This weekend, while not very profitable record-wise for the Mid-American Conference, was extremely profitable financially and also helped the MAC gain even more recognition. In terms of football, it has been some time since our conference has competed with so many high-status teams, as well as a number ranked in the Top 25.Lets start with Akron, who isn’t looking like much of a contender at this point. Neither is their Week 1 nemesis, Penn State. However, the Nittany Lions are a very high profile team with a legendary coach in Joe Paterno.Another game played on Saturday was the Miami Redhawks in “The Big House” to face the Michigan Wolverines, ranked No. 7 in the nation at the time. Also, the arch-rival Toledo Rockets travelled to Minneapolis for a showdown with the 25th ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers in the biggest blow out that the MAC has seen so far, but there’s a long way to go.And finally, there of course were our Falcons playing the highest ranked opponent in school history, the 2nd ranked Oklahoma Sooners. Many predicted a blow out. The Vegas line had us as 32 1/2 point underdogs. The final score: 40-24. This is the first time that we have opened up the season with a loss, but the unanimous opinion on Saturday’s game is a moral victory as the score was much closer than predicted. I’d have to say that we had the best effort of all the MAC schools this weekend.This week’s games obviously don’t have last week’s fanfare in terms of national attention, but it’s a good opportunity for MAC schools that either moral victories or just plain got crushed to get their first win of the 2004 campaign. Many schools in the conference, including Bowling Green, will be playing Division 1-AA schools. On the other hand, this last weekend of games will be remembered one way or another for quite a while.