sun belt wusses

[calvin12d]

HA HA, if N. Texas is the best your conference has you guys really are pathetic!

[littlebittyschool]

Your Mama

[troymarkus]

We'll show your pathetic excuse of a team who the best in our conference is on December 30th. I can't believe you can even find enough athletes in Northern Illinois to field a stinking football team..then again, you probably can't. We'll show you what football in the south is all about. Don't expect to score more than 7 points--we'll shut you down.

Let me go ahead and inform you of some folks your "team" will be introduced to that night:

DeMarcus Ware - he'll be very intimate with your QB
Derrick Ansley - Your QB will see the back of his jersey a couple times when he runs back picks for TDs
Robbie Farmer - Anyone who tries to run will be met rather firmly by Mr. Farmer

DT McDowell - you can tackle him--if you can catch him..and he has a cannon for an arm
DeWhitt Betterson - He'll be running on you all day long

[littlebittyschool]

A little more intelligent comback now...

Tuscaloosa News printed a list of all of the bowl teams graduation rates. Guess who was the lowest? That's right, NIU! It included the categories football players (african american and white) all other atheletes, total student body. NIU had an AWFUL 24% graduation rate for African American football players. By FAR the worst of the 56 bowl teams. I'll try to find the article and post some of it tommorrow.

It might be online at www.tuscaloosanews.com

Troy's was up around the 48 to 50% range in all categories. By all means, not the worst, but not that much to be that proud of. But at least it wasn't as bad as NIU.

[calvin12d]

if graduating players means you win a football game I'd be worried. Lucky for NIU that graduation rates mean squat when it comes to winning a football game. Think about it, North Texas kicked your conferences @ss this yean and they just got killed. Your conference is weak.

[TUrocks]

if graduating players means you win a football game I'd be worried. Lucky for NIU that graduation rates mean squat when it comes to winning a football game. Think about it, North Texas kicked your conferences @ss this yean and they just got killed. Your conference is weak.

Considering the MAC is 0-3 against the Sunbelt, I guess that means your conference is worse than pathetic!!!!

December 30th, it will be 0-4!!!!

[TroyTuba]

Too bad they didn't kick the conferences ass, as you put it.

[badgerwolf]

SBC football is rated higher than MAC football in the Sagarins and on the field this year it was SBC 3 and MAC 0. The MAC teams beat up on each other to pad their records; MAC football is BAD this year. Get ready for a loss when you line up against Troy.
8)

if graduating players means you win a football game I'd be worried. Lucky for NIU that graduation rates mean squat when it comes to winning a football game. Think about it, North Texas kicked your conferences @ss this yean and they just got killed. Your conference is weak.

[RedEdgeTrojan]

calvin, just go back to your buddy Hobbs until you can grow up.

[Trojan1998]

North Texas is not the best team in the Sunbelt this year. I firmly believe that Troy is the best team - remember that UNT and Troy did not play this season.

UNT did not win a single non-Sunbelt game this season. Troy is basically the only team to represent the Sunbelt at a high level on the national scene this season.

NIU is also not as good as they were last season when they finished 10-2.

[NIU92alum]

North Texas is not the best team in the Sunbelt this year. I firmly believe that Troy is the best team - remember that UNT and Troy did not play this season.

UNT did not win a single non-Sunbelt game this season. Troy is basically the only team to represent the Sunbelt at a high level on the national scene this season.

NIU is also not as good as they were last season when they finished 10-2.

If Troy is the poster child for SunBelt strength, and NIU beats Troy at the SVC, and you take into consideration that NIU was the last of five MAC teams selected to go bowling - then that will expose Troy and the SunBelt for exactly what they are - Imposters...

Watching North Texas get crushed last night must have been painful as the legitimate SunBelt champions. They represented your conference poorly. I would be equally pissed off if Toledo lost that badly considering they are the MAC champions representing us on a national stage.

[Trojan1998]

I'm a long-time Southern Miss fan (I grew up in Meridian not far from Hattiesburg) and was glad to see the Golden Eagles win. However, I would have been happy for the Mean Green had they won last night.

I stand firm behind my earlier post. Troy is the best team in the Sunbelt. UNT won ZERO non-conference games this season. Troy beat Marshall, Mizzou, and lost two heartbreakers to LSU and South Carolina on the road.

Troy has a nationally, highly ranked defense, great running game, and a motivated team.

See you in San Jose.

