#MACtion Open Chat: No. 20 Toledo and Northern Illinois ready for a territorial fight on Tuesday night

This sort of game is what weeknight #MACtion was made for.

The Toledo Rockets (7-0, 4-0 MAC) are ranked 20th in the country in the AP Poll, though the College Football Playoff Committee Poll has yet to come out as of publication. The Rockets had a BYE week last week after pounding Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium back in Week 8.

Northern Illinois (5-3, 4-1 MAC) has been tearing through the MAC schedule after taking an opening loss against Central Michigan, and struggling through a tough non-conference slate of action. With a win in this matchup, the Huskies would (once again) firmly place themselves back atop the MAC West, putting them over Western Michigan shortly before their pivotal matchup toward season's end.

The last game between these two teams saw some major surprises. Phillip Ely was out with injury, and replacement Logan Woodside and his replacement Michael Julian were both injured early in the game. This meant reserve wide receiver Dwight Macon, a former high school QB, played the majority of the snaps for the Rockets. Macon didn't do half bad either, competing 8/11 passes for 140 yards and a passing touchdown, with no interceptions, which is just about as much as you could possibly ask of your fourth QB. However, Toledo would suffer their first conference loss despite the close effort, as Cameron Stingly had two touchdowns and the Huskies had 226 yards on the ground between six rushers, and Drew Hare added a passing touchdown for a final score of 27-24.

According to our always scientific MAC Pick 'Em Pool, Toledo has a 77% chance of winning the game today, while Northern Illinois has a 23% chance. In terms of high/low, 9% of those polled chose NIU as the high team, while 8% chose Toledo. For the low, only 3% chose NIU as the low, and 1% chose Toledo.

Tonight's game will be at Toledo's famous Glass Bowl, with a starting time of 7:30 p.m., and will be aired on ESPN2, ESPN3, and the WatchESPN App, the latter two of which need a valid cable subscription to work. The Committee Rankings Revealation Show will be aired on ESPN at 7 p.m. before the start of the game, so be sure to have your remote ready.

MAC Pick'em Stats:

Toledo (77.1%) favored over NIU

NIU (10%) is 3rd in "High Team" voting
Toledo (7.1%) is 4th

NIU (2.9%) is tied for 9th in "Low Team" voting
Toledo (1.4%) is 11th

Remember: take a drink in the spirit of #MACtion, and don't be THAT guy in the comments.