From last night's games, it looks like the Coaches Poll and Media Poll are fairly accurate with team rankings. Miami defeated Ball State 38-31, Toledo crushed Bowling Green 38-3, Buffalo defeated Northern Illinois 49-30, Western Michigan annihilated Akron 58-13, Central Michigan won in a close game over Ohio 30-27, and the Flashes won in a close one over Eastern Michigan 27-23.

During this pandemic season, a lot of things could happen to disrupt starting lineups and outcomes, but from what I have seen so far I expect the Flashes to go 3-3 with two more wins over Bowling Green and Akron and three losses from Buffalo, Miami, and Ohio. Kent State is still much better than Bowling Green and Akron, but not nearly as good as Miami, Buffalo, and Ohio in the East, and Toledo, Western Michigan, and Central Michigan in the West.

Coaches Poll
MAC East:

Miami (six first-place votes): 64 total points
Buffalo (4): 58 points
Ohio (1): 48 points
Kent State: 42 points
Bowling Green: 23 points
Akron (1): 17 points

MAC West:
Toledo (4): 54 points
Western Michigan (2): 53 points
Central Michigan (5): 52 points
Ball State (1): 50 points
Eastern Michigan: 22 points
NIU: 21 points

Media Poll
MAC East:
Buffalo (19 first place votes): 135 points
Miami (3): 107 points
Ohio (1): 101 points
Kent State (1): 85 points
Bowling Green: 50 points
Akron: 26 points
MAC West:
Central Michigan (10): 119 points
Toledo (7): 118 points
Ball State (3): 93 points
Western Michigan (3) 89 points
Eastern Michigan: 46 points
NIU: 39 points

Excellent article by Parker Thune, Deputy Editor/Lead Recruiting Analyst, Sports Illustrated Sooners.

"I want to give a closing nod to the MAC, because it is in many ways the perfect model of what a football conference should look like. It's the only conference that has ostensibly paid any mind to geography, as it consists of six Ohio schools, three Michigan schools, and one school apiece from Indiana, Illinois and New York. The twelve member institutions are tidily arranged into two divisions. One division consists of the conference's six easternmost schools, and the other consists of its six westernmost schools.

The conference boasts a throng of fantastic rivalries, such as the Battle for the Victory Cannon between Central Michigan and Western Michigan. There's Akron and Kent State in the Battle for the Blue and Gold Wagon Wheel, a rivalry that's currently deadlocked at 24-24-1. And Bowling Green and Toledo are in a dead heat of their own in the Battle of I-75; their series is tied at 40-40-4.

To those of us who look at college football from a hyperopic perspective, the goings-on of a seemingly inappreciable conference like the MAC mean very little. But go to upstate Ohio or rural Michigan, and it'll become immediately evident that MAC football is a regional juggernaut. Even though you won't see Bowling Green or Toledo playing in the New Year's Six, every single game in the conference carries weight and public interest. There's nothing remotely akin to an Oklahoma-Kansas snooze fest anywhere on the MAC schedule."

https://www.si.com/college/oklahoma/football/a-plea-for-realignment-as-ncaa-crumbles

Stadium’s Brett McMurphy reports the MAC has decided to cancel its football season among concerns about player health and safety. It will try to play in the spring, per McMurphy.

The league took a major financial hit when the Big Ten and other Power 5 schools canceled their non-conference games. Losing Big Ten games cost the MAC $10 million alone, according to The Action Network’s Darren Rovell. Central Michigan was guaranteed a combined $2.15 million by Nebraska and Northwestern (click web address below for full article).

https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf...r&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=darrenrovell

Kent State placed three players on the first team and nine total on Phil Steele's annual pre-season All-MAC team.

https://kentstatesports.com/news/20...all-mac-firsts-team-nod-from-phil-steele.aspx

4. Kent State

The Golden Flashes are trending up under third-year coach Sean Lewis. The program is coming off a 7-6 record last season – just the second for Kent State since 2002 – and the first bowl victory in school history. Getting back to a bowl will rest on the right arm of quarterback Dustin Crum, as the senior returns as the MAC’s No. 1 signal-caller for 2020. Crum accounted for over 3,000 yards of total offense and 26 overall scores last fall. A couple of key receivers have departed, but Isaiah McKoy (57 catches) is back, and three starters return to provide optimism for improved protection (41 sacks allowed last year). Kent State’s defense has allowed over six yards a play for three consecutive seasons and stopping the run will be an issue after this group allowed 244.7 rushing yards a game in 2019. A schedule featuring non-conference matchups against Alabama, Kentucky and Penn State and road trips to Buffalo, Miami (Ohio) and Northern Illinois won’t provide much room for error to get to a bowl.