[NIU92alum]

From the Hartford Courant...

http://www.ctnow.com/sports/hc-themac1215....eadlines-sports


MAC's Maxim: Take Offense
Top-Heavy Conference Not So Lightly Regarded

December 15, 2004
By DESMOND CONNER, Courant Staff Writer

Mid-American Conference football teams will go anywhere to play anyone at any time. The big-timers like to have them come into their place, thinking they can get an easy win. But MAC teams go into the big houses with big dreams - and many times they have come true.

And many have noticed, including ESPN, which signed a contract with the MAC last year to broadcast regular season games.

"You need to understand this," said Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak, whose Huskies knocked off Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State last year.

"We've got a lot of kids that play football here and a lot of them think they should play at Southern Cal and Notre Dame and Penn State. And when these kids get a chance to play a team of that caliber, they've got a little chip on their shoulder. They got a little something to prove. They're not spoiled. I've been around some bigger programs and sometimes you get kids through the course of recruiting, they get a little spoiled and bigheaded. Our kids are not like that because they're not over-recruited."

And that's not all. While determination plays a big role in the MAC's success, so does parity in college football.

"Ever since we've gone to our limit of 85 scholarships - years ago scholarships were unlimited so the big schools would stockpile and then they started lowering it, 115, 105, 95 now 85 - it has pushed a lot of really good football players down to the so-called mid-major schools," Novak said.

Some go to the Western Athletic Conference, Mountain West and Conference USA. Many go to the MAC.

In the past couple of years, MAC teams have beaten the big and the bad, such as Big Ten schools Purdue, Minnesota, Penn State and Iowa.

This year, second-ranked Oklahoma, a 321/2-point favorite over Bowling Green in the season opener, had its hands full before prevailing, 40-24.

Much of the conference's success can be attributed to some ridiculous offensive numbers, especially this year.

In the MAC, they like to let it fly, baby.

"Well," Bowling Green coach Gregg Brandon said with a laugh, "some of us score a lot of points."

Most folks know about Ben Roethlisberger from Miami of Ohio and Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich from Marshall.

Don't be surprised if more quarterbacks from the MAC come into the NFL right behind them. That includes Toledo junior Bruce Gradkowski.

Gradkowski (6 feet 2, 210 pounds) leads the nation's second-ranked passing offense and is the fifth-rated passer. Though he sustained a broken hand and a separated shoulder in the conference championship game against Miami, he still threw four touchdown passes and was 18-for-24 for 251 yards in a 35-27 victory at Ford Field in Detroit.

He'll look to put up similar numbers against UConn when he returns to that stadium for the Motor City Bowl Dec. 27.

"I saw the [MAC championship] game," said UConn quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who has had great success against the bottom feeders of the MAC but will be facing one of the upper echelon teams in the conference for the first time. "He's pretty good."

Last year, Gradkowski threw for more than 400 yards and four touchdowns in a shocking 35-31 victory over Pittsburgh, which was ranked ninth in the country at the time.

There is one big knock on the MAC. Top to bottom, it's not a great conference.

Central Florida and Western Michigan were both 0-8 in the conference this year. UCF, which heads to Conference USA along with Marshall next season, ended up as the only winless team in Division I-A. UCF produced Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper before it joined the MAC.

Another downside to the MAC is that some conference schools are struggling to average 15,000 fans for home games over a two-year period. That became a requirement for I-A teams beginning this season. If the rule was in effect in 2003, the I-A status of Akron and Kent State would be in jeopardy.

But the MAC is really good at the top. Made up of two six-team divisions, it has five teams playing in bowls: Toledo, Bowling Green, Marshall, Miami of Ohio and Northern Illinois. Only Marshall and Akron average less than 33 points. Bowling Green, led by MAC player of the year Omar Jacobs - a sophomore quarterback - averages 43.

"A lot of the teams you see scoring a lot of points in our conference are very multiple and use a lot of maneuvering, a lot of movement and lot of different looks to score," Brandon said."There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. A lot of us put it in the air. But you take a team like Northern Illinois, they just pound you."

Jacobs leads the nation with 36 TD passes. He is fourth in passing efficiency with a rating of 167.8 and second in total offense (357.1 yards a game).

MAC quarterbacks stack up well with their Big East contemporaries, if not better. Gradkowski has a passer rating of 162.2, good for seventh nationally. Not one Big East quarterback ranks in the top 10. West Virginia's Rasheed Marshall is the highest at No.17 (147.19).

