MAC Media Day Report

Earlier today the Mid-American Conference held its annual football media day at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. Of course the highlight for football fans is the MAC Media Poll that was released earlier this morning.

Toledo is picked for a disappointing 4th place finish in the MAC's West Division, with Central Michigan picked to win the West and the eventual MAC Championship Game over UT's arch-rival Bowling Green.

Of course Toledo is coming off of two straight 5-7 seasons and the Rockets only went 3-5 in the MAC last season. However, injuries played a huge part in the two straight losing seasons.

Part of the blame for the increase in injuries the last couple of seasons was put on the old NeXturf surface that was in place at the Glass Bowl. Players said the surface was very hard and unforgiving. So the University is in the process of removing the NeXturf and installing Field Turf.

Another sign that the old surface could have been causing more injuries than normal was found when the workers contracted to remove the old NeXturf surface revealed several areas of the concrete below that were in need of repair. Those repairs are taking place now, and the Field Turf surface will be installed soon.

Toledo was a very respectable 3-1 in games where QB Aaron Opelt started and played the entire game without getting injured. His health will be huge for the Rockets in 2008. If he stays healthy, Toledo is much better than 4th place in the MAC West and they will contend for the division title with Ball State and Central Michigan. Oh yeah, and both Ball State and Central Michigan come to the Glass Bowl this fall.

Other things happened at the MAC's Media Day that were less visible though. The MAC and Big Ten have announced that they will join forces in the replay booth this fall. Essentially the head of the Big Ten replay officials will take over for the MAC's replay officials as well, creating a uniformed team for both MAC and Big Ten games.

The general concensus is that this is a good thing and it will make officiating more consistent across the two conferences. Of course the MAC and Big Ten already have a scheduling agreement with each other for so many non-conference games to be played each year, and they also each send a participant to the Motor City Bowl.

There will no longer be a sideline warning when players and/or coaches step outside of the designated area. A first offense will result in a penalty right away of the five yard nature. A 2nd offense will again be a five yard penalty, and a third offense will be a 15 yard penalty.

The MAC still has three secured bowl bids in the Motor City Bowl, GMAC Bowl, and International Bowl. A MAC team could fill a spot in another bowl game if they are bowl eligible and the conference with the tie-in does not have an eligible team to send to the game. One such bowl is the newly added Congressional Bowl in Washington, DC.

With the number of bowl games this season, pretty much every team that gets bowl eligible will have a chance to play somewhere anyway.

The final piece to Media Day was that each school's football coach and two players were at the event to do interviews with the media. Joining Rocket head coach Tom Amstutz were junior safety Barry Church and senior wide receiver Nick Moore.

Barry Church commented on Toledo having a defense with more speed and aggressiveness this fall. He even says that the defensive line will be a strength of the defense this year with players returning from injury and some fresh faces that have a lot of speed.

After no pass rush last season, those are welcomed strengths.

So the MAC's Media Day is over, and the Rocket players report for camp next Tuesday. The first day of practice will be Wednesday, and then UT's Media Day will be next Friday.

It might be summer and hot outside, but football is in the air.