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/mac-football-2020-predictions

MAC Football 2020 All-Conference Team
First-Team Offense


QB Dustin Crum, Kent State

RB Caleb Huntley, Ball State

RB Jaret Patterson, Buffalo

AP Kalil Pimpleton, Central Michigan

WR Skyy Moore, Western Michigan

WR Isaiah McKoy, Kent State

TE Quintin Morris, Bowling Green

C Bryce Harris, Toledo

OL Kayode Awosika, Buffalo

OL Nick Rosi, Toledo

OL Jaylon Moore, Western Michigan

OL Tommy Doyle, Miami (Ohio)

First-Team Defense


DL Taylor Riggins, Buffalo

DL Malcolm Koonce, Buffalo

DL Jamal Hines, Toledo

DL Ali Fayad, Western Michigan

LB Treshaun Hayward, Western Michigan

LB Troy Brown, Central Michigan

LB Jaylin Thomas, Ball State

CB Antonio Phillips, Ball State

CB Emmanuel Rugamba, Miami (Ohio)

S Tyrone Hill, Buffalo

S Sterling Weatherford, Miami (Ohio)

First-Team Specialists


K Matthew Trickett, Kent State

P Matt Ference, Northern Illinois

KR Michael Mathison, Akron

PR Kalil Pimpleton, Central Michigan

Second-Team Offense


QB Drew Plitt, Ball State

RB Bryant Koback, Toledo

RB Kobe Lewis, Central Michigan

AP Justin Hall, Ball State

WR Antonio Nunn, Buffalo

WR Bryce Mitchell, Toledo

TE Tony Poljan, Central Michigan

C Danny Godlevske, Miami (Ohio)

OL Luke Goedeke, Central Michigan

OL Curtis Blackwell, Ball State

OL Mike Caliendo, Western Michigan

OL Derek Smith, Central Michigan

Second-Team Defense


DL Kameron Butler, Miami (Ohio)

DL Robi Stuart, Central Michigan

DL Austin Conrad, Ohio

DL LaQuan Johnson, Central Michigan

LB Kyle Pugh, Northern Illinois

LB Kholbe Coleman, Bowling Green

LB Kadofi Wright, Buffalo

CB Amechi Uzodinma II, Ball State

CB Patrick Lupro, Western Michigan

S Devonni Reed, Central Michigan

S KJ Sherald, Kent State

Second-Team Specialists


K John Richardson, Northern Illinois

P Jake Julien, Eastern Michigan

KR Bryson Denley, Bowling Green

PR Dylan Drummond, Eastern Michigan


https://athlonsports.com/college-football/mac-football-2020-all-conference-team

Where is everyone? I know I can’t be the only person who had sex with someone who went to Kent St

Like Nick Saban, I graduated from Kent State, I'm short, I'm intense, and I'm spiritual. Yet, there is another commonality between us and that is we both love the Rolling Stones. More specifically the song, "Gimme Shelter."

When returning from the airport after Crimson Tide road victories, he and his wife have a ritual of blasting the Stones' "Gimme Shelter" in the car. "We crank it up coming from the airport, driving home," Saban said. "That's kind of my happiest time of the week. That means we won the game."

Gimme Shelter, the best classic rock song of all time.

Mick Jagger and Merry Clayton

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https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/10-things-alabama-coach-nick-saban/story?id=36166592

Ive seen more action in a morgue than this board but its growing on me.

We heard about the death of one your players, OL Tyler Heinz. Here's a prayerful thought from Husker Nation. Hang in there.

Kent State University will not hold face-to-face classes for the remainder of the semester to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The university had previously announced students would return to campus on April 13, but made the change Friday after Governor Mike Dewine put restrictions on gatherings of more than 100 people.

In the video from NBC News, one parent states that cancelling face-to-face classes, "is a little over-reactive," but the Bluffton, Ohio COVID-19 Fatality Modelling video shows why it is not an overreaction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-jEef6ylQA

https://vimeo.com/397657805?ref=fb-share&1

Like most sports fans, I will miss March Madness and Kent State baseball, but as David White writes in the article below, "We’ll be sorrier if we find out lives are lost when we could have done more to save the people we love. We’re not panicking, not in the least. We’re protecting our families, planning against the worst, and praying for an end to whatever this might become."

