Belt Loops: Let Appalachian State To MAC Rumors Die Here

Some MAC links for this ceremoniously glorious Tuesday morning:

• FCS powerhouse Appalachian State voted internally to have their football program move onward to the Bowl Subdivision sometime in the near future. They've had a good thing going tucked away in North Carolina winning Southern Conference titles, but it sounds like they're tired of competing for national championships.

So what conference would they join? One man suggests it could be Conference USA, or the Sun Belt ... or the MAC. As, what, a 15th team? No, no, no. Not unless the MAC purchases the Sun Belt at Howard Schnellenberger's estate sale and collects every single football team known to man that the BCS will never consider.

Summarizing: No App State to the MAC. Nothing personal. [Watauga Democrat]

• This headline should be modified to read "10 things you might not know about Bruce Gradkowski ... if you don't follow the MAC." And if you're gonna mention that he played in the same high school conference as Marino, Namath, Unitas and Montana, why not mention that he passed for more yards in a season than any of them? [Cincinnati.com]

• Nobody in the MAC media poll, nor our own poll, took Temple to win the MAC. SBN's Georgia blog did. Ballsy, even elliptical. [Dawg Sports]

• A couple of Buffalo basketball players will begin their overseas pro careers. Byron Mulkey has signed a contract with Association Salé of Morocco. John Boyer is going to suit up for Czech team BK Decin. [BuffaloBulls.com]

• Paul Shoults died over the weekend at age 85. He was a triple-duty MAC man: football captain at Miami and HOF inductee, football coach under Ara Parseghian, and associate athletic director with EMU. [MURedHawks.com]

• WMU senior Aaron Winchester has played at running back each of the last three years, but they are converting him to cornerback and he won the starting spot. That's what you call "clearing the way for Tevin Drake." [MLive]