On the one hand, the Ohio University football team had — according to various metrics and rating methods — it’s best season to this point under 14th-year head coach Frank Solich in 2018.
But on the other, the Bobcats season ended just like every other since 1968 — without a Mid-American Conference championship.
Those competing view points — looking at the minutiae of statistical models versus trying to win a conference title, small things against one big thing — played out inversely for Ohio (9-4, 6-2 MAC) in 2018. The Bobcats were great when it came to the big picture, but failures in just a handful of spots — a tiny sample size — robbed Ohio of even a chance to compete for the MAC title in Detroit.