Overall I'm thrilled how the MAC as a conference played in week 1.
MAC goes 6-6 with Toledo having a bye week.
MAC vs FCS 3-0
MAC vs Non-BCS 2-1
MAC vs BCS 1-5

Here are my rankings after week 1
1. Bowling Green State- A top 25 win on road coming back from 14 down. BGSU defense shut down Pitt and their stud RB. Pitt has lost to three different MAC teams this decade.

2. Ball State- they did what many expected and more they rolled a cupcake

3. Central Michigan-They also rolled a cupcake and perhaps less style points than BSU.

4. Buffalo- They thumped a CUSA school and that was cool.

5. Temple- Solid performance in dominating Army. No question about it they are in top 5 of MAC.

6. Toledo- they didn't play but they are placed here in my opinion

7. Eastern Michigan- Before we get too excited Indiana State is among the worst FCS programs. That being said EMU kicked the crap out of them and moved quickly out of the bottom

8. Northern Illinois- might be the most improved team in country. They played very well tonite and was one tackle from beating a BCS team on the road. Minnesota coach got lucky and we would have been laughing our at him had they botched that 4th down play in side the 5 down 3. 99% of coaches kick the 3 and go to ot. Instead Minnesota with nothing to lose goes for the win and got it. Shows the fear Minnesota has against the MAC. Three tough games over last two years.

9. Western Michigan- there stock dropped big time is week. Not even close at Nebraska. They are mediocre still like last years version

10. Kent State- They hung around Boston College with a decent defense but no offense. They are one dimensional and that doesn't work in an improved MAC this year. Boston College isn't that great like the rest of the ACC. Kent State like Miami missed a chance to score an upset.

11. Ohio- They lost by one point in a game they led until 8 minute mark of 4th quarter. Not bad performance considering the location, but Ohio gave this game away and too many mistakes to be ranked above the other teams that flat out played better.

12. Akron-Good effort, but they gave up of ton a rushing yards. They caught Wisconsin on an off day in the first half.

13. Miami- Not to much to say here they looked like crap. Until they get the offense going they are gonna be toward the bottom. Most of MAC looked better

I'll agree.... Although it's only week one and we all know things change when MAC play begins. I hate to say it but I'm a fan of Buffalo in the East this year. I think Buffalo's extra MAC East game will push them over BG.
All and All... Great week for the MAC and let's keep things rolling into next week. I'm thinking the conference can go 7-6 next week (beating... Cuse, Minn, Pitt, Iowa St, UConn, Navy, and WMich/NIU)

Overall pretty good. Just one comment:

Quote:3. Central Michigan-They also rolled a cupcake and perhaps less style points than BSU.

We beat the 18th-ranked FCS team. I'm pretty sure Northeastern is not ranked or even in the top 50 in the FCS.

CMichFan Wrote:Overall pretty good. Just one comment:

Quote:3. Central Michigan-They also rolled a cupcake and perhaps less style points than BSU.

We beat the 18th-ranked FCS team. I'm pretty sure Northeastern is not ranked or even in the top 50 in the FCS.

LSU showed the true gap between the FCS and the BCS yesterday.

OUBOBCATJOHN Wrote:Here are my rankings after week 1
1. Bowling Green State-
2. Ball State-
3. Central Michigan-
4. Buffalo-
5. Temple-
6. Toledo-
7. Eastern Michigan-
8. Northern Illinois-
9. Western Michigan-
10. Kent State-
11. Ohio-
12. Akron-
13. Miami-

It was a nice start for the conference and I think it shows that the MAC is ready to pull some more upsets this season. Here is how I would rank the teams currently.
1) BG-no doubt, the biggest win of week 1
2) Buffalo-dominates UTEP on both sides on the ball
3) Temple-clearly better than Army-a team that has played close to many MAC school recently
4) Ball State-might be better than teams ahead but their convincing win was against a I-AA(I don't care about the new terms)
5) CMU-Fifth with a win against a nationally ranked I-AA team. I think this is more reflective of how the rest of the conference started.
6) EMU-Nice win for EMU, beats a team they are supposed to beat.
7) Toledo-can't be ranked ahead of the undefeated, can't be ranked below the winless.
8)Ohio-it was a road loss to a solid Wyoming program. They made mistakes and still had a chance.
9) NIU-A win would have been great, but it still did show that the Huskies are coming back to their normal position within the conference.
10) Akron-a 21 point loss to the 12 ranked team-some positives on offense, not many on defense.
11) Kent-a 21 point loss to a strong ACC team-some positives on defense, not many on offense.
12) WMU-a 24 point loss to a questionable big 12 team. Is Nebraska back? I can't believe that is will take them long to return to the top 25.
13) Miami-slow start with a 21 point loss at home to a bad SEC team. Grant it the SEC is the best conference in football. Miami was not able to get the job done.

It is only week one and the polls are as worthless as my opinion, but what the heck.... I don't know that Toledo should be included since we didn't play, but we shouldn't be put above teams that actually won. I'd bump Buffalo to two because beating a fbs team should count for more than beating fcs team. Temple needs to move up to three. Army looked bad, but the Owls pounded them and did it on the road, and I wouldn't argue if someone put them at two. I'd then go BSU, CMU, and EMU. Minny didn't look bad and niether did NIU - I'd put the Huskies next. WMU and Akron lost to good teams on the road and OU kept it close and almost avenged last year's loss. There's not much separation between the three right now. That leaves Kent and Miami. They had a chance to beat bcs teams at home and blew it. They get nothing. Good day, sir.

Other than perhaps BG, who played a tougher opponent this weekend than WMU?

