I always thought the rule applied to any games scheduled outside the continental US, but apparently it only applies to games played in Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto
Rico. Could two MAC teams agree to play a game normally played in mid-Novemeber in Puerto Rico instead, and then add another money game earlier in the year to cover the costs?

Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl - December 30. Vs San Diego St.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/collegefootballnews.com/2022...

I know this is just a prediction but I would rather play a different opponent if we did go to a bowl game this year.

In my experience, in the MAC, its often better to be the team with long odds of winning the conference title than to be the favorite.

Warning, this is the analytical me speaking and not the fanboy me. Some might say I'm a downer or a buzzkill. If you think that don't read on.

Well, yes that's often what the odds actually say. I'll go to teamrankigs again and look at their MAC odds.

Toledo 59.0%
Buffalo 26.7%
Ohio 5.6%
Kent 3.6%
EMU 2.2%
WMU 1.1%
Ball St. 1.0%
BGSU 0.6%
NIU 0.1%
CMU 0.1%
Miami 0%
Akron 0%

So, Toledo is still a clear favorite and I'd bet that if you could find MAC Vegas futures they'd still be close to even money on Toledo too. Maybe not quite 59% but probably close. So we look at history and say when there is a clear favorite like that and find it seems like they don't win and a midseason underdog does instead about half the time. Well, that's what the odds are saying. Its just that the underdog that could rise up could be one of a whole bunch of teams. So INDIVIDUALLY your odds of winning, if a credible oddsmaker of the sort that the Vegas billionaires might hire assesses your odds like that, are still where you'd still certainly rather be the favorite even if the favorite will fail in this place half the time. And, yes, teamrankings isn't that expert because it is working only with data alone and not data plus an expert's eyes, but would usually come reasonably close to what those experts would say and I don't know if MAC betting futures actually exist anywhere.

Miami and Kent State played a winner take all game for the division last year. Going in they both had about a 50/50 chance to win the East and the other 4 East teams had zero. The winner instantly jumped from 50% to 100% and the loser dropped from 50% all the way to zero. But most teams are not mathematically eliminated from contention quite like that. Most teams reach a point where they are 3 back with 3 to play or 2 back with 2 to play and in third place and need a bunch of stuff to happen to win the tiebreak. Most teams reach a point where their odds to win the conference are about 100:1 or maybe even 200:1 or worse before they are eliminated. There are probably about 80 FBS teams in that position AT SOME POINT during the season. So I tried to drive this home last year when OUr odds of winning the MAC were put at about 200:1 and a couple of people were pointing out that the had read stories about teams that had come back from odds like that so OUr odds couldn't possibly in reality be as bad as 200:1. But the team who has a comeback story that gets an inspiring sports article written about them is an example of what is called survivorship bias. The 80 or so teams that fail to come back from those odds every year don't have an article written about them how the COULD have inspired us all with an amazing comeback if only they had won their last 4 games and had a whole bunch of other games break their way as well but, alas, they failed. Nobody wrote that article about the 2021 Bobcats or any other team. So just because that inspirational article is written about a team every few years that beat 200:1 odds doesn't mean that their odds were poorly represented or that the 199 teams in that position that failed didn't actually exist.

Now, on a positive note, OUr boys don't need to think about any of this and I personally would put OUr odds of winning the MAC at least a little better than that. I think if most computer systems had conference odds published most would show us a little better than teamrankings does. And Ohio has put themselves in a position where they still control their own destiny with 4 games to play. Even with 4 weeks left I think that its already down to Buffalo, Ohio, and Toledo that are in that position. I don't think most of us expected that they would be in this position when the season started. If they do what they can do and win out they definitely will win the MAC.

Detroit is so much nicer in December than Tucson as well!!!

The Cure Bowl in Orlando on Dec 16 would be awesome sports trip. Could go down early for the Mens Bball game vs Florida in Tampa on the 14th. Then the Blue Jackets play at Tampa Bay Lightning on the 15th. Then Stay over for the Bengals vs TB Bucs on 18th.

The sum of teamrankings bowl eligible chances now sum to 81.1. That's up two tenths from last week. There are 82 slots available.

Ohio is bowl eligible now. Where this watch is of most concern to Ohio fans is in the event where Ohio has exactly 6 wins. If the MAC fills its quota, and most G5 conferences do, and this number of eligible teams is over 82 there starts be be a chance we stay home at 6-6. We all hope at this point that we end up with more than six wins and start putting any concern to rest.

Concern is officially put to rest.

Which bowl game would you like to play in and who would you like to play against according to the bowl team agreements?

Back on 08/31/22, I stated we would win MACC and play in Quick Lane Bowl against Maryland.

But for broadcasting, marketing and matchups...I would love to play against App State in Camellia for revenge. I think we lost to them in that same bowl last time.

I think ESPN would just hype our schools as G5s and it would make for good ratings.
App State had some unbelieveable plays to wins games earlier in the season and I could envision the announcers having a lot of talking points about our programs.

West coast exposure would be amazing. Especially if we won that game.

Not gonna lie, I want a nasty linebacker from the west coast whose last name is Mua 'Atu Atu or something. Would love to have a Samoan player on the sqaud. Do the heritage dance before the game.

I could see a push for to align Ohio with a conference champion somewhere in a bowl game. MAC Champs and a school record 11 wins is potentially in the cards for Ohio.

One side note on that Arizona Bowl in Tucson is it's sponsored by Barstool. Which would be huge in publicity for whoever gets to play in it. Those guys push the hell out of their product on every social media channel, every podcast, with every one of their accounts. That combined with their betting angles this would be a pretty widely watched game with a lot of interest - far more than playing in the Bahamas on Tuesday at noon.

https://thearizonabowl.com /