Briggs: Notes from the road after a very unfortunate weekend for the MAC

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Thinking out loud on the way home from the Bluegrass State …

■ Welp, the Mid-American Conference’s turn in the spotlight was fun while it lasted.

A week after the Toledo football team followed Northern Illinois’ upset of Notre Dame with a big win at Mississippi State, both schools detoured back to earth Saturday.

And, to boot, Bowling Green — which might be the league favorite after giving another ranked team hell — just lost its second game.

The result was a reminder that any playoff conversations are strictly for entertainment purposes, not predictions or — as a few Toledo fans made sure to inform me — kisses of death.

The reality: I picked Toledo and BG to both go 8-4 this season.

It’s fun for fans to dream about their school crashing the playoff, which beginning this year has a spot saved for the top-ranked Group of Five team.

And it’s natural to be heartbroken when a historic opportunity feels as close as it actually is far away (it’s Week 4!), only for the moment to go unseized.

Like on Saturday.

If Toledo, BG, and Northern Illinois made just one more play — or got just one more bounce — all three of them would be at the forefront of the playoff conversation, and the MAC would have remained the pride of the mid-major land.

Instead, they all lost, Toledo at Western Kentucky, Northern Illinois to Buffalo, and BG at No. 25 Texas A&M, and so did the league.

MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher came to Bowling Green — the one in Kentucky that has produced every Chevrolet Corvette built since 1981 — to see the conference’s speeding playoff hopes swerve off the road first-hand (and court Western Kentucky?).

Big picture, it was a very bad day* (*at least for Toledo and NIU).

But a few deep breaths are in order, as is a little perspective.

It’s OK to have towering aspirations while remaining tethered to the reality of college football and able to appreciate the journey.

In a sport in which so much conspires against consistent success — in the near term (injuries, human nature, the rub of the green) and long (free agency, for starters) — no one meets the message-board standard every week.

That’s not an excuse. It’s just, well, look around. There were just four Group of Five schools that entered Saturday with a win over a power-conference opponent and a still-perfect record, and three of them lost: Toledo, Northern Illinois, and Memphis, which fell to a Navy team coming off four straight losing seasons.

There are now two such teams, with James Madison joining UNLV after a cool 70-50 win over North Carolina. The game before, JMU beat FCS Gardner-Webb … 13-6.

Go figure.

The week-to-week whims are as thrilling as they are exasperating.

In the case of Toledo (3-1), I have criticized its roller-coaster seasons in the past. This season, like last year, I don’t sense the same cracks in the foundation. I did not see a team Saturday that looked unprepared. I saw a team down three starters from an already all-new offensive line that had a bad stretch against a good team in a strange game.

As for Bowling Green, is it possible a team that’s 1-2 has looked like the class of the MAC? I’d say so, the Falcons’ close calls at No. 8 Penn State (34-27) and Texas A&M (26-20) validating their arrival as a real league contender.

If the loss in College Station was “gut-wrenching” — as receiver Trey Johnson said — it’s because sixth-year coach Scot Loeffler has a team that can take on just about anyone.

So does Northern Illinois, and maybe Toledo, too.

What happened Saturday?

Football happened, and, fortunately, there’s plenty more of it to come.

■ If I had to answer to every prediction I got wrong, we’d be here a while. But it’s come to my attention that I wrote Michigan was “going down — and hard — against USC.”

So I’ll take my crow medium rare, thank you.

No idea if Michigan can win another big game passing for just 32 yards (Sherrone Moore is going to have to pray and just let Alex Orji sling it). But the Wolverines strapping on their leather helmets, barreling for 290 rushing yards, and bullying to a big win was impressive all the same.

Credit where due. Looked like an electric scene in Ann Arbor.

■ A final note: I may have a new favorite Arthur Hills course named after a rock in BG.

With respect to Stone Ridge in Bowling Green, Ohio — a gem in its own right — Kyle Rowland and I had the privilege to play Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky., on Friday afternoon.

The 18-year-old course is a championship-worthy masterpiece — the ACC is holding its men’s golf tournament there in May — and another reminder of the late, great Hills’ enduring legacy.

And, yes, I can attest: It is hard. If the number-one handicap opening handshake did not get the message through, the ball-eating rough grown higher than your HOA allows hammered it home. (Kyle shot a 79. My score is available upon request!)