With expectations high, the fans GEEKED out of their minds for the first game in the Bo era, a deafening stadium environment, Nebraska was a tougher challenge than even ridiculously ranked or (over-rated) Pitt. Not trying to take anything away from BG on a great win but let's be real - Wannstadt sucks as a coach and his team proved it. Anybody want to argue tradition and the passion of fans from Pitt and Nebraska? The stadium environment? Even if you don't buy my argument and believe Pitt is better, what is proved by beating up on an FCS team?

I was in Lincoln and witnessed one of the most intimidating environments in college football - and this Nebraska team is not last year's team. They will be much better in time - Bo can't fix everything before the first game. The Broncos came out tight and had a case of nerves and had no film on Bo's schemes to work with. The result was a bad start. With Cubit's scheme, Hiller managed to shred their pass defense for 342 yards, much of it in the second half by running multiple receiver sets, since we couldn't run the ball. Simmons was nursing an injury, Cubit revealed after the game. He was surprised that Simmons even played at all. WMU prevented NU from mounting a running game so their QB did the damage, as our D Line wasn't able to get enough pressure on him and our DBs said they did a lousy job covering.

Nebraska has the athletes, the environment and a new attitude. What Nate Davis did to them last year, every team they played managed to do - they gave up loads of yardage through the air and Bo and his bro are determined to fix it. It is no small feat for WMU to have outgained them in the second half and believe me, the stadium was just as loud when NU was up 44-24 and WMU was driving - they were nervous after what happened game after game last year.

The great athletes in a program like NU aren't found in great numbers in the MAC. A few are, but not that many on one team. Just like media polls, any kind of ranking only begins to mean anything after several weeks, especially once conference play gets under way. Otherwise, it's just guesses based on scores. You know, the BCS mentality all over again. You know the old cliche - teams make the greatest improvement between weeks one and two.

I won't pretend to try and rank anything but to me, the most impressive teams this weekend were BG, Buffalo and Temple with an honorable mention to NIU. But that's just me and it means nothing. Should Buffalo beat Pitt and I think it is possible, it may tell us more about Pitt than Buffalo, who I believe is a legitimate contender this year. The MAC race, like all of college football is a marathon, not a sprint and we've just run the first 1K.

Ranking teams after one game may be fun but it is all guesswork.

MileHighBronco Wrote:Other than perhaps BG, who played a tougher opponent this weekend than WMU?

Umm... Akron did. By far.

Oops. I missed that one and I'll grant your point. Don't know how I missed that one. But go easy on the "by far" comments. The Big Ten doesn't like to play decent BCS opponents and often doesn't fare all that well when they do.

MileHighBronco Wrote:Oops. I missed that one and I'll grant your point. Don't know how I missed that one. But go easy on the "by far" comments. The Big Ten doesn't like to play decent BCS opponents and often doesn't fare all that well when they do.

I'll take back the "by far" comment... for now. It's only been one week, and it's hard to judge where any teams stands compared to anyone but the team they already played.

Lots of teams getting good tests against beatable teams next week. We'll see how everybody does after that. I'm hoping for at least 5 non-conference wins.

@Nebraska was the toughest game on the MAC schedule last week. The over analysis of week 1 is almost as tough to get through as the never ending preseason predicitions.

Liam9903 Wrote:@Nebraska was the toughest game on the MAC schedule last week. The over analysis of week 1 is almost as tough to get through as the never ending preseason predicitions.

How is @ Nebraska tougher than @ Wisconsin? You make a blanket statement with no justification. Is Nebraska tougher than Wisconsin because you say so? Every poll I have seen has Wisconsin ahead of Nebraska. I know it is week 1 and we will have a clearer picture as to strength of opponents in several weeks, but I don't get your statement right now.

Liam9903 Wrote:@Nebraska was the toughest game on the MAC schedule last week. The over analysis of week 1 is almost as tough to get through as the never ending preseason predicitions.

So, @ Nebraska is tougher than a top 15 team in Wisky @ Wisky? While Nebraska might be one of the NCAA Holy Grails to visit, the game is still played on the field and Wisconsin is kind of good (no matter that the Big Ten is overrated).

I've seen the USA Today Poll, the Sags ratings, the AP Poll, and the ESPN Power Rankings. The only poll I've seen that lists Nebraska higher is the Liam9903 Poll.

zipsfan Wrote:....7) Toledo-can't be ranked ahead of the undefeated, can't be ranked below the winless...

Thanks!


(I think)

Liam9903 Wrote:@Nebraska was the toughest game on the MAC schedule last week. The over analysis of week 1 is almost as tough to get through as the never ending preseason predicitions.

Its great to grade w/out seeing the game. WMU lost by 3 TDS. WMU literally mishandled 3 WIDE OPEN TDS. One early where WMU's QB mishandled a lateral for which he was to throw to a wr that had 10 yards on the closest db. That play would've changed the course of the game. Later on another flea flicker our wr dropped one in the endzone. Later we underthrew another (ledbetter) on a 4th and 1 that would've gone to the house. We failed to convert inside of the 30 3X. We moved the ball pretty consistently. This game could've had a much differant ending than the one the score indicated. After the 1st quarter, including the mishandled should've been td the game was even.

If one could show the little cat the stats he'd note the game stats are pretty close even w/out the near misses. Nebraska played first team hard all game.

nice thread everyone, overall I thought the MAC did well this week

too bad we just missed out on Ohio and NIU winning; 8-4 would have been nice[/i]

Nick in Cleveland Wrote:nice thread everyone, overall I thought the MAC did well this week

too bad we just missed out on Ohio and NIU winning; 8-4 would have been nice[/i]

Agree.

Ws and Ls don't tell the whole story.

On balance no really bad games by any MAC team. I didn't see a 56 - 14 loss.

There wasn't a team which looked like it didn't belong in the I-A ranks.