Since the MAC played a lot of CUSA and MWC teams this week what I've been doing is looking at preseason polls for those conferences with many voting members to get an accurate idea of how strong these schools were supposed to be.
C-USA MEDIA MEMBERS PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
EAST DIVISION
1. Middle Tennessee (L BGSU 41-21)
2. WKU (L Miami 31-24)
3. Marshall (W Akron 65-38)
4. Florida Atlantic
5. FIU
6. Old Dominion
7. Charlotte (W EMU 37-19)
WEST DIVISION
1. Southern Miss
2. Louisiana Tech
3. Rice
4. UTEP
5. UTSA
6. North Texas
http://conferenceusa.com/news/2016/7/21/...65630.aspx
Boise State, San Diego State Again Picked to Win Mountain West
1. Boise State (27)
2. Air Force (2)
3. Utah State
4. Colorado State
5. New Mexico
6. Wyoming
1. San Diego State (29) (L NIU 42-28)
2. Nevada (L Buffalo 38-14)
3. San Jose State
4. Fresno State (W Toledo 52-17)
5. UNLV (W CMU 44-21)
6. Hawaii
http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/seaso...media.html
CUSA is not supposed to be as strong as the MAC. EMU dominated Charlotte and Miami hung tough with WKU two of the worst teams in the MAC. Then Akron takes advantage of horrible play by Marshall to hang 65 on them.
I would definitely question BG dropping a 41-21 game to MTSU where they hung around in the first half only to see MTSU pull away. Almost had a second half collapse last week vs. UND who as an FCS program wasn't physical enough to put it away.
NIU has played SDSU MWC favorites and USF the projected #2 behind Houston in the AAC so pretty tough teams. They did go to OT against Wyoming. With the QB situation there it may be tough to make a bowl.
Akron vs. Marshall was the MAC East #2 vs. CUSA East #3. Marshall had no business being favored heavily in this game. I'm just not sure there is enough data points on this team to say they are better than Ohio.
Take a look at EMU, they are 2-1 with an FCS drubbing and an 18 point win over a CUSA East team yet when they played Missouri they lost by 40 points like Akron lost to Wisconsin by 40. Are Akron and EMU really that good or is CUSA East that bad?
Ohio's big data point is vs. Tennessee only down 2 going into the 4th quarter against an SEC team on a 9 game win streak. In game 1 Tennessee and Ohio struggled with SBC teams but it was game 1 where sometimes teams are working out the kinks.
In game 2 Tennessee and Ohio blow the doors off P5 schools. In game 3 they play each other tight with Tennessee at home and only 1 turnover prevailing. For Ohio to play a school of this caliber that well and this tight is stronger than routing a Marshall team.
If you don't think Tennessee is legit, Virginia Tech this week blanked BC 49-0. VT is probably a legit Top 40 team what then does it make Ohio? Definitely more indicators than Akron that it could be a good college football team.