(09-17-2016 09:29 PM)lance99 Wrote:  

(09-17-2016 07:33 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(09-17-2016 07:28 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  Wow! Great job Akron! Was not expecting a win. Everyone was looking at Bowling Green, but is Akron the team to beat in the East????

Akron has get past Ohio who they've lost to 8 years in a row.

Ohio defense that punished Tennessee from the SEC who i currently on 9 game winning streak all day long.

Ohio has lost 2 games by a combined 9 points this season. They look the part of an 8 or 9 win team by the time the season is done.

^This

This might be the MAC EAST Game of the year. Who would have thought that Akron@Ohio at the end of the Season could be the EAST game of the year.....

FIFY

Based on what I've seen:

I: WMU, CMU, Toledo
II: Ohio, Ball State
III: Akron
IV: Everyone else.

The Akron win is good but Marshall wasn't supposed to be that good this season and Marshall played terrible that game. Akron got killed 54-10 by Wisconsin a school that struggled against Georgia State who Ball State beat.

Akron also has crossover with WMU, Toledo and Ball State in the chase for an East title. That isn't an easy draw nor is Ohio on the road.

(09-17-2016 11:18 PM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Based on what I've seen:

I: WMU, CMU, Toledo
II: Ohio, Ball State
III: Akron
IV: Everyone else.

The Akron win is good but Marshall wasn't supposed to be that good this season and Marshall played terrible that game. Akron got killed 54-10 by Wisconsin a school that struggled against Georgia State who Ball State beat.

Akron also has crossover with WMU, Toledo and Ball State in the chase for an East title. That isn't an easy draw nor is Ohio on the road.

The top tier is unquestioned, but not having Akron in that second tier is a joke.

You can say that Marshall wasn't supposed to be "that good," but they were preseason No. 50 by Myerberg; No. 57 by the Orlando Sentinel; and came into this game No. 50 by CBSSports. And it's not like Akron snuck out a home win. They dominated Marshall in Huntington.

If anything, Akron should be in the second tier and Ohio in that third tier. After all, you are hanging your hat on a 16 point win against a Kansas team that may be as bad as any of the lower tier G5 teams. They are an Iowa State (another pathetic team) loss away from finishing 1-11 with the sole win being against FCS Rhode Island. So, maybe two wins ... and a ton of blowout losses.

Plus, that home loss to Texas State isn't exactly looking any better as Texas State was blasted 42-3 by Arkansas today.

You played Tennessee close, congrats (seriously). But Appalachian State took that same Tennessee team to OT, and probably should have beat them. Akron plays Appalachian State this week, so I guess we'll get a better picture.

Congrats Zips, know you guys love to hate the Thundering Herd. Must have felt very, very good kicking their a$$es

Happy to see the Zips take down the mighty Herd. Convincingly. Congrats.

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.

Computer polls out this week have Akron slightly ahead of Ohio and BG.

Tennessee is #8 in the country.

MAC
32. Toledo
37. WMU
43. CMU
80. Akron
83. BGSU
88. Ohio
91. NIU
92. Ball St
113. EMU
117. Buffalo
120. Kent St
124. Miami

CUSA
40. WKU
67. Southern Miss
70. Marshall
76. LaTech
77. Middle Tennessee
110. Florida Atlantic
112. Old Dominion
114. Rice
115. UTEP
116. UTSA
126. North Texas
127. Charlotte
128. Florida International

http://www.masseyratings.com/cf/compare.htm

CUSA has 8 of 13 teams ranked below 110 this season.

The MAC has 4 of 12 teams ranked below 110. UMass is ranked 118 but was dropped from the conference this year helping things.

I'd say the numbers do support the second tier of the MAC is Ohio, Akron, BGSU, NIU and Ball State all bunched tightly in the 80's and 90's.

CUSA has two tiers: Decent and Hot Garbage.

MACtion looks to be even more entertaining this year!

We're not setting any records by a long shot, but ahead of 3 MAC teams at #114. But ya, CUSA has issues as we are ahead of 6 of their teams and just behind two others.

Call me crazy. Honestly.

Marshall got 560 yards of offense, but lost by 27 -- LOL. How do you do that?

Well, they have a killer offense. But they gave up *180 yards on Penalties* + a lot of turnovers. [Akron tried but failed to meet that amt with an Astonishing 130 penalty yds]

That said, Marshall can score like my ex-girlfriend from college behind my back and everyone else's. They're dangerous.

If they don't have much penalties, nor any turnovers -- they'll score like a girl on the rebound at the bar after too many.

Here's why that's dangerous VS Louisville: Louisville is going to score A LOT. But Marshall's in position to allow it to flow like butter anyway. What threatens Louisville is someone who does that, and in a bad game give up 65pts to a MAC East team -- yet still get MORE offensive yards, and close to 600 of them.

