By Kate Roth

The Mid-American Conference has just announced their agreement to be the back for the Quick Lane Bowl being played in Detroit. This agreement says that the MAC will be the backup to the Big Ten Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference if they cannot provide a team. For now this is a 6 year deal ranging from 2014 to 2019.

This may not seem like a huge deal to anyone right now, but in the long run could be very big for the MAC.

The B1G Conference has struggled over the past couple years to supply bowl eligible teams to all of the bowl games they have contracts with. If this continues the MAC will have a chance to send one of the conference’s best teams to the Quick Lane Bowl to represent the conference against an ACC team which happens to be one of the top conference’s in college football.

Not only will this be good for the MAC because they will be able to send one more team to a bowl game, but it will help them start to get some of the national media recognition they deserve.

All of the staff working for the MAC and the teams within the conference are working just as hard as all of those in the SEC or ACC. The players in the MAC are putting in the same amount of time and work as the rest of the players around the nation, but receive almost no media attention compared to the other conferences.

By gaining this partnership with the Quick Lane Bowl the MAC has a chance to step up and show the nation what MACtion is all about.

The MAC also has a partnership with 5 other bowl games for the 2014 season with guaranteed spots and 3 with back up spots. Of the bowls that the MAC has agreements with, the Quick Lane Bowl would be one of, if not the biggest. This being based upon the opponent and location of the bowl game.

Since the 5 bowls that the MAC has guaranteed spots with will be played in Alabama, Florida, Idaho, and the Bahamas, the Quick Lane Bowl (played in Detroit) would be the best option for fans from the MAC to travel to. This will help produce larger crowds for these teams to play in front of giving them the chance to feel a much different atmosphere than they are used to.

This bowl will also attract a lot more media attention because of the opponent the team from the MAC would be facing. The media likes to revolve around teams from the power 5 conference, which the ACC and B1G are a part of. Since the MAC would be playing against a team from one of these conferences compared to a WAC or Mountain West team as usual the game would receive more attention in turn giving more attention to the MAC team.

I think the MAC made a great move by gaining a partnership with this bowl, even though it is not a guaranteed spot, there is still a great chance that they could get the opportunity to send one of their teams to this bowl and make a name for the conference. I think it’s time that the rest of the nation got in on some of the MACtion and a spot in the Quick Lane Bowl could be a great way to do so.