In literature and film, it is a common theme: the pauper who somehow finds himself in the company of royalty. Inevitably, the pauper’s trip to surreal heights is ended by circumstances beyond his control.
The Bowling Green football team, after taking a quick glance at the amount of your tuition, can quickly be dismissed as paupers. However, they spent the first two months of this season living the good life in the company of colleges twice their size, surreal for anybody who has watched this team in the past decade.
They took up residence in the top 25, getting as high as 16 several weeks ago. They hobnobbed with the likes of Florida and Texas, got face time on ESPN and in USA Today and — dare I say — were mentioned in the same sentence with “BCS.” Coach Urban Meyer was mentioned as a candidate to fill the impending head coaching vacancy at Michigan State, a high compliment to BG, in a backhanded sort of way.
Then came a murky Saturday afternoon in DeKalb, Illinois two weeks ago when BG’s top 25 mask was ripped off and we once again saw the Falcons at face value. The one team that posed a serious threat to BG’s coronation as the MAC West Division champions was Northern Illinois. Unlike the overtime victory over Western Michigan earlier this year, a spirited second-half comeback could not rescue BG from a stagnant first half. The Huskies held on and won 26-17. BG fell out of the Associated Press poll, and dropped to 25 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
In one afternoon, all the adulation and attention was washed away. Once again, BG was worthy of regional attention, but not national.
All the air seemed to go out of the Falcons, so much so that their 29-7 dusting at the hands of South Florida last week might have been predictable. It is natural, probably, that there should be a letdown, but any hope to keep the BG ride going that wasn’t squashed by the loss to the Huskies was thoroughly destroyed in Tampa.
The Falcons are once again what they have been all along: a MAC team. A very talented, usually very motivated MAC team, but a MAC team nonetheless. The national ranking was an illusion. BG was the beneficiary, and ultimately the victim, of a nationwide bandwagon syndrome. Jump on until the ride stops or gets boring. In BG’s case, at least they burned up before they burned out.
Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan, possibly Meyer’s last home game at BG, is just another nondescript college football game between two run-of-the-mill mid-major teams.
BG is the consummate Ohio team when it comes to athletic competition. Fate smiles on them once in a while, but it only smiles so much and for so long. Usually, it is never long enough to hoist a championship banner.
When the student body returns from Thanksgiving break, football season will, in all likelihood, be over for the Falcons. Most bowl games would need a lot of arm-twisting to let a two-loss MAC team not named Marshall into their stadium.
It isn’t all for naught, though. If any school can appreciate what the football team did this year, it is BG. The Falcons used what they had to give this school something to cheer about, something to be proud of.
The ride is over, at least for this year. The bright lights no longer shine on our little corner of the world, but what a ride it was.
