Welcome back to our series of 99 things we are excited about for the upcoming college football season. One of the best parts of college football is the sheer amount of games which are played and how often we can watch college football. Once we get to November we get to experience MACtion. The MAC will start playing games on weeknights which helps college football addicts get their fix before the weekend. A Tuesday night game between Eastern Michigan and Ball State will attract the eyes of fans especially if the game remains to be entertaining.
The MAC moving November games to weeknights is a more recent trend. In 2012 only 6 MAC games were played on weeknights in November. Then a deal was signed with ESPN in 2014 which helped expand coverage for the conference. Fast forward to 2016 and 16 games took place on weeknights while only two were played on Saturdays. This season the MAC will only play three games on Saturdays during the month of November with most games falling on a Tuesday or Wednesday night.
Thinking back on the MAC over the past decade the conference has been the host of numerous college stars. One which comes to mind is former Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch. On a Tuesday night in November, Lynch broke the single game rushing record for a quarterback. He rushed for 321 yards in a win over Western Michigan. For the entire seaosn, Lynch rushed for 1,920 yards and 23 touchdowns. Lynch would go on to finish third in the Heisman voting and be named a First Team All-American.
MACtion is special because of the truly unpredictable nature of each and every game. Commonly games will become high scoring and teams will score in a variety of different ways. In 2007, Western Michigan and Central Michigan combined to score 48 points in the fourth quarter after scoring just 17 points in the first three quarters. Antonio Brown was actually on this Central Michigan team. Central Michigan would score with only 12 seconds left to take the lead and secure the win. This game is remembered as one of the best midweek MAC games in this history of the conference.
I was fortunate to attend a weekday MAC game back in my college days. Kent State took on Central Michigan (the game was on a Friday but still counts). In true MAC fashion Kent State defeated Central Michigan after the Chippewas kicker missed the game tying field goal as time expired. The student section proceeded to storm the field after the Golden Flashes improved to 3-6 on the season (Yes, all 300 students rushed the field). I was also in attendance for one of the most memorable mishaps of the 2012 season. If given the chance to attend a weeknight MAC game, take the opportunity.
If you enjoy high scoring, watching MACtion is the perfect treat for you. The weekday MAC games in 2021 averaged over 60 points per game with four different games topping 80 total points. The games are typically competitive as the average margin of victory was 13 points. Not every MAC game will come down to the wire but they will at least provide some midweek entertainment and stay relatively close for most of the game. At minimum it is probably a better alternative to watching the same show for the 40th time.
The Walk-On Redshirts 