End Zone: UT 12-01

12/1/2011

The week after Thanksgiving is unofficially known as "all-conference week," when each league in major college football unveils its list of postseason award winners and honorees. Instead of praising those who were honored for a season well done, the week usually devolves into plenty of bickering and belly-aching about who wasn't included on the list or their placement as a third or second-team performer versus a first-team honoree.

The MAC released its award winners and all-conference squads Wednesday, and without fail, the whining and critiques commenced from players, coaches, team personnel, and fans.

While this type of squabbling will never cease, because somebody is always going to have his feelings hurt when the top members of any group are distinguished, it is nonetheless the most baseless of all gripes. You'd be hard-pressed to rattle off the list of All-MAC first-team honorees from last season, or the second or third-teamers as well, so why worry about it?

If football is a team game and individual accomplishments are down-played all year, then why at the end of the season do some people care so much who was all-conference or not? I will wholeheartedly agree that the system is broken by having coaches, who live in a cocoon for nearly every waking hour of the day during the season, be the sole voting populace for the All-MAC teams. At the end of the day, there are a lot more important things to get worked up about than a few dozen individual accolades.

Read more from Zach on his blog at toledoblade.typepad.com/RocketDocket or on Twitter @zachsilka.