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End the season at NIU then at Toledo. MAC opener is against CMU.

we have a sucky mid week schedule too. Half the games are not on a saturday.

Sep.
4 Michigan State
12 at Georgia Southern
19 Murray State
26 at Ohio State
Oct.
10 *Central Michigan
17 *at Ohio
24 *Miami
29 *at Eastern Michigan
Nov.
5 *Ball State
11 *Bowling Green
18 *at NIU
27 *at Toledo

good christ that schedule sucks.

@ EMU - Thursday
BSU - Thursday
BGSU - Wednesday
@ NIU - Wednesday
@ Toledo - Black Friday

Thank god only two are home games.

Luckily we're only

The thing that I don't like about the schedule is the MINIMUM number of home day games we will have is 2. I don't know about you guys, but I feel there is something special about a 2:00pm afternoon game in the fall if the weather is nice. The leaves on the hill are turning and sunshine can fill the stadium (think about the Ohio game this past season).

Miami could possibly be the only afternoon game we have. That and CMU are the only Saturday home games we play besides CommU night...

the Broncos have been cashing those MACtion checks for years while the rest of us made the sacrifices, glad to see you're finally starting to earn your keep. Welcome to mid week MