James Krause: Gimmicks take eyes off of play

The college football world is already flooded with annoying gimmicks to award good play, this includes the newly announced MAC Jolly Roger flag to be flown after victories.

Players are soon going to resemble pro wrestling characters from the nineties more than they do football players. Pro wrestling is great and all, but it can be a distraction from the game for both players and fans. The nation was captured by the Miami Hurricanes’ blinged out turnover chain, but did fans actually hear about the players on the field?

Mid-American Conference teams are no exception to the world of prop use in football.

When the Western Michigan Broncos were a ranked team in 2016, then head coach and former NIU wide receiver PJ Fleck popularized the “Row the Boat” mantra. In response one game, the Akron Zips, preparing to play the Broncos, came onto the field and smashed an oar.

So teams using silly props is one thing. The MAC as a whole getting in on the act as they announced at their Media Day Tuesday is as bad as it gets.

MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher spoke at MAC Media Day on Tuesday in Detroit about how the players and coaches of the MAC are “pirates of the CFB and FBS.”

These gimmicks are manufactured attempts by teams and player to just look cool and have a tradition for the sake of having one. It is a distraction from on-field play.

An NCAA report on last year’s attendance shows the MAC had the lowest average attendance among the 10 conferences in the FBS. Lindy’s Sports Annuals ranked the MAC as the worst conference in the FBS in terms of football this season in their 2018 National Preview issue. Of the bottom 30 teams in the country in the same 2018 National Preview issue, six of them are MAC teams.

But all people are buzzing about is this cool flag they have. How cool can a flag be if nobody is watching it wave?

Michael Urbanec: Sports are fun, flags are fun

At the Mid-American Conference Media Day July 24, MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher announced members of the athletic conference will be given a Jolly Roger flag to fly when they win an non-conference game.

Steinbrecher said the MAC Jolly Roger was a graphic he would email to programs after big wins, emblematic of the conference’s outlaw reputation in college football.

“For a number of years I have said that the Mid-American Conference are the pirates of the CFB and FBS,” Steinbrecher told reporters. “Our stadiums are not always the largest or the shiniest, but we are manned by highly motivated crews.”

MAC football is unlike any other seen in college; it’s often traditional and gritty, a throwback to the game’s old days. What MAC schools lack in five star recruits and blue blood hall of fame coaches, they make up for in intensity and entertainment value.

“Players and coaches carry a chip on their shoulders and demonstrate an anytime, anywhere attitude, and if respect is not freely given, we will take it,” Steinbrecher said. “I have provided the MAC Jolly Roger to each school to fly after each of their victories, and I hope to create a fun tradition of students and boosters who participate in this tradition.”

Football gets taken way too seriously sometimes, and in this instance, it is important for detractors to realize that it is still a game.

Games are meant to be fun and watching a MAC school like NIU wave the Jolly Roger after an upset on the road vs. Utah or Florida State would be both amazing and comical.