I hate Marshall more than my ex-gf sending me weird videos that I cannot speak of (did I mention a gal that I dated once before?) -- but point is, losing by 25? I could see Marshall making a game of it, if they shore things up.

That's my prediction of "Week 4 Surprise" (point-spread wise).

well the great debate of who is the 4th best team in the 2016 MAC will get more interesting Saturday.
While Ohio gets a chance to even their record and prove they can put away an FCS school
Akron hosts one of the better sun belt teams
Ball St goes on the road against an average CUSA team
EMU hosts an average to weak MW team (yes, believe it, Eastern could be the 4th best team in the MAC if the stars keep aligning and Todd Porter keeps improving)

Meanwhile, BG and Miami get a final shot at some no-conf redemption in road games w good AAC programs. Kent tried to channel enough defensive heroics to keep their beating in Alabama respectable. And NIU tries to just get a win.

The big dogs 1) rest-Toledo 2) host an undefeated sun belt favorite-WMU vs Ga. Southern 3) try to notch the MAC's 5th P5 non-conf victory at Virginia-CMU

A good week 4 for the league means
1) WMU and CMU staying unbeaten with quality wins
2) An upset of an AAC school by a struggling MAC team
3) Taking 2 of 3 "crossover" games w the trio of Wyoming, FAU, Appalachian St
4) Stepping up like a Golden Flash to a Monmouth Mighty Hawk and clipping FCS wings 2 times
5) The refs not asking to shorten the quarters to 12 minutes in Alabama

If most of those things happen the MAC competitiveness will continue to impress.

(09-17-2016 06:51 PM)Gallia Cat Wrote:  

(09-17-2016 06:17 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  Marshall vs MAC since joining CUSA:


Neutral (2-0):
W vs Ohio, 21-17 ('09)
W vs NIU, 42-23 ('14)

Home (3-2):
W vs Ohio, 24-23 ('10)
L vs Ohio, 27-24 ('12)
W vs Miami, 52-14 ('13)
W vs Ohio, 44-14 ('14)
L vs Akron, 65-38 ('16)

Away (3-4):
L vs BGSU, 44-28 ('10)
L vs Ohio, 44-7 ('11)
L vs Ohio, 34-31 ('13)
W vs Miami, 42-27 ('14)
W vs Akron, 48-17 ('14)
L vs Ohio, 21-10 ('15)
W vs Kent St, 36-29 ('15)

Overall: 8-6


Upcoming MAC matchups:
2017- Miami, Kent St
2018- @Miami
2019- Ohio
2020- @Ohio

HerdNation is melting down. One thread had someone wanting Pruett back because of his awesome record against the MAC. What they forget is HE WAS CHEATING LIKE CRAZY AND GOT THEM SLAPPED WITH PROBATION! Bring him back and get busted cheating for the 3rd time and have the NCAA pull an SMU and smack them with the death penalty.

Let me say it again Marshall fans, Pruett ran a dirty program and you cheated like crazy! Once Marshall got caught oh how things changed.

How did we cheat? Show me the NCAA report that said we had a decided advantage on the field. You can't. Get over it. That was almost 20 years ago.

Great game Zips. You took us to the woodshed and deserved to win. We are young and slow, and you exploited that greatly. Good luck the rest of the season.

http://wvrecord.com/stories/510594654-th...-on-pruett

Quote:The NCAA busted Marshall in 2001 for a series of rule violations, including academic fraud and a scheme where players were paid up to four times the prevailing wage for jobs with a firm owned by mega wealthy and ultra-personable Marshall booster Marshall Reynolds.

The school was put on NCAA probation for four years and lost five scholarships a year for three years. The school also was required to have no association with Reynolds for five years. (The very instant the five years was up, the school welcomed its big time benefactor back with open arms.)

Pruett, who abruptly stepped down in the spring of 2005, remained virtually unscathed personally.

Ex-Marshall official David Ridpath, whose job it was to make sure that Herd athletic programs complied with NCAA regs, contends he was made the scapegoat.

Scapegoat or not, Marshall itself bent the rules. No, it doesn't mean they were a 6-6 team that made it to a 0/1 L team early on due to it. But it does taint things and swallows up Some bragging rights, is all.

Quote:HerdNation is melting down.

I don't think so so much. I think they came back down to earth, and will have their good years here and there... but no, won't be Pennington/Moss really ever again, really. I think it's CUSA melted down, and that's going to affect teams staying in.

When Marshall was jumping ship to CUSA (a good decision at the time, assuming CUSA would stay the way it was, but instead it became a better version of SunBelt for future investment) -- they weren't as good as their glory days, and ended up leveling off -- and not because of better competition for the first several years. Old-school Marshall would have done more than just fine at that point.

They're not an Elite team but with some years of consistency, like any G5 team that's had it's share of winning seasons, could be.