MAC contenders down to four

The dust has begun to settle on the Mid-American Conference football landscape.

With two weeks remaining, four teams — two from the West Division and two from the East — have separated themselves from the pack.

West representatives CMU (6-0 MAC) and Northern Illinois (5-1 MAC) are separated by one game. East representatives Temple (6-0 MAC) and Ohio (5-1 MAC) are in the same standing.

And as if fate played a hand in the schedule-making, the two West Division teams play in the regular season’s final game. In the East, the story is the same.

“You hope to get into November and control your own destiny,” said CMU coach Butch Jones, “and we’ve set ourselves up in September and October to able to do that.”

True to his word, CMU controls its fate. If it wins its final two games, it earns a trip to the MAC Championship on Dec. 4 at Ford Field in Detroit.

But CMU is not alone with its strategy. Northern Illinois, Ohio and Temple all control their own fate as well. Each team can earn a trip to the championship game by winning its final two games.

“We just got to worry about ourselves and take care of what we can take care of,” Jones said.

Temple’s case

Temple is the frontrunner to represent the East Division.

But the Owls, undefeated in MAC games, will play two teams with winning conference records in the final two weeks.

First up is Kent State and, technically, the Golden Flashes are still alive in the hunt for a division crown. Kent State and Bowling Green are at 4-2, but need a lot of help, including the need for the undefeated Owls to lose their last two games.

Temple coach Al Golden said he has paid no attention to scenarios. Instead, he has the team focused on Kent State, a team he included in the championship conversation.

“All I can do is tell you our focus right now is on Kent State … The five of us are all fighting for the postseason,” he said.

After Kent State, the team plays Ohio in a game that could be the division championship. If Ohio still has one loss and Temple is undefeated in the MAC, an Ohio win would put both teams at one loss and give the Bobcats the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The knockout punch

But for Ohio, things get more interesting.

On Saturday, the East’s second-place team plays the West’s second-place team, Northern Illinois. Both teams have one loss and losing all but eliminates either one from championship contention.
Ohio coach Frank Solich said he understands the task at hand.

“You look at (NIU) statistically and in the conference and you understand that you got your hands full,” he said.

Whichever team loses is more than likely out. Whichever team wins plays its counterpart at the top of its division the following week for a chance to play in December.

Out West

CMU has the easiest schedule, record-wise, of the four teams.

The Chippewas play a one-win Ball State team before meeting Northern Illinois. CMU can clinch the division with a win Wednesday night and a Northern Illinois loss Saturday. The same can be said for Temple if Ohio loses to Northern Illinois.

Jones stayed diplomatic regarding a struggling Ball State team.

“I think we got to control what we can control, and the only thing we can control right now is ourselves,” he said. “There will be great focus on our football game.”

But after last year’s loss to Ball State that virtually eliminated the Chippewas out of the championship picture, players have had a more difficult time keeping emotions out.

“They took away our season last year. We were seven minutes and 32 seconds away from (going to) the MAC Championship,” said junior defensive tackle Sean Murnane. “They took it from us, and we haven’t forgotten that.”

Murnane refuses to care what Ohio and Northern Illinois do later in the week.

“We’re controlling our own destiny,” he said. “Northern’s got a loss, we don’t care. If we lose or win this game, we’re playing Northern for the (division) championship.”

Opportunity

But with two games remaining, all four teams — CMU, Northern Illinois, Temple and Ohio — control where they go from here.

“At the end of the year, you want to be playing for something,” said NIU coach Jerry Kill. “A lot of times, at this time, you’re not.”

For NIU and Ohio, one of the teams could realistically lose its conference hopes after this week.
For Jones, the finish validates what he has thought all along.

“I’ve said it time and time again. This is the most balanced conference in the country … To be coming down to the final stretch, and you’ve got two on the East side and two on the West side that can win it, I think that speaks volumes,” he said.