Like C-USA, the MAC has a mix of conference and non-conference games this week. I’ll mention some of the other games, but since nobody here is contending on the national scene, we’ll mostly look at the conference games to keep an eye on tomorrow:
Buffalo at Temple, 12 PM: Two teams clinging to the fact that the real season starts tomorrow. Buffalo started the year with a nice win over UTEP before dropping games to Pitt (badly) and UCF. Temple started with a loss to 1-AA Villanova, followed by a 6 point effort in their loss to Penn State. Temple fans had expected to see their team climb from the league basement, but a game against the defending conference champions won’t make for an easy start.
Akron at Central Michigan, 3:30 PM: Central Michigan became a conference favorite when they beat Michigan State, while Akron has a 1-AA win and two losses to Big 10 teams. Neither team has played another mid-major squad, so this game should help fill in the gaps in our understanding of either team. Central Michigan should handle the Zips here, but we don’t know exactly what Akron has yet.
Miami at Kent State, 7 PM: We have established that Miami is very bad, although their offense explosion in garbage time against Western Michigan has to give them at least a little hope. But we’ve neglected to mention much about Kent State, who also looks very bad up to this point. You may remember that they only led Coastal Carolina by 2 at the half in week 1, before losing without a fight to Boston College and Iowa State. Losing this game will be a major step towards finishing last in the MAC East.
Elsewhere in the conference, Bowling Green hosts Boise State, the Idaho Vandals bring some momentum to Northern Illinois, Ball State goes down to Auburn, and Toledo will play a fairly important measuring stick game down at Florida International.