Visit any site of a Big Ten school which has played an M.A.C. team before the big shots play the small fries and the constant adjective is "beware."

And on the websites of schools like Bowling Green, Toledo, Miami of Ohio and others, the Davids warm up their slingshots for their annual chance to slay a Goliath.

Well, Thursday night in the cultural time tunnel that is Muncie Indiana, Boston College, which joined Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech in bolting the Big East for the big Bowl Coalition Series dollars of the Atlantic Coast Conference, found out the M.A.C. bytes are as bad as the barks.

Before a record Ball State Stadium crowd of 23,718, the Eagles needed a 96-yard kickoff return by Will Blackmon to survive a major scare and steal out of the sticks with a 19-11 victory.

"Hey," reasoned B.C. coach Tom O'Brien to the South Bend Tribune, "Maryland lost to Northern Illinois a year ago. That's the (M.A.C.). That is what this conference prides itself on."

Maybe the Eagles didn't learn all the lessons of a 53-29 track meet win over the Cardinals in Chestnut Hill last year.

Despite registering five sacks of sophomore quarterback Joey Lynch, who was starting his first game, the Eagles did not force a turnover and Ball State's tough defense kept it painfully close with three field goals and a safety when punter Johnny Ayers tried to get rid of the ball as Cardinals' blockers rushed him. Luckily for B.C., the ball fluttered out of the end zone.

Ball State, which has been a floormat for the past few years, was picked sixth in the M.A.C. this year, jumped the Eagles early but Boston College's stout pass rush kept Lynch out of the comfort zone, forcing him to throw on the dead run repeatedly.

Still, the 19-11 escape against a team picked third or fourth in its last Big East season had to be a little bit of a moral victory.

Ask that question of Ball State coach Brady Hoke while you're backpedaling.

"There are no moral victories," Hoke told the South Bend Tribune. "We just gotta fight harder, fight longer and fight tougher."

For yet another nationally heralded program playing against a feisty M.A.C. rival, it was quite hard enough, thank you.