Four.

That’s the number of quarters in a dollar, the number of “i”s in Mississippi, and when all is said and done, that could be the number of Mid-American Conference championships that Ohio athletics pulls in this fall.

To put things in perspective, Ohio has not won even two MAC titles in a single fall season since the women’s cross country and field hockey teams did so in 1987.

Coincidentally, those two teams have already wrapped up MAC titles in 2006, and two more could follow, with a rejuvenated football team aiming for the MAC championship game and the volleyball team — unbeaten by a MAC team yet this season — gearing up for its own conference tournament.

If both teams are successful in winning their conference championships, I think it would be a safe bet to say that this is the most successful single quarter Ohio athletics has ever seen. For a school that continues to be confused with that national title contender just up the road in Columbus, this could be a huge step in creating a (positive) identity within the collegiate sporting world.

Where to attribute the sudden success of these teams is uncertain, but if I had to guess, it would be the new wave of coaches that has come into Athens.

Cross country coach Clay Calkins, whose first season was in 2003, worked as an assistant to Elmore Banton for a year before taking over the reins of the program. Banton coached the Bobcats to one men’s MAC title and eight women’s MAC titles.

Second-year field hockey coach Neil Macmillan, this year’s MAC Coach of the Year, came from perennial powerhouse Wake Forest and has wasted no time returning the Bobcats to the top of the MAC.

Volleyball coach Geoff Carlston came from Division II Concordia, where he turned a team that went 0-18 in its conference the year before his arrival to a team that went 13-5 in its conference ­— all in just three years. Carlston has lost one MAC match in almost four seasons since coming to Athens.

The legend of football coach Frank Solich is growing. He coached the Bobcats to a shocking win over Pittsburgh in his first home game as Ohio coach. This year, he has the Bobcats one win away from their first-ever MAC East Division title. With seven wins, this team could be well on its way to reaching its first bowl game since 1968.

I don’t normally wear a hat, but if I did, I’d give a tip of it to the coaches and players that have made this one of the most memorable seasons that this university has seen in quite some time. Even if neither the football team nor the volleyball team brings home a MAC title, the competitiveness has not been seen around here for a while.

It’s funny that the mascot took on a new, ferocious look this year after the old one always looked depressed — probably from seeing all those games from years past. If this trend continues, someone might want to look into changing the mascot again because Rufus won’t have too much to be angry about.