Another tough weekend for the MAC. The league went 1-8 out of conference against 1-A teams, although Northern Illinois’ big win over Purdue provided something worth celebrating. In looking for a silver lining, most of the losses were to teams that were rightly favored by a lot, and the two losses to C-USA teams were both on the road. More good news is that there are few paycheck beatdowns left, as many of the teams now turn to their conference schedules. The question, as always for these clubs, is which teams can shake off a loss to a top ten or twenty team, and which teams let it get into their heads.
What we learned this week
Miami is no longer afraid of the endzone! It took 157 minutes, give or take, but after Miami got their first points in a TD against Western Michigan, 3 more came in quick succession. They mostly qualify as garbage time points, but it gets that monkey off their back before the season gets any older.
NIU is the class of the MAC of the year of the week. In other words, these early non-conference games are giving us little to no idea who’s really any good. Toledo looked amazing a week ago, then got bulldozed by an angry Ohio State team. Which one was the fluke? Same for teams like Eastern Michigan and Ohio. They show signs of being pretty good, but until everyone at least plays a conference game or two, it’s really hard to judge any of it. Back to NIU though, they have been pretty consistent in 2 Big 10 games and one with a 1-AA squad.
Ball State is bad, but not as bad as Temple or Miami. Their score differential is less than half of what the other two are carrying, and it’s reasonable to think they could win a handful of games after all is said and done.
MAC Power Ratings
Like I alluded to above and in other Power Ratings segments, it’s really hard to compare teams at this point. How does a loss to Michigan compare to a win over Cal Poly? Who knows. But it’s fun to make the guesses anyway, right?
- Northern Illinois
- Central Michigan
- Ohio
- Western Michigan
- Toledo
- Bowling Green
- Buffalo
- Akron
- Eastern Michigan
- Kent State
- Ball State
- Miami
- Temple