I am trying to remember the last year we had two MAC teams in the year end Top 25 Poll? Hopefully, the trend continues for next year. Off the top of my head, not sure how the rest of the league looks next year?

https://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings/_/poll/1/w...

Also, I’d bet there has never before been as many as eight G5 teams in the final Top 25.

BG and Miami both finished ranked in the Top-25 in 2003, and NIU narrowly missed out or it would have been three from the MAC in the final poll that year. And that was a "real" season. But BG and Miami were both ranked in the final AP, Coaches and BCS polls that year.

Ball State only lost to Miami who only lost to Buffalo. But Ball State beat Buffalo so they’re basically undefeated. Should be ranked in Top 10!

I found it somewhat comical that Buffalo was ranked at all. They blasted a couple dreadful teams in BG and Akron and beat a couple mediocre teams and that made them one of the best teams in the nation? No way. I was glad from the MAC’s perspective that they got ranked but they were ranked because of the wacky COVID year. In any other normal season, no way in hell a MAC team with that kind of weak resume 5 games into the season gets ranked. They benefited from a nice start, to a player putting up big numbers (against crappy teams), and other better teams with loses because they had played full schedules and many more games at that point. And they still didn’t win in Athens, Ohio.

The absence of OOC games probably helped several teams get ranked. Ordinarily, neither Buffalo nor BSU would've cracked the top 25 unless they had beaten a good "Power" team. Buffalo had K-State and O$U on its original OOC schedule, so there was a real opportunity for them to make some noise. The rest of the OOC schedule was Army and St. Francis. A win vs Army this year might've impressed some people. Buffalo probably was hurt by no OOC games and was ranked primarily because of the headlines Patterson generated. The only "P" team on BSU's original schedule was Clemson, and BSU probably wouldn't have made a good showing. The rest of the schedule wasn't promising -- NMSt, UMass and Youngstown St. BSU probably benefited from not playing OOC teams until the bowl game.

How'd they do against Kent State?

BFD - Kent State was an average team with a good QB. Kent State only beat piss poor BG (0-5), Akron (1-5) and EMU (2-4). Talk about murderers' row. Yeah, those three wins made Kent State a damn good team I guess. KSU beat a bunch of no ones, they were all bottom feeders in the MAC. Come on man....

If was to say what some of the best years by the MAC were 2003 stands out where it started off with MAC Saturday. The top of the MAC had P5 teams on the slate some of which were ranked and the MAC mowed them all down. That is how the MAC ended up with multiple Top 25 teams that season. Miami beat Louisville handedly in the GMAC bowl which at the time wasn't regarded to be that much of a win but if you look at what the Louisville program did over the next decade it was solid looking back on it. MAC didn't have an opportunity to go to a major bowl at that time but that Miami team wouldn't have represented one well.

Then 2012 the MAC had 4 different teams ranked (Toledo, Ohio, Kent, NIU) with 7 non-conference wins over the P5. Ohio started strong but faded. The MAC Championship was Kent vs. NIU and it went into overtime, the winner earning a berth in the Orange Bowl against Florida State. Ohio picked up the Independence Bowl and overall the MAC landed 7 bowls, one BCS which was as good as what the Big Ten had that season.

Flash forward to 2020 and the MAC had good opportunities playing the MWC Champ in a bowl game and the CUSA runner up and was able to win both games. The MAC finished with 2 teams ranked in the Top 25 but it was about having the bowl opportunities. The MAC wasn't on equal footing with the MWC and CUSA fifteen years ago and that was why Marshall pushed for CUSA membership.

Its hard to say what the changes over the next 5 years are going to mean for MAC football. It could mean more leveling of the playing field. Cincinnati might get that P5 invite and disappear from the Top 25 like WVU did when they moved to the Big 12.

I think one of two things will happen over the next five years. Either the AAC will become a "P" conference with some sort of expanded playoff or Cincy and one other team (Memphis, BYU, or maybe Boise) will move to the B12. I think Cincy's future depends on when (not if) Fickell leaves and how they replace him. He's going to be a tough recruiting act to follow.

Fickell is about 25th in the country in salary, it’s not going to be east to lure him away. The University is spending real cash.

Fickell has lost his defensive coordinator, Marcus Freeman, and, as a result, two nice recruits (a three and a four star), as well as his recruitment coordinator, to Notre Dame, recently. I expect this to just be a slight bump in the road for him but a bump nonetheless.

His new salary is only 3.4 million which places him around Top 50 maybe less than that.

http://www.coacheshotseat.com/CFBCoachesSalaries.htm

Buyout though is fairly big at $4 million with 500k drop off in buyout per year of the contract. He is now down to $3.5 mill buyout since its 2021.

https://fansided.com/2020/08/25/cincinnati-football-luke-... /