High school exchange program: meet kids from a distant land and learn to better appreciate another culture. MAC exchange program: meet teams from a distant division and beat the RPI out of each other. We've already gained some understanding about the Mid-American Conference's East-West divide with
Miami's win at NIU last night, and we have another inter-cultural clash on tap this evening.But as those exchange programs taught us, we really all do have so much in common. Kent (East) and Toledo (West) have followed similar paths this season: they've beaten the teams they've supposed to beat, lost to their power conference opponents, and have evenly-matched squeakers that have gone either way. Neither has any real "stars" or defining characteristics (both are solidly in the top half of D1 in just about every statistical category), and both play tough, hard-nosed, gutty ball that produces close and exciting games upon collision. And look, they both like wearing blue and gold shirts and pants! See? We're not so different after all.