Nick’s Picks took it on the chin this weekend much like Mike Tyson punching Alan (Zach Galifianakis) in the face during a scene from the 2009 film 'The Hangover'. It wasn’t pretty and I am still seeing stars. My record now drops to 55-19 (74%) after going 2-4 this weekend.

Congrats to Kent State for their first win of the year and to Western Michigan which is quickly turning it around after a putrid 2013 season.


RECAP:

Nick’s Pick: Akron 23 – Ohio 16
Actual Score: Ohio 23 – Akron 20
Comment: Bobcats cash in on late fumble to beat the Zips making the MAC East one very muddy race.

Nick’s Pick: BGSU 37 – Western 31
Actual Score: Western 26 – BGSU 14
Comment: Impressive defensive effort by the Broncos

Nick’s Pick: UMass 34 – Eastern 22
Actual Score: UMass 36 – Eastern 14
Comment: As predicted

Nick’s Pick: Army 28 - Kent State 10
Actual Score: Kent State 39 – Army 17
Comment: Outstanding effort by the Golden Flashes this weekend

Nick’s Pick: Central 35 – Ball State 23
Actual Score: Ball State 32 – Central 29
Comment: Cardinals did not blow their lead like they did last week to Western

Nick’s Pick: NIU 26 – Miami 24
Actual Score: NIU 51 – Miami 41
Comment: Much more scoring than expected


Latest MAC Power Poll:

The upper tier
• No one is even close…
The mid-tier
• Toledo
• NIU
The lower-tier
• Western
• BGSU
• Central
• Akron
• Ohio
• Ball State
The bottom tier
• UMass
• Buffalo
• Miami
• Eastern
• Kent State

How can you be so up on NIU?
They got pounded by the only half decent MAC team that they have played and struggled against 2 bad teams and all were with the home field advantage!

Toledo has the inside track. That OLINE will be too much for everyone else.They will pop UMass and Kent then travel to DeKalb, then clean the table with BG and EMU.

The WMU win may have been for the title.

(10-20-2014 04:45 PM)westernwilly Wrote:  How can you be so up on NIU?

Reputation and some good OOC wins. But we can't coast forever.....

(10-20-2014 04:45 PM)westernwilly Wrote:  How can you be so up on NIU?
They got pounded by the only half decent MAC team that they have played and struggled against 2 bad teams and all were with the home field advantage!

Best record in the MAC.

Only MAC team to go 3-1 OOC.

Win over B1G.

Control own destiny to Detroit.

That's not too shabby.

That said, anyone can beat us.

(10-20-2014 08:47 PM)niubrad00 Wrote:  

(10-20-2014 04:45 PM)westernwilly Wrote:  How can you be so up on NIU?
They got pounded by the only half decent MAC team that they have played and struggled against 2 bad teams and all were with the home field advantage!

Best record in the MAC.

Only MAC team to go 3-1 OOC.

Win over B1G.

Control own destiny to Detroit.

That's not too shabby.

That said, anyone can beat us.

All of the 3 way tie crap basically blew up this weekend. Toledo and NIU have the inside track to the MACC in the west. But... based on play, Toledo looks more likely to get past NIU... WMU would need to win out with two Toledo losses to get to the MACC.

(10-20-2014 10:21 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  WMU needs to win out and a Toledo loss anywhere along the road for them to win the West.

I don't believe so. In this scenario, both UT and WMU would finish 7-1, with UT holding the head to head tie breaker.

(10-20-2014 10:24 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  

(10-20-2014 10:21 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  WMU needs to win out and a Toledo loss anywhere along the road for them to win the West.

I don't believe so. In this scenario, both UT and WMU would finish 7-1, with UT holding the head to head tie breaker.

Only way CMU goes to Detroit is if Toledo loses twice, which is a possibility because Toledo still has to play NIU and BG, but Toledo definitely has the inside track.

Toledo and NIU are the only 2 in the west that control their own destiny: win out and you go to Detroit. If NIU beats Toledo, it'll essentially be the same scenario as 2011. Identical conference records, but NIU holds the tiebreaker.

WMU's best shot is to hope for 2 Toledo losses as well, but they have a shot if there's a 3-way tie, if NIU beats Toledo and then WMU beats NIU in the last game of the regular season.

My Huskies have 2 or 3 more losses in them. UT gets it this year.

I'm hoping we can get to the Toledo game with all the marbles riding on that one again. That would be as much as I could ask at this point. And it's looking less likely now. And we'd have to be playing better defense to have a shot against the Non-rivals this year anyway.

Dont be surprised to see the a 3 way tie for MAC west champ with 2 conf losses.

Scenario:
Toledo loses to both NIU and BG
NIU loses to WMU
WMU loses to CMU or Ohio.

a 4-way tie is very unlikely but possible:
Toledo loses to both NIU and BG
NIU loses to WMU
WMU loses to CMU.
CMU wins out.

Don't be surprised??? I'd be very surprised if Toledo lost two games from here on out. IF it looks like that, the 3 way tie would go to Toledo because BG and Umass would trump the other teams cross-over schedules... Still! This last week all-but put an end to the 3 way tie stuff. If that garbage happened it would mean the MAC is pretty much a tie with 6 teams at the top, and I don't believe that.

NIU is in a tough spot with WMU to end the year, and BSU 6 days before Toledo.
I would be way less shocked about NIU dropping to BSU, than a 3 way tie! They have a solid running attack, and a fair defense.

(10-20-2014 04:45 PM)westernwilly Wrote:  How can you be so up on NIU?
They got pounded by the only half decent MAC team that they have played and struggled against 2 bad teams and all were with the home field advantage!

Because they're 5-2?

They didn't really struggle with Miami, either. Miami scored a garbage time TD to make it look closer than it was.

I don't care what anyone says, UMass is going to give UT all they can handle on Saturday.

(10-21-2014 12:06 PM)george14 Wrote:  I don't care what anyone says, UMass is going to give UT all they can handle on Saturday.

It'll probably be similar to the NIU-Miami game. They'll put some points up, but I doubt they can slow down the UT running game.

Toledo has one of the worst passing D's in the nation so yeah Fro will go to work. But maybe the bye will help gameplanning for their bagillion sets. Id take 65- 41:)