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The Unlucky 13 of the Mid-American Conference: An Audiobook Review



Kicking out UMass may sound like an easy solution but it is not possible. There are MAC schools that I feel are holding the conference back and when I mean schools I mean Eastern Michigan. Dumping these schools to the curb is not an option. College conferences are not like fantasy football leagues where the guys who fail to update their roster have to play somewhere else next fall. The MAC made their bed and has to lie in it.


The MAC took a gamble hoping to make some money off of New England TV revenue instead of sticking to its Great Lakes roots. At least UMass is a better fit than say Central Florida. It is not like the Golden Knights were ever in this conference or anything. That would be insane if they were.




The Unlucky 13 of the Mid-American Conference




Face it folks the MAC is not going to rake in big TV revenues. Conference expansion can do little to help. The only way teams want to join the MAC is as a stepping stone to a bigger conference like Temple did. This is one of the few times where status quo may be the answer.


Upon being notified of the cancellation in a Wednesday morning conference call with MAC commissioner John Steinbrecher, Miami Director of Athletics David Sayler said he immediately began looking for a replacement game.


Instead of playing in the Mid-American Conference ("MAC"), the mid-major conference most Miami varsity sports play in, the RedHawks competed against the larger schools of the CCHA such as the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans, who normally compete in the Big Ten.


After winning the conference in 2020, the Cardinals failed to live up to high expectations in 2021 with 20 returning starters. They finished with a losing overall record and somehow became one of the worst statistical teams in the MAC.


Kent State has had the toughest schedule to date of any MAC team by a wide margin after playing one of the toughest nonconference slates in the country. As a result, some of its raw metrics may be a bit deflated.


The defense actually showed flashes of potential early in the season against superior nonconference opponents but has failed to maintain any long high-quality stretches. Overall, it has still graded out as a bottom-10 defense in the country.


Unlucky floor numbers are usually meant for some cultures that recognizes some numbers meant for bad things, such as death, in Chinese. Elevators in some region usually omit unlucky numbers and replace with another number (except the building owners don't care about this like Public Housing Estate blocks built by Hong Kong Housing Authority).


In the Chinese culture, 14 is considered more unlucky than the individual 4, since 14 sounds like "will certainly die (實死)" in both Putunghua and Cantonese. Some buildings in Asia simply numbering it as "15" or "12B" or even "13A".


Number 13 is regarded as an unlucky number in many cultures. Unreasoned fear of the number 13 is termed triskaidekaphobia. Due to this fear, some tall buildings have resorted to skipping the "thirteenth floor", either by numbering it "14" (though it's really still the thirteenth floor) or by designating the floor as "12A", or 12B and 14A or something similar.


Most people who believe the day is unlucky offer no explanation. Like all other phobias, people fear Friday the 13th for its own sake, according to Dossey, author of \"Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun: Mythical Origins, Scientific Treatments and Superstitious 'Cures' \" and \"Keying: The Power of Positive Feelings: Overcoming Fears, Phobias and Stress.\"


The origins of the fear stem from several different stories combining the idea that 13 is an unlucky number and Friday an unlucky day. One of the origins is believed to come from Christianity. There were 13 people at the Last Supper and Christ was crucified on a Friday. Also, Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest at the Last Supper. In ancient Rome, witches reportedly gathered in groups of 12. The 13th was believed to be the devil.


Our notations for the lucky and unlucky time points ti of each SW are gi and si. The notations for their unit vectors ri of Eq (6) are gi and si, respectively. The critical level Qz measures the probability for the concentration of allnG and nS directions of gi and si of each SW. These directions are embedded within the directions of allgi (Table 4: NG = 177) and si (Table 4: NS = 105). We first choose the direction ΘR of R for some SW. Then we identify the n1 directions of gi or si of this SW that are among the n2 of all NG or NS directions closest to ΘR. For each SW, this gives the binomial distribution probability


Over the last 22 seasons, eight Western Conference champions have touched the Clarence S. Campbell Cup. Out of those eight teams, five of them went on to win the Stanley Cup. Detroit won thrice, Dallas won once, and Colorado won as well after touching the trophy. Calgary, Vegas, and Dallas all lost the Stanley Cup after touching the conference championship.


On the flip side, 14 of the last 22 Western Conference champions refused to touch the conference championship. Of those 14, eight went on to hoist Lord Stanley. Anaheim, Detroit and St. Louis all won once, while Chicago won three times and Los Angeles won twice. The six teams that lost the Stanley Cup after not touching the conference championship were Anaheim, Edmonton, Detroit, Vancouver, San Jose, and Nashville.


Both the Eastern Conference champions and Western Conference champions have hoisted their respective trophies five times in the past 22 seasons. In 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2018, both conference champions took hold of their conference championship trophies, disregarding any superstition that may be.


The most frequent of the four scenarios, neither Stanley Cup Final team touched their conference championship eight times in the last 22 seasons. This happened in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and just last year in 2019.


Iowa opened the season beating five ranked opponents in six weeks, and ascended to the #1 ranking. They would lose to #3 Minnesota, then blowing out #3 Ohio State and Notre Dame to end the season. Iowa's loss was Missouri's gain as the Tigers took the #1 ranking into their final regular season game with Kansas. The Jayhawks blasted Mizzou, 23-7, but the Big Eight ruled Kansas halfback Bert Coan ineligible due to a recruiting violation when Coan was at TCU. Kansas forfeited the game and Missouri's loss was erased by the Big Eight conference. The NCAA counted the game as a Kansas victory and thus knocked Missouri from the #1 ranking. Minnesota, despite losing to Purdue and beating only two ranked teams, would end up winning the AP national championship by a few votes over Mississippi and Iowa. The Gophers received 17 1/2 first place votes to the Rebels' 16 and Hawkeyes' 12 1/2. Missouri, despite its loss being reversed and finishing undefeated, finished 5th in the final poll and received zero first place votes. In those days, the final polls happened prior to bowl games so Minnesota was named champion before losing the Rose Bowl to Washington. Missouri beat Navy in the Orange Bowl.


In the current College Football Playoff era, it seems next to impossible for a team outside the power conferences to win a national championship. In 1984, it was possible, as a BYU team that won a WAC in which every other team lost at least 4 games would capture college football's biggest prize. BYU played just one ranked team -- #3 Pittsburgh in the opener -- however, that team would finish the season a disappointing 3-7-1. None of the other top ranked teams would bother to play BYU in the lesser Holiday Bowl, so the Cougars faced 6-5 Michigan instead. BYU would win, and as the land's only unbeaten team would finish #1 in both polls.Being #1 was unlucky that season. #1 Auburn lost to Miami in the Kickoff Classic. A week later, newly minted #1 Miami would lose to Michigan. Three weeks later, #1 Nebraska lost to Syracuse. #1 Texas tied Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout on a controversial miss call. Washington and Nebraska (again) had their turns at #1 but would lose as well. BYU, despite its easy schedule, would win its first national championship.Oh, and there was that Doug Flutie Hail Mary, too. 2ff7e9595c


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