Six MAC teams have reached bowl eligibility, but it appears only three are in line for a telephone call.
View full sizeChad Spann is one of the stars for the MAC's West Division champions, Northern Illinois. The Huskies are favored to win the MAC title in Friday's championship game against Miami, but their bowl destination is far from certain.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- With the college football regular season all but finished, attention now turns to the bowls.
For the Mid-American Conference, six teams reached the .500 mark to be bowl eligible, but it appears only three are in line for a telephone call.
The MAC has three bowl tie-ins: the Little Caesars Bowl (MAC vs. Big Ten) in Detroit; the GoDaddy.com Bowl (MAC vs. Sun Belt) in Mobile, Ala.; and the Humanitarian Bowl (MAC vs. Western Athletic Conference) in Boise, Idaho.
The MAC's two division champions, No. 24 Northern Illinois (10-2) and Miami (8-4), will play for the league title Friday in Detroit's Ford Field. The Little Caesars Bowl gets first choice from the MAC's pool and is in line for a Big Ten team. Eight Big Ten teams are bowl-eligible. Two -- Wisconsin and Ohio State -- are likely headed for BCS games in the Rose and Sugar bowls, respectively.
The other six bowl-eligible Big Ten teams may end up in six league-affiliated bowls other than the Little Caesars: the Insight (Tempe, Ariz.); Texas (Houston); TicketCity (Dallas); Outback (Tampa); Capital One (Orlando); and the Gator (Jacksonville).
If the Big Ten is unable to provide a team to the Little Caesars, the Sun Belt steps in as a backup conference. While popular opinion is the Little Caesars will take the MAC champion, insiders note two points:
First, NIU is worthy of a better bowl opponent than the Sun Belt can offer. Second, Toledo (8-4) would be available to arguably put more fans in the seats at Ford Field -- about an hour away -- than either NIU or Miami. So the Rockets might be the more prudent choice for the bowl and league.
Should favored NIU pull out the victory Friday, it could be headed to Boise for the Humanitarian. The MAC would love an NIU matchup against No. 9 Boise State (10-1) on its home blue turf. But the more likely scenario would have NIU against either No. 14 Nevada (11-1) or Fresno State (7-4).
Miami would then head to Mobile for a game against a Sun Belt team, likely Troy (6-5), or Florida International (6-5).
If the Sun Belt can't produce a Little Caesars opponent -- and right now that is the case -- it looks like either Ohio (8-4) or Temple (8-4) could get the call. That's right: two MAC teams in the same game, which all concerned greatly want to avoid.
With one regular-season game left in the Sun Belt season, there is a chance Middle Tennessee State (5-6) can become bowl-eligible with a home win over Florida Atlantic (4-7), Saturday. MTSU could then play the Rockets in Detroit.