This week, we have the dubious honor of hosting the MAC Blogger Roundtable and posing the questions to the group. We’ll kick out a recap post last in the week to showcase the best answers from the group, but, in the mean time, check out our questions/answers after the fold.

1) There are several mid week MAC games this week, with only one game being played on Saturday. Which game are you most looking forward to watching or has the most interesting matchup? OU @ Buffalo (Tuesday). Toledo @ CMU (Wednesday). BGSU @ Miami (Thursday). Ball State @ NIU ( Thursday). Temple @ Akron (Friday). WMU @ EMU (Saturday).

We’re looking forward to the Toledo / CMU game on Wednesday night, for obvious reasons. This game can have strong implications on the MAC West, if Toledo upsets CMU, then the division is decided when NIU plays CMU. Even though NIU hates us with every ounce of their being, we’d like to help ‘em out this week.

2) Bernard Pierce of Temple is only a Freshmen yet is the only one in the conference with over 1,000 yards rushing to date (1,211) good for 3rd in the nation. He has found the end zone 14 times already and has not yet fumbled or turned the ball over. Does Pierce have an amazing offense line or should we expect this from him for 2-3 more years?

Temple has a very good recruiting class coming in next season, especially some high quality linemen. We don’t see Pierce being a fluke running back. If he gets plenty of carries (which he has in every game they’ve won), he’ll be a monster for 4 years. Excluding “Big Ben”, the MAC just doesn’t see players leaving early to enter the NFL draft.

3) This is a sore subject for some teams (IE – Buffalo, Toledo) but discuss the major injuries your team has endured this season and what your projected outcome WOULD HAVE BEEN if everyone was healthy. We expect 100% homerism.

We want 100% homerism. If Opelt had not been injured, Toledo would have beaten WMU, Temple and Miami. Instead of 4-5, the Rockets would be 7-2.

4) Outside of the MAC, which other college program(s) most closely mirrors your respective MAC school ? Who’s performance / problems / coaching / etc. is similar ?

The program that most closely mirrors the plight of Toledo is Michigan. While Rich Rodriquez isn’t as new to his program as Beckman is to ours, he is still a relatively new coach trying to instill a new system and rebuild a program. Michigan started off the season with a lot of promise and renewed interest but has fallen behind as the season wore on in much the same way Toledo has. Both teams have poor conference records, 1-5 and 2-3. Both teams have struggled against Big Ten opponents. At the onset of the season there was a lot of talk about returning to a bowl game, challenging for conference titles and proving to everyone that 2008 (and the prior seasons) were anomalies…. both these teams have fallen short of that. Injuries at key positions have plagued both these teams down the stretch — hell, even the colors are similar.

5) If you could reorganize the MAC divisions, how would you see it divided to better promote competition, rivalries, recruiting, etc. ? What groupings would you like to see ? (Can be any number of divisions)

We’d like to see the MAC divided up like this — more of a North / South than our current East / West. Seems like this would give good mix of football and basketball prowess amongst the divisions with a spot reserved for the MAC’s 14th team…

Akron Ball State Kent State Miami (OH) Ohio Temple [Open Slot for a 14th team]

Bowling Green Buffalo Central Michigan EMU NIU Toledo WMU

Check back late in the week for the roundtable recap post.