And in the total offense category, Jacobs isn't the only MAC quarterback in the top 10. Kent State's Joshua Cribbs (310.8 yards) and Eastern Michigan's Matt Bohnet (293.7), rank No. 4 and No. 7. Temple's Walter Washington (281.5) and Orlovsky (279.7) are 11th and 12th.

Rutgers junior quarterback Ryan Hart (26) and Orlovsky (24) are third and fifth nationally in pass completions per game. Jacobs (25), Gradkowski (23) and Kent State's Cribbs (21) are fourth, seventh and 10th.

"It's a dangerous, dangerous situation," Boston College coach Tom O'Brien said less than a week after his Eagles ran out of Muncie, Ind., with a 19-11 victory over Ball State.

And the Cardinals won only two games all season.

[GoNIU1]

A little more intelligent comback now...

Tuscaloosa News printed a list of all of the bowl teams graduation rates. Guess who was the lowest? That's right, NIU! It included the categories football players (african american and white) all other atheletes, total student body. NIU had an AWFUL 24% graduation rate for African American football players. By FAR the worst of the 56 bowl teams. I'll try to find the article and post some of it tommorrow.

It might be online at www.tuscaloosanews.com

Troy's was up around the 48 to 50% range in all categories. By all means, not the worst, but not that much to be that proud of. But at least it wasn't as bad as NIU.

See the link about academics and our football program.
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2004/12/15/sports/sports02.txt
I believe that the graduation rates refer to what percent of an entering freshman class stays and graduates and not only the players who remain on the team. This could be used to show what a rigorous academic program NIU has and that we don't just pass people because they are on the football team.

[littlebittyschool]

the numbers are skewed because they don't reflect transfers and kids who leave early to go pro. even still, that's a low number. The real number the NCAA looks at is student-athelete graduation rates compared to overall enrollment graduation rates.

Here's a link to the charts: http://www.msnbc.com/modules/interactive.asp?id=/d/tables/BowlGradRates_2004/data.js&navid=3032772

Here's just our page:

Participants Football student-athlete African- American football student-athlete White football student-athlete Overall student-athlete Overall student

Continental Tire Bowl
North Carolina 53 50 57 69 80
Boston College 78 74 82 81 87
Emerald
New Mexico 42 38 50 49 43
Navy - - - 0 85
Holiday Bowl
California 48 42 59 66 84
Texas Tech 60 50 73 56 51
Silicon Valley Classic
Troy 48 49 48 47 52
Northern Illinois 38 24 47 61 50


Sorry it's a little hard to read but the overall rate at NIU is 50% while the football teams grad rate is 38% Troy's isn't a whole lot better, but the 48% of the football team compared to 52% of overall students is a lot closer. Keep in mind that this does not include transfers and it is based on graduating within a 6 year window of when the student first enrolled. Scroll through the link and look at some of the other schools Notre Dame had an AMAZING 94% overall graduation rate of enrolled students. I guess if you get in to ND, you graduate. Texas has a pathetic 34% football player graduation rate while the rest of the student body has a 70% graduation rate.

Interesting stuff. I also made a mistake, NIU had the second lowest African-American football player graduation rate. Pittsburgh had the lowest with only 20% graduating.

[BlueRaiderPride]

HA HA, if N. Texas is the best your conference has you guys really are pathetic!

Uhhhhh. . .Southern Miss is a powerful CUSA team that just so happened to get in the New Orleans Bowl and probably one that could beat a few of the other CUSA teams that are playing in other bowls.

One thing I do know is that Southern Miss will certainly carry that conference once Louisville, TCU, South Florida, and Cincinnati are gone. Futhermore, they have deep roots in the South where football is strong.

Consider this. We know Nebraska was down this year, right? Still, all the while, even a bad Nebraska team rarely loses to schools not in the Power $ix conferences. In fact, this past season's loss to Southern Miss in Lincoln was the first loss to a school outside of the premier BC$ leagues since falling to the University of Houston in the 1980 Cotton Bowl!!! That was nearly 25 years ago!

Oh yeah, and just so you know, Nebraska doesn't lose at home to non-BC$ teams all that often. In fact, thier last home loss to a current non-BC$ or lower-statused team was against Air Force Academy in October of 1963! So this does speak well of Southern Miss.

And make no mistake about it. If Southern Miss could do what they did to North Texas, they'd do FAR worse to Northern Illinois or any other school in the MAC for that matter. Just be very thankful none of your overrated MAC teams had to play Southern Miss.