Sure, we miss sports. But what price are you willing to pay when the cost is coronavirus?
By David White

It’s just a game.

Remember that when you don’t fill out your March Madness bracket at the office, or when you don’t pick up the kids from a canceled practice, and you wag an angry finger at a coronavirus outbreak that you swear is nothing more than a media-driven hoax.

If missing out on sports is that devastating to people around here, then we are staggered at their lost sense of priorities. And that’s coming from a sportswriter who kinda needs sports to justify his paycheck.

So what if the NBA Finals wait until August, or if Opening Day for Major League Baseball stalls until Memorial Day weekend?

You say the sports world is overreacting with all of these cancellations, postponements and suspensions of play.

We say lives are at stake, until they’re not. Is a non-conference softball game on a Tuesday in March really worth the risk? Are the people dying from coronavirus really not worth giving sports a prolonged intermission?

The truth is, we don’t know what we don’t know, not when it comes to the lethal potential of the coronavirus that has swept our planet, and not in regard to how quickly it can spread through a stadium filled with neighbors and friends.

Like all things, this has come to pass. Until it does, we’re glad to take a pass.

So how about we do what the NBA did, shaming all the other sports leagues to follow suit?

Let’s press the pause button on sports and entertainment. Let’s focus on life and death, safety and health, protecting our children and keeping our grandparents secure from a threat we have yet to fully understand?

Do you really want to learn the hard way? Do you want to find out after the fact that nothing about this reaction was an overreaction?

And, let’s be clear. If this pandemic does not kill tens of thousands, that doesn’t mean all of this was for nothing.

Maybe, just maybe, by playing it safe, we are ensuring nothing comes of this. I can’t prove it will save lives, but then, you can’t prove it won’t. Do you really want to err on the wrong side of this argument?

My daughter can’t believe she didn’t get to play in a junior varsity softball tournament this weekend. I want her to know there are bigger things in life than junior varsity softball tournaments.

There’s the greater good, framed by the big picture, set against the backdrop of social responsibility to consider. If this entire coronavirus disappears into the night by April, what was really lost by canceling or postponing the Masters or the NCAA Wrestling Championships?

When the results of games trump the potential of lost life, we have lost our proper perspective.

Me and the kids were going to opening weekend for the San Francisco Giants next month. Now we’re not. Big deal.

We’re glad the NBA paused its season. Good on them for walking away from millions of dollars because the risk-reward bore no reward worth winning.

Good for the NCAA for buckling to pressure. We expect them to grant all spring athletes another year of eligibility, now that we know they are capable of doing the right thing.

We’re sorry for the college basketball players whose season ended out of nowhere, especially the seniors. We’ll tell you the story of Fresno State wrestler Josh Hokit next week, and how his wrestling career came to an unceremonious close while reading the news on Twitter.

We’ll be sorrier if we find out lives are lost when we could have done more to save the people we love.

We’re not panicking, not in the least. We’re protecting our families, planning against the worst, and praying for an end to whatever this might become.

Let the games go on? Only over our dead bodies.

https://www.fresnobee.com/sports/article241186491.html

Could Joel Nielsen be another Donald Trump? We know that Trump is never held accountable for his actions or behavior. And because nothing ever sticks to him, he is thought to have a Teflon coating. In the article, "Tougher than Teflon? Trump shows he is the most resilient politician in modern US history," Susan Page writes, "...he is the most resilient politician in modern American history.

Neither the ridicule of the political establishment toward the idea that he could win the White House nor the two-year investigation by a special counsel nor impeachment by the House of Representatives has bowed Trump or even prompted him to temper the brash, blunderbuss style that has brought him this far.

The Senate acquitted the president Wednesday of two articles of impeachment that charged he abused power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival, then obstructed Congress in an effort to cover it up."

Although Nielsen is not as nefarious and evasive as Trump, he nevertheless seems to have the same Teflon coating as Trump. Like Trump's acquittal of the two articles of impeachment, Nielsen was unscathed from the petition to remove him as the Kent State University athletic director for the following reasons:

• The climate and gender equity problems within the department.
  
  
• The fact that discrimination and retaliation against women and insensitivity towards women and minorities is an ongoing concern leading to a torrent of staff turnover and even the filing of a formal EEOC complaint by a former head coach.
  
  
• Studies showing only five of the NCAA’s 351 Division I athletic departments have a worse rating than Kent State with regard to women in coaching.
  
