Championship Week: MAC & C-USA

MAC Northern Illinois 11-1 / 8-0 vv Kent State 11-1 / 8-0: This is the best season the Mac has had in years. Other than the SEC Championship …. Alabama vs Georgia … this may well be the next best Conference Championship Game! Northern Illinois lost its opener in Iowa City to the Hawks, 18-17 and then won 11 in a row! Meanwhile, Kent State lost its second game of the year @ Kentucky and then proceeded to win 10 straight games! Sully’s CFP Game Simulator says …. NIU dominates the Golden Flashes statistically 7-1: 1) Total Yards: 434 to 376; 2) Passing Offense: 246 to 197; 3) Rushing Offense: 187 to 180; 4) Scoring 33 to 26; 5) 3rd Down Conversion Percentage: 42% to 39%; 6) Red Zone All Scores Percentage: 81% to 66%; & Red Zone TD’s Only: 70% to 38%! While the lone area that Kent State is better statistically than the Huskies is: Turnovers 1.55 to 2.09! These teams met last year with NIU winning 40-10. IF one of these teams is ranked 16th or better in the final BCS Poll and are ahead of an Automatic Qualifier (one, if not both, will be ranked higher than the Big East Champ) they will have earned a spot in a BCS Bowl…. How cool is that for the MAC!!! This should be interesting … stay tuned!!

C-USA Central Florida 9-3 / 7-1 @ Tulsa 9-3 / 7-1: This may be the most evenly matched championship game of 2012! Sully’s CFP Game Simulator has the teams spliting the eight statistical categories 4 apiece: Central Florida out-performs Tulsa in: Passing Offense: 230 to 225; Scoring: 30 to 29; Turnovers: 1.55 to 1.88; & 3rd Down Conversion Percentage: 42% to 38% While Tulsa has an edge statistically in: Total Offense: 419 to 383; Rushing Offense 195 to 151; Red Zone All Scores Percentage: 87% to 76%; & Red Zone TD’s Only Percentage: 68% to 59%! These teams met on November 17th and Sully’s CFP felt then that the games was to close to call … we were right …  Tulsa won 23-21, largely do to their defense not allowing UCF to run the ball … 66 total yards rushing! UCF countered by forcing two turnovers and not turning it back to the Hurricanes …. Trunovers always a factor in close or any game for that matter!! This may well be the most competive game of the day! This will mark the third time in eight years these teams have met in C-USA Championship game … the most meetings for any FBS conference teams in that time frame! Sadly, this will not happen again as UCF is leaving C-USA for the Big East next season!