#MACtion Open Chat: Bowling Green hosts Ohio in an intrastate Battle of Bold Colors

Well, yesterday was something, wasn't it?

Northern Illinois managed to defeat the nationally ranked Toledo Rockets, relying on Ryan Graham, a redshirt freshman, to lead them to victory without big playmaker Tommylee Lewis. NIU has now firmly entrenched themselves in the MAC West lead and could potentially control their own destiny, establishing that (once again), reports of the Huskies' death has been greatly exaggerated.

But tonight isn't about that game.

Tonight's matchup features two teams going in different directions for the race to the MAC East crown in Bowling Green and Ohio.

Bowling Green (6-2, 4-0 MAC) has been on fire during the conference games, as Matt Johnson has destroyed two defenses that have been respectable this season, with Kent State and Akron having no answer for the Falcons' volatile offense, which ranks in the top five in every passing category. All but one of their MAC victories thus far has been by 24 points or more.

Meanwhile, Ohio (5-3, 2-2 MAC) has fallen off the deep end of late, getting absolutely drummed by Western Michigan at home and Buffalo on the road. They're looking to get back on track vs. a rival that has alluded the clutches of the Bobcats for sometime now, and will be doing it without key players on both sides of the ball; AJ Ouelette, previously the starting tailback, is now a middle linebacker. A starting middle linebacker.

A win for BGSU pretty much assures them the MAC East crown, unless shenanigans occur below them in the table. An Ohio win would open the MAC East to four different teams (Ohio, BGSU, Akron, and Buffalo) for the taking, forcing each team to control their own destiny.

The game will start at 8 p.m. tonight, and be aired on ESPN2, ESPN3, and the WatchESPN App, the latter two of which need a valid cable subscription to work.

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Here are the High/Low Pick 'Em numbers for tonight's game, within the context of the MAC slate as a conference this week:

Ohio at Bowling Green (93%)

High Team:

Bowling Green (63%, 1st )

Ohio (1%, t-6th)

Low Team:

Ohio (4%, 8th)

Bowling Green (3%, t-9th)