  
• Emails proving Nielsen was dishonest in an HR investigation concerning sexual harassment and participated in a cover-up to protect a sexual predator who put the safety of student athletes and female staff at risk

Like Trump's cult that is never critical of him regardless of his policies or actions, Nielsen has a similar following that supports him no matter what he does. However, one critic made the following post on Flash Fanatics that made me laugh:

"So, Joel wasn't at the hoop game where they honored athletes with the highest academic standing in the Fall Semester. Got me thinking what would Joel be doing instead of attending this event? Honoring Dave Letterman since we played Ball State last night. I do need some help so please join in.

TOP TEN THINGS JOEL WAS DOING RATHER THAN HONORING THE STUDENTS

1- Begging for an additional bonus due to academic good standing

2- Working on his whiteboard to see if he could cut any additional funding to allow him to get a larger car allowance

3- Shopping for fireworks for noon football games

4- Eating dinner with Coach Lewis and trying to convince him to stay after next year

5-Shopping for a new mouthpiece to wear while he works out. (yes that's a fact).

6- Sweeping under the rug a potential sexual assault cases

7-Tanning at Bahama Bodies (of course he does)

8-Anxiously following Arkansas women's golf on Golfstat without realizing KSU is in the same tournament

9-Sorting thru those unfortunate Polaroids of KSU Trustees he keeps in his top desk drawer

10-Sitting outside the HOF in Canton with an empty coffee cup waiting for Antonio Gates

BONUS-Actually he was there. He just realized he should not show his tan face."

Since the post was made, three other posters responded with their own humorous reasons why Nielsen was not at the game that honored KSU athletes with the highest academic standing in the fall semester. Perhaps there will be more humorous posts made, but the sad truth is most of the posters on Flash Fanatics continue to embrace Joel, just like the majority of the GOP continue to embrace Trump. One Flash Fanatics poster stated that he was angry about the petition to remove Nielsen from the AD position because it made Kent State University look bad. This is just like the Trump cult getting angry when news reports make Trump look unworthy of the oval office.

Whatever happened to the notion of expecting our leaders to do the right thing so they don't become a news story?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...nt-acquittal-resilient-politician/2857258001/

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247 Sports MAC recruiting rankings have the Flashes at #6. Last year's 247 Sports recruiting ranking had Kent State at #4.

https://247sports.com/Season/2020-Football/CompositeTeamRankings/?Conference=MAC

https://247sports.com/Season/2019-Football/CompositeTeamRankings/?Conference=MAC

Please share, so that every high school kid can read it.

dallasmike said:

I hope every HS kid reads this. The difference in recruiting now and say 20 years ago is light-years apart (Hell even 10 years ago). I would encourage, and wish, that if recruits aren't 100% sure about a school - DON'T VERBALLY COMMIT. When you commit you are giving your word to that school that you are COMMITTED TO THEM AND THEM TO YOU. The school is committed to you, but they can't make you sign. THEY ARE TAKING YOUR WORD AS YOUR BOND. They are holding that spot because, in a way, the recruit is holding the school hostage for that spot until the last day of signing. There were a lot of pissed off people this week about one specific instance (me being one) and a lot of people tweeting, posting on this board some harsh things. I am never in favor of bashing kids that are in high school that is probably being pulled in many directions, by many people. That is not anyone's place. But I am also not going to make excuses and act like this type of behavior is 'OK'. It is only the player's and the player's parent's decision. Ultimately, they will have to deal with the outcome. Just be cautious of the type of example you are setting moving forward and what people will remember about you.

In this day and age of all the recruiting announcements at the High Schools, All-American games and the big productions made about the player's announcement, it comes down to this - DO YOU HONOR YOUR WORD, DO YOU FOLLOW THROUGH? There will be a day when whatever sport you are playing is over, and if you are extremely lucky to make it to the NFL, NBA, etc. or you start working at an everyday job, people will only respect you if YOU ARE A PERSON OF YOUR WORD. All this grandstanding and the Me, Me, Me show about your decision isn't what makes the person, BUT YOUR WORD IS. I want you to be proud of where you are going to school, you have worked hard to get to that point. But humility and honor are some powerful character traits in the make-up of a person. Give me a team, or a business, full of those types of players/people, and I will stick with them 100%. It's is like the great Barry Sanders father told him after he scored touchdowns, "Give the ref the ball and run off the field. Act like you have been there before."

Sorry this was so long.

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