BG's title chances looking better and better

11/14/2008

It s taken nothing short of a miracle, but BG is now in an excellent position to win the MAC East.

It s simple. Should BG beat Buffalo and Toledo the next two Fridays it will secure a berth in the Dec. 5 MAC Championship game at Ford Field. I don t know how it happened. Well, yes I do. Kent State downed Temple on Wednesday to all but eliminate the Owls in the East, and Buffalo pulled off a four overtime win at Akron on Thursday. A scenario still exists in which Akron can win the East, but we re not gonna get into it because it ain t happening. Don t feel bad for the Zips; their schedule was almost as easy as BG s.

For all intents and purposes, Friday s game at Perry Stadium will be for the East title. Buffalo has won four straight and doesn t have a bad loss this season (Pitt, Missouri, Central, Western). The Bulls have had a better season than BG.

On Wednesday, the West title is up for grabs when Central Michigan hosts Ball State. Should CMU win, it will pummel Eastern Michigan in the regular season finale to clinch the title. Should BSU win, it will face a dangerous Western Michigan team six days later.

Just for fun, let s say WMU, BSU and CMU all finish 7-1 in the conference (We re assuming WMU will beat Toledo on Saturday). Since each of their losses would have come to one another, the tiebreaker to determine the West would be based on the cumulative winning percentage of each team s cross divisional opponents.

Here s who they played from the East:

BSU-Kent, Miami, Akron

CMU-Ohio, Buffalo, Temple

WMU-Temple, Ohio, Buffalo

Yuck. Gross. Eww.

The West could potentially be decided on the horrible conference records of Miami, Kent, Temple and Ohio.

But it won t. Ball State is going to finish undefeated and play BG or Buffalo in the MAC title game Dec. 5 at Ford Field in Detroit.