MAC to shake off cobwebs, offer football at finest
College football as religion is not just a cutesy expression but a reality for millions of pigskin worshipers attending Barcalounger Baptist.
Most of those leather pews get filled on Saturdays, when the giants of the faith, including Ohio State, Alabama and Notre Dame, have their believers shouting hallelujah, bowed in prayer or broken in spirit.
But midweek services also attract attention, and although the audiences are smaller they have the advantage of getting to practice the purest form of religion: ministering to the orphans and widows that comprise smaller conferences.
On Wednesday, college football’s version of “the least of these” kicks off with six Mid-american Conference games. Macaction is finally back, baby!
After initially canceling its fall season and looking to play next spring, the MAC pulled a Big Ten by reversing course. The conference opted to restart one day after the election, perhaps to combat the post-election blues? Or reds?. The sixgame regular season will finish Dec. 18 with the MAC championship game at Ford Field in Detroit.
What prompted the MAC to decide on Sept. 25 that it would bring back football, when one week earlier commissioner Jon Steinbrecher insisted there were no plans to play a fall season?
Pressure, for one. The MAC was the first Football Bowl Subdivision conference to cancel its fall season, and after the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Mountain West all brought football back sooner than expected, the MAC was left on an island. First out. Last back in.
But the MAC’S decision to return also is about survival, in the form of TV money. The MAC media rights deal with ESPN is worth about $8 million, which does not compare with the $50 million or so that major conferences rake in off TV. Network money is even more essential to the MAC’S existence, where ticket revenues are limited by smaller stadiums and less-expensive tickets.
Another way MAC schools are among the have-nots of college football is how they sacrifice themselves in exchange for crumbs that fall from the tables of Power Five teams. Or at least used to fall.
Because the Big Ten dropped nonconference games from its revamped schedule, Buffalo stands to lose out on $1.8 million and Bowling Green on $1.3 million they would have received from Ohio State for playing the Buckeyes. Those losses add up, especially when it costs the MAC almost as much to test for COVID-19 — each player gets tested four times per week — as it does Power Five conferences.
That’s the bad news for the less fortunate. The good news is that by being smaller the MAC comes off looking less desperate and in some ways more human than bigger conferences consumed with winning a national championship.
Consider Ohio State. It’s good to want to compete for a national championship, but the Buckeyes sometimes blur the line between obsession and healthy want-to. Ohio State should be applauded for holding strict to the safety protocols implemented by the Big Ten, but an
undercurrent of uber-control also comes through. Listen closely and it almost sounds like the ultimate goal of keeping players safe is for the sake of winning the CFP championship more than the sake of the athlete’s health.
It is like Indiana Jones fixated on the Holy Grail. Sometimes OSU needs Sean Connery, rest his soul, to say, “Indiana, let it go.”
The MAC does not deal with that issue because no national title is coming its way. Winning is just as important, but the prize — a bowl trip to Montgomery, Alabama (Camellia Bowl) or Phoenix (Arizona Bowl) — does not bring out the party hats.
Fairly or not, it sounds more sincere when Western Michigan coach Tim Lester says, “We now have the opportunity to do what we love,” than when Ohio State coaches contend that all they want is for their players to get the opportunity to play.
Recall when Florida coach Dan Mullen wanted fans to pack The Swamp on Oct. 17 so the Gators would have more of an advantage against LSU. Mullen, who later tested positive for COVID-19, eventually apologized. But the damage was done. Perception became the reality that a football powerhouse would endanger fans’ health for a better chance to win.
All that is to say it is good to see the MAC back in action. It is high-quality football at a level that feels less desperate to win at all costs than does its bigger conference cousins. roller@dispatch.com @rollercd