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We took a look at the biggest MAC game of the week that goes tonight, so we roll on into the rest of the league’s games, all of which are on Saturday.
12:00 PM- Gardner Webb at Akron: The Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs were 6-5 last season and beat Brevard College last week 28-14. Meanwhile the Zips managed only 3 points in a loss to Syracuse. No line, but this game is on upset watch.
2:00 PM- Eastern Michigan at Miami: Two schools that played much better than expected in week 1 losses face off for the second MAC league game of the weekend. Florida’s offense may have created a lot of their own problems, but Miami gave them fits nonetheless, and EMU’s 27 points against Army ties their best weekends from last year. Line: Miami by 15.5. That’s a ton of points, considering Miami hasn’t won a game by 16 or more points since 2007. I agree that they have the edge here, but maybe by a touchdown. Miami 27, EMU 20.
3:30 PM, ESPNU- Kent State at Boston College: Read Post
The Weekly Wrapups will look back at the games of the weekend, such as it is, and present my conference power rankings. They get shorter when conference play starts.
The MAC went 6-7 against 13 out of conference teams this weekend, a much better start than they had in 2008. Broken down, the league was 6-0 against FCS teams, 0-1 v. Pac-10, SEC, Sun Belt, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, and independent Army. So it wasn’t great, since nobody in the MAC beat a FBS team. That will change Thursday, no matter what. Let’s look at the games.
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Weekend previews will appear in this space on Thursdays and Fridays, to look at the games happening on Saturday and some Sundays. Of course, weeknight games will get special attention, with posts of their own.
Last year, the Mid American Conference had an abysmal opening week. This one should be better, with a ton of FCS games and even some upset potential in the bigger games. We hit the Ball State, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Kent State and Northern Illinois games from tonight in our earlier posts, and we’ll give Toledo & Temple a once-over tomorrow. For now, let’s see what the weekend holds for the rest of the MAC. All games are Saturday, all times Eastern, all rankings USA Today, and lines are from Vegas.com and subject to change before kickoff.
*When Army & Navy play a non-BCS team, we’ll just lump them in with their opponents. When they play against the BCS, I’ll probably include them with the Sun Belt, since they have only 9 teams and are generally in the East.
12:00 PM, ESPN- Miami at #3 Florida: Obviously, this is not a game that many people have the RedHawks penciled in to win. Keeping it close to halftime will be an accomplishment, but after that it’s tough to compete against the depth of an elite program, especially in the 2 PM Florida heat. Line: Gators by 36.5. That’s a lot of points for a team that’s going to probably lead early and get some young players on the field. I’d take Miami plus more than five touchdowns.
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The team previews are done, so we’re zooming out a level to look at each conference as a whole, and we’re doing it fast- football is very nearly upon us.
The Mid-American Conference had what might have been a bit of a breakout year in 2009. Both division races went down to the last two weeks, with the East not being decided until the MAC’s now-traditional Thanksgiving Friday season finales. But the football was exciting and competitive all through the season, the league showed up for two of the best bowl games of the year, and Central Michigan ended the year 23 & 24 in the polls.
For 2010, we have two clear favorites and a few question marks right behind them about who will emerge- and someone always does- to push the favorites right to the end of the season. In the West, Northern Illinois is loaded and ready to chase down their first conference championship since 1983. In the East, the resurgent Temple team looks to avenge their final-Friday loss to Ohio and take their place in the title game.
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Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order.
The Akron Zips come off a difficult 2009 season into another rebuilding year. The Zips only won two 1-AA games, although the first came against rival Kent State in the Battle for the Wagon Wheel (this sent Kent State into a tailspin- they were in contention for the division championship; they lost their last three games and did not play in the postseason). Despite the win, it was announced the same week that head coach JD Brookhart and his staff would be dismissed.
New coach Rob Ianello gets six offensive players back and eight returning defensive starters to begin his career. QB Patick Nicely started eight games last season, and senior RB Alex Allen will look to take over what was a platoon at tailback last year. However, most of the division is bringing back just as many or more starters, so the additional experience may be less of a boost than in other leagues.
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The MAC had an eventful weekend, although it actually all ended by Friday. We knew Central Michigan was on to the conference final, but Ohio has joined them by ending Temple’s impressive win streak at 9 and taking the East division. The rest of the league did wrap up play last week as well, with one team earning their all-important 7th win, and another it’s 12th loss.
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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:
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