MAC Media Days Recap: Bowling Green the Favorite
Dec 26, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Bowling Green Falcons wide receiver Ryan Burbrink (17) receives congratulations from teammates after scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Pittsburgh Panthers during the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at Ford Field. Pittsburgh won 30-27. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Bowling Green is expected to repeat as MAC champions this year despite losing head coach Dave Clawson to Wake Forest.
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With 16 starters returning to a 10-4 team that beat Northern Illinois last year for the MAC championship, the Falcons are expected to play Toledo in the conference championship game this year.
See the full story on the MAC predictions here.
Bowling Green as the favorite in the East is obvious, even with Clawson gone. Last year the Falcons got better as the season went along, finishing on a 5-game winning streak before losing their bowl game by 3 to Pittsburgh. There’s plenty of returning talent to a team that was able to render a Heisman trophy candidate for Northern Illinois useless in the MAC championship game last year.
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Musket Fire
Toledo as the favorite in the West is an interesting pick, but with Northern Illinois losing Jordan Lynch, it makes sense for them to be knocked down the list. The Rockets, meanwhile, went 7-5 last year and return 19 starters, which should be a great sign for improvement with the division wide open. The other team to finish ahead of Toledo last year, Ball State, also lost a quarterback in Keith Wenning who carried the team to plenty of victories last year. If you pay attention to the way the Huskies and the Cardinals won their games last year on the backs of their quarterbacks, it would make sense that Toledo be the favorite to win the division after finishing third last year and those two teams’ quarterbacks gone.
It also makes sense to pick Bowling Green to beat Toledo in the MAC championship.
MAC Commissioner: Athletes are Not Employees
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With the First Pick
MAC Commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher joined onto what appears to be a unanimous opinion among conference officials, regardless of whether or not they’re in the Power Five, when he said he would not support pay for student athletes because it is “inconsistent with the collegiate model.”
To be fair, he did say he supports re-defining the “grant-in-aid” that now would include the full cost of attendance, and he added that the amount of time athletes put into their sport should also be taken into account.
But the “athletes are not employees” excuse still annoys me. While paying college athletes may be inconsistent with the collegiate model, generating billions of dollars in revenue is also inconsistent with any collegiate model. I suggest a new policy for every official who says that. If they truly believe this is about student-athletes and a collegiate model, then let’s cap every NCAA and conference official’s salary at $100,000. Any cent of revenue that college football players generate after that is covered along with regular expenses should be given back to every school that participates in the NCAA.
I mean, if you care this much about academics, that’s only fair, right? Please, we know that the motive for any of these officials is to make sure they can maximize their own profits they generate off players. Steinbrecher may be in a non-power five conference, but he’s still no different than the other guys.