Your final MAC bowl lineup:
December 18: Northern Illinois vs. Fresno State in the uDrove Humanitarian Bowl — Boise (5:30 p.m. ESPN)
December 18: OHIO vs. Troy in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl — New Orleans (9 p.m., ESPN)
December 26: Toledo vs. Florida International in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl — Detroit (8:30 p.m., ESPN)
January 6, 2011: Miami vs. Middle Tennessee State in the Go Daddy Bowl — Mobile (8 p.m., ESPN)
Sad and un-bowled: Temple, WMU (note: these are the only two eligible teams left out of the musical bowl chairs)
Too bad that 8-4 Temple, who beat BCS-bound UConn, didn't get a bowl. What happened was that Middle Tennessee got eligible on Sunday by topping FIU to fill out their third slot. Otherwise it might've been a MAC-on-MAC fisticuff in one of those games. Oh well ... that's why you gotta finish strong.
You may also notice that three of these games are against Sun Belt teams. Indeed, the only bowl win for the MAC last year was against the SBC. So at least there's a chance for a winning record. And then there's Fresno, who barely beat Illinois, who barely beat Northern Illinois. Hey, at least it's more winnable than Boise.
Extremely much more will ensue on this Internet abode in the coming weeks to preview these games, as well to look back on the seasons Temple and WMU had.