Apologies to the late Bob Talbert...I just stole your famed tagline from your days at The Freep and made it my own. Lots from the Mid-American Conference last week and this week.
HURONS, HURONS, HATS OFF TO YOU: Eastern Michigan University won their third-consecutive Men's Mid-American Conference Cross Country championship this weekend, which is their 13th MAC title overall. The EMU Track and Cross Country program is a nationally-known titan and is one of the least-known pride points in our state. EMU's track and CC success is noteworthy because it's being done in the shadows of the two bigger schools in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
Where Rivalries Are Born: This week is Michigan-Michigan State week in football, one of my favorite weekends. It isn't a big deal nationally, but who cares? It's our game, and everyone picks a side. It's also Western-Central week. Last week was Eastern-Western, won by EMU on their Huron Homecoming Day, 19-2. Often it's as much about what happens off the field as on that stokes a rivalry.
In the case of U-M & MSU, it was Michigan's fight to keep MSU out of the Big Ten over 50 years ago that opened a wound that will never close in East Lansing and led to a great friendship between Michigan State and Notre Dame, instrumental in MSU being admitted to the Big Ten. When Michigan and Ohio State tied for the Big Ten in the 1974 and a vote of Big Ten AD's picked the Rose Bowl representative from the conference, it came as no surprise that Michigan State's vote went to OSU. A healthy bit of payback that Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler never forgot.
In the case of CMU & EMU, it was Central's vote to kick EMU out of the MAC in 1984 that was the ultimate act of unforgiveness to many in Ypsilanti. Eastern and Western's rivalry goes back to the days of Charles McKinney at Eastern and Emerson Waldo at Western. The two state bookend MAC schools have bitterly opposed one another's academic and athletic administrations for over 70 years.
In the case of Western and Central, I honestly think it's an issue of regionality. Because EMU is so central to Detroit and nestled next to Ann Arbor, their following is muffled. Western and Central is a mid-state/west-state rivalry that has burned on for years without being shadowed by a big city or major university next to it. Because of that, aside from U-M v. MSU, it's the state's best collegiate football rivalry.
Below those games one must consider Grand Valley State University's annaul game with Saginaw Valley State University in the GLIAC, as well as most of the games in the annually-contested Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
INTERESTING POINT FROM THE TUMBLER: Detroit News prep writer Tom Markowski called this past week's slate of high school playoff games in Michigan the best opening weekend to the playoffs ever. Wow. He made some strong points, and I agree with him for one reason. The playoffs are fair to every school that fields a team. If you win six games, you qualify, and that's fair. No one is excluded despite having a fine season that a computer system deems not good enough. More good, deserving teams means more games worth watching.
Comments