Ball St
Kent St
Buffalo
Toledo
Western Michigan
Miami
Ohio
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Northern Illinois
Bowling Green St
Akron

This ranking isn't meant to be a 'where will they finish' but a power ranking based on where we are now. Example: Buffalo finished #25 last year, so I'm not going to punish them & bring them down like I'm seeing many rankings/predictions, just bump them down a few pegs.

seems accurate to me

Buffalo is going to have to prove it. They lost a very good head coach and he took a bunch of players with him to Kansas.

UB lost Nunn, Patterson, Oline, Coach and staff... The easiest under in America! No way do i have them near the top.

TIER 1: Tie
BSU
WMU
UT

TIER 2: Tie
KENT
MIAMI
CMU
OU
EMU
UB

TIER 3: Tie
NIU
AKRON
BG

Work the season to manuever up and down.

Kent is my sleeper pick to win the MAC; very talented and explosive offense with solid coaching. UB is reeling, OU no longer has Solich, and Miami is always a wild card with Chuck Martin at helm.

Ball State should be good as well, but it's so difficult to repeat in the modern MAC that it'll be hard to do so when they've got a target on their back for a full schedule.

Not sure what UB is going to be?, but I'm encouraged after what the new coaching staff has brought to the table. The players seem to have bought in and there are several "plug n play" guys that were recruited to replace some of the defections. They won't be as good as last year, (not after losing Jaret Patterson and some O-linemen) but the drop off won't be as severe as I thought it might be.

(09-02-2021 09:41 AM)Love and Honor Wrote:  Kent is my sleeper pick to win the MAC; very talented and explosive offense with solid coaching. UB is reeling, OU no longer has Solich, and Miami is always a wild card with Chuck Martin at helm.

Ball State should be good as well, but it's so difficult to repeat in the modern MAC that it'll be hard to do so when they've got a target on their back for a full schedule.

It will be a fun west race. I don't think that BSU will get out of K-zoo with a win but I expect the Cardinals to have a really good year. They won all of the close ones last year and they won't win all of them this year. (Some called it luck but it happened 7 times).

(09-02-2021 02:41 PM)Frozenbaugh Wrote:  

(09-02-2021 09:41 AM)Love and Honor Wrote:  Kent is my sleeper pick to win the MAC; very talented and explosive offense with solid coaching. UB is reeling, OU no longer has Solich, and Miami is always a wild card with Chuck Martin at helm.

Ball State should be good as well, but it's so difficult to repeat in the modern MAC that it'll be hard to do so when they've got a target on their back for a full schedule.

It will be a fun west race. I don't think that BSU will get out of K-zoo with a win but I expect the Cardinals to have a really good year. They won all of the close ones last year and they won't win all of them this year. (Some called it luck but it happened 7 times).

Western will probably lose a couple at least. Even if you lose to us, you can do it so long as someone like Toledo doesn't run the table in conference

On paper Toledo is the best team in the MAC. They win the recruiting wars almost every year. Unfortunately coaching does matter. Toledo play calling is often suspect. Toledo is great at getting penalized at crucial times. If Toledo plays Notre Dame tough it will send a message to the rest of the conference. Toledo is undefeated against Michigan, Arkansas and Penn State. It will likely stay this way since they have no interest in playing the Rockets again. It is unlikely Notre Dame will be really excited to play Toledo so there could be another surprise coming. The Rocket QB has been around big games since his father is a former NFL head coach. This will be his chance to show he has NFL potential.

(09-02-2021 09:41 AM)Love and Honor Wrote:  Kent is my sleeper pick to win the MAC; very talented and explosive offense with solid coaching. UB is reeling, OU no longer has Solich, and Miami is always a wild card with Chuck Martin at helm.

Ball State should be good as well, but it's so difficult to repeat in the modern MAC that it'll be hard to do so when they've got a target on their back for a full schedule.

Agree on both fronts. I think Kent is the team to beat in the East (say what?!?) and Ball State the team to beat in the West. I could see any of BSU, Toledo, or WMU winning the West since its hard to win the West.

NIU (2011 & 2012), CMU (2006 & 2007), and Marshall (1997-2000) have been the only MAC teams to win back-to-back MAC titles since the start of the first MAC Championship game in 1997.

Ball St really looks bad.

Ball State struggling to pull away from Western Illinois. Pass defense is getting shredded.

I have no clue who or where Wagner is but Buffalo is destroying them.

Bowling Green giving Tennessee a game so far but they need to find their run game if they want to have a chance to win.

Looks like we’re turning back into a pumpkin

Ball State did look bad. Only positive I took from it is they were good enough to be bad and still win.

Coach was already talking how it was good to be punched in the mouth by an ok WIU team. Woof. Hoping some of it was a vanilla playbook before Penn State next week.

Western Illinois often gives NIU fits as well.

(09-02-2021 08:28 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  Bowling Green giving Tennessee a game so far but they need to find their run game if they want to have a chance to win.

Before Thursday night, I would have picked Bowling Green dead last in the MAC and perhaps the country. Our performance in Tennessee, while far short of where we want to be as a program, was somewhat encouraging. Two-thirds of our roster graduated high school in 2020 or 2021.

Bowling Green's home opener against South Alabama could be interesting.

Huskies go into 2nd qtr up 7-0. Let's keep the foot on the pedal Huskies!

Riding Waylee hard. Boy is a workhorse!

Huskies up 14-0!

Huskies recover a fumble. Let's score here and put them on the ropes!

NIU had a fumble scoop and score to go up 21-0 but ACC refs trying to keep the game from getting out of hand and call GT RB down before the fumble.