Matt Trowbridge: MAC misses out on era of BCS opportunity
Hawaii and Boise State reached BCS bowl games the past two years.
South Florida rose to No. 2 and was halfway to playing for the national championship before the bottom fell out. Rutgers did the same the year before.
Traditional doormat Kansas came within a game of playing for the title.
So did Missouri, which hasn't been to one of the four major bowls since 1969.
Before South Florida, Rutgers, Kansas, Missouri, Hawaii and Boise State brought unparalleled parity to college football, the Mid-American Conference boasted some of the best Little Teams That Could.
League officials drove that point home to MAC teams this summer, when they said Marshall (13-0 in 1999), Toledo (10-1 in 2000) and Miami of Ohio (13-1 in 2003) all would have reached one of the five BCS bowls under the current rules adopted in 2006.
"That jumped out at us all," Northern Illinois athletic director Jim Phillips said. "That jumped out at us all."
This should jump out even more: The MAC is now just a shadow of the football conference that, four years ago, stunned three ranked teams on the road in the same weekend, with NIU winning at Alabama, Marshall at Kansas State and Toledo at Pitt.
From 1998-2003, the MAC went 7-2 in bowl games. That helped the 13-team league, which had just one bowl berth from 1975-2000, gain a MAC-record five bowl berths in 2004.
The MAC seemed primed to become like the WAC, the conference home of Boise State and Hawaii.
And then it fell apart. The MAC is 0-5 in bowls the last two years. Its final game this year was Bowling Green's 63-7 loss to unranked Rutgers in the GMAC Bowl. The MAC was also 17-44 in nonconference games and its division champs finished 8-6 (Central Michigan) and 6-7 (Miami). When your league's top two teams are a combined 3-10 in nonconference games, your entire conference is in the dumper.
"I would not term it a rough year," Phillips said.
Well, I would.
It even extends to MAC alumni.
A year ago, the MAC was the breeding ground for pro quarterbacks, with Ben Roethlisberger, Chad Pennington, Byron Leftwich, Charlie Frye and Bruce Gradkowski all starting in the NFL. By midseason this year, only Roethlisberger was still standing.
The MAC still enjoys NFL success. The Patriots' Asante Samuel is the NFL's best cornerback, easily leading the Associated Press' All-Pro voting. The Browns' Josh Cribbs is second only to Devin Hester as a kick returner. Ryan Diem starts at on the offensive line for the Super Bowl champion Colts. Roethlisberger set the Steelers' record for TD passes. Greg Jennings tied for second in the NFC in touchdown catches with 12. Chester Taylor rushed for 2,060 yards the last two years. In four years as LaDainian Tomlinson's backup, Michael Turner (1,257 yards) has averaged 5.5 yards a carry to Tomlinson's 4.5 and will soon become a rich free agent. Eleven MAC players were drafted in 2005, its most in the last 30 years.
But that's not as glamorous, or as easy to sum up, as being the developmental league for NFL quarterbacks.
The MAC has lost its neon NFL billboard. All the public sees is an 0-5 bowl record and a 6-7 division champ.
"It's a little blip on the radar," said Phillips, whose own NIU team was a big part of that blip with a 2-10 record ending a streak of seven consecutive winning seasons. "That last couple of years, we haven't had quite as good a run, but that's a moment in time. It's just a matter of time before we get back to the same plateau we had."
The MAC is working to get there. Former NIU coach Joe Novak said his biggest regret was not having the glistening $9.5 million academic support building, which opened this year, to recruit to in 2003 when the Huskies rose as high as No. 10 in the BCS standings. Well, NIU now has it for new coach Jerry Kill. All dozen MAC rivals also are improving their facilities.
"In some shape or form, everyone is doing something," MAC commissioner Rick Chryst said in a phone interview. "A facility project has been initiated or announced at every one of our schools."
Maybe that will help the MAC get back to 2003, when Roethlisberger passed for Miami, three teams finished 10-2 or better and future national championship coach Urban Meyer had just left Bowling Green.
Those great MAC teams in 1999, 2000 and 2003 never had a chance to play on New Year's Day. The MAC has that chance now. But only if it can be as great now as it was then.
"The 2003 season, by any league's measurement, set the bar high for us," Chryst said. "All of us have to look at everything we're doing, to see how we can do better. At a time where the opportunity and access are there, I'm not sure we are maximizing that."
Rockford Register Star assistant sports editor Matt Trowbridge can be reached at 815-987-1383 or mtrowbridge@rrstar.com.