the College Football Playoffs altogether? It's beyond me how anyone could have sat through those cold rainy MAC football games last night, and have come the conclusion that these teams don't deserve a shot at the National Championship.
Power Ranking Last Night's MACtion (tbh it's not really a ranking, it's more of a random list of moments/games, but whatever)
Moment #5 - The UMass Minutemen Put Up a Fight (kind of... almost... not really...)
As much as I love and advocate for the MAC, I have to be objective. I am willing to admit that UMass has been underperforming this season. They are 0-11. They lost 27-26 to the Bryant Bulldogs. They have not beaten an FBS football team since October 28th, 2023 when they beat Army 21-14. But last night... for a brief second... things were different. UMass took a 7-0 lead. Their first lead in over a month.
Sure, Ohio went on to 42-14. But the vaunted Minutemen defense stood tall all night long… against the pass… the Ohio Bobcats scored 42 points on 28 passing yards.
They even forced a fumble. At a point in the game where it mayyyybe wasn't entirely over yet.
Moment #4 - The Punter Fumbled Snap
You can't have a proper night of MAC football without a punter mishandling a snap. Then mishandling the picking up of the football. Then accidentally swatting the football another 10 yards back towards his own end zone before finally falling on top of it amidst a herd of MAC special teamers (the most noble brand of football player).
Moment #3 - Are These People For Real?
That's a borderline concerning level of dedication. There's a lot of people at Barstool Sports, me included, who looove to talk their shit about how much they appreciate MAC football. But none of us can hold a candle to these folks. They don't need to get on Twitter to prove their loyalty to the conference. They do it the old fashioned way. By getting in a car and driving 10.5 hours from Nebraska to Bowling Green with a hastily made sign to sit front row and watch their beloved Zips square off vs Pudge The Cat on a Tuesday night.
Moment #2 - Are These People For Real? (Part II)
Yes. They are. I believe those are members of a secret Bowling Green State University student spirit group called 'Sic Sic'. They wear fun creepy masks. They get the crowd jazzed up at sporting events. At the end of the season, they reveal their true identities. The fans go fucking crazy for it.
Moment #1 - Bowling Green vs Akron
Bowling Green vs Akron with absolutely nothing on the line is what MAC football is all about. I was going to split this game up into multiple moments, but it was the entirety of the game (the second half in particular) that all together made for one big beautiful moment of MAC. It was cold. It was wet. It was chippy downright violent.
Nuts were punched.
This was a game about defense. Both defenses stood tall. In fact, the defense was so inspiring, even the refs couldn't help but to get in on the action.
And at the end of the game, when Bowling Green got the football back down 3 at mid-field with just a couple minutes remaining… in a game where Bowling Green is on it's 4th QB of the season… a QB who was 8/25 with a 6.4 QBR… when the only thing Bowling Green has been able to do consistently all night was run the football… and they managed to get into field goal range… with a kicker who's legitimately really fucking good (no clue how Bowling Green got this guy, but he's money, he 15/16 from 50 yards and in). In that situation, instead of doing the "smart" thing and taking the game to OT, which is what EVERYBODY watching was hoping for, Bowling Green QB4 Hunter Najm said, "It's Hunter Najm time baby"
God damn it Eddie George… when you're in that spot, you can't give Hunter Najm a chance to do Hunter Najm Time. Once you get to the 30, just run the football. No passes over 5 yards. Just take it to OT where you can run your offense again. Everybody watching wanted OT. I was so sad when we were robbed of it. But hey… that's that storied Akron Zips defense for you. They'll have even the best 4th string MAC quarterbacks in a torture chamber.
Great night of MAC football. If the money hungry ratings obsessed powers at be don't take the opportunity away from us, a MAC team WILL make the college football playoff someday. And what a glorious day that will be.
But mid-week MAC football isn't done yet. We've got two more games tonight. We have Central Michigan @ Kent State. Miami (OH) @ Buffalo. And if you're in Buffalo, it would behoove you to get your ass to University of Buffalo Stadium (still working on those naming rights I guess) by 7 PM EST. Because tonight, in Buffalo, New York, is the MACtion Meat Raffle. We're talking hundreds of pounds of meat. Meat that can be yours. If you attend the Wednesday night MAC football game between Buffalo and Miami of Ohio.