CMU/Indiana: Purdue Part Deux?

(Edited 11:30 p.m. Thursday)

If you are a CMU fan, you more than likely remember the last time the football team played a Big Ten squad.

The Chippewas were on the brink of victory at Purdue, a team that scored a combined 96 points in its two 2007 wins against them. Quarterback Curtis Painter, a man who torched the CMU secondary in 2007, faced a downhill pass rush he never saw out of the maroon and gold before.

And with just 1:18 remaining on the clock at Ross-Ade Stadium, Central had the lead, 25-24.

But yet again, the first Big Ten win in 16 years and the first-ever Bowl Championship Series win eluded Central. The Boilermakers scored on one offensive play. And the Chippewas went home as 32-25 losers teased out of glory.

Another chance, however, comes at noon Saturday. The team returns to Indiana to face a Big Ten team. This time, it's the Hoosiers of Bloomington, Ind. - a team that dropped five of its last six games.

Nobody in the CMU football program is going to say it. Yeah, it is a non-conference game. It has no say on who will represent the Mid-American Conference West Division in the MAC Championship game, the team's main goal.

But if this team wants national respect, it simply has to win Saturday. No ifs, ands or buts. This is it.

Why?

1. Indiana is 3-5 overall, including 1-4 in the Big Ten. One win came against the FCS' Murray State. Another came from Western Kentucky, a former FCS team converting to FBS. The Hoosiers, despite their talent, are a mediocre BCS team, whether or not it starts fleet-footed quarterback Kellen Lewis. Yet they're still 2.5-point favorites to win Saturday, which goes to show how much respect CMU has from the Vegas betters right now.

2. A MAC team already walked out of Bloomington with a win. That would be No. 16 ranked Ball State, which routed Indiana 42-20 on Sept. 20 for its first-ever BCS win. We know the game of football is more complex than comparing common opponents. But a CMU loss here would look foolish in comparison to BSU, and would kill the little national respect it has right now.

3. That Sept. 20 loss at Purdue is looking worse and worse. The Boilermakers hosted CMU one week after they nearly toppled then-No. 16 ranked Oregon in overtime. We thought they were a good team. Not anymore. Purdue, now 2-6 overall, has not won a single game since escaping CMU, or even come close for that matter. It is a Big Ten-worst 0-4 - worse than Indiana. Central needs people to forget that loss. Winning Saturday will help that.

4. CMU needs to keep its win streak going. Because after Indiana, the team plays its two biggest games of the year - Nov. 12 at NIU (5-3, 4-1 MAC) and Nov. 19 vs. Ball State (8-0, 4-0 MAC). A loss in either game and chances are that three-peat bid will pack its bags and kiss CMU goodbye. A milestone win is a good way to go into these games, barring any letdowns.

5. If the Chippewas win out, they're ranked. You heard it here first, unless BSU enters Mount Pleasant with a loss. In this scenario, CMU would beat its first Big Ten team and first ranked opponent in the program's Division I history. And assuming the Big Ten sends a team to the Motor City Bowl (chances are, it will send either Iowa or Illinois), if CMU wins that, it will go 12-2, 9-0 in the MAC and finish somewhere between No. 23 and 25 on the AP Top 25 and/or the coaches' poll. You heard it here first.

That would do wonders for the MAC, a conference stuck in the basement of the FBS.

And coach Butch Jones, who set the goal of an AP Top 25 ranking right from the get-go of his head coaching career, would complete his legacy in just two seasons.

But, of course, it comes down to Saturday first.

Indiana. A Big Ten team.

Can CMU finally do it? We will see.