Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson
Well, the coaches called it.
Both Brady Hoke and Butch Jones said the team that made the fewest mistakes would win Wednesday's tilt between No. 17 Ball State and Central Michigan, and CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour's interception at the end of the game proved to be the game-winner.
Kudos to Sean Baker for making a great grab in the secondary.
But what a game by both teams.
I'll admit that I was getting frustrated by the lack of quality tackling and the poor coverage in the secondary by both teams, but it was still a hard-fought contest that held up to its billing.
Beyond the interception, Ball State won because of balance. Last year, the Cardinals didn't have a running game. This year, MiQuale Lewis kept the Central Michigan defense on its heels and gave the Cardinals much needed versatility.
LeFevour, despite the pick, had an amazing game. Up until the end, he was smart and safe with the ball and kept drives moving with his feet. That last drive though, he was rushing, getting blitzed, and didn't set his feet on either the dropped interception or the one that Baker nabbed.
Both he and Ball State's Nate Davis have great vision and great arm strength.
There's no denying that both teams played well enough to win. Ball State just made some plays that Central Michigan didn't.
So what does this mean for the MAC and the BCS?
Well, in the MAC, Ball State now controls its own destiny. If it beats Western Michigan, which is going to be another tough opponent, the Cardinals claim the MAC West title. If Ball State loses, then there's a three-way tie between Ball State, Central Michigan and Western Michigan (if all three finish with one conference loss, obviously).
If that happens, I believe the two teams would stay tied through the conference's first two tie-breakers and it would come down to this:
3. Comparison of conference winning percentage of cross-over opponents of tied teams;
a. Tie-breaker is awarded to the team whose cross-division opponents had the best cumulative conference winning percentage;
b. Head-to-head competition is used to break the tie between the two tied teams.
As for the BCS, well, this certainly makes things interesting. The Cardinals will definitely make a jump in the polls and with a couple ranked teams playing each other this week, they could sneak into the top 12 with the right movement ahead of them. That's optimistic, though. What I bet happens is that Ball State ends up somewhere around No. 14 or 13.
Watson joined ESPN.com in 2008 after four seasons covering the Missouri Tigers and the Big 12 Conference for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She also covered college football recruiting for the Dallas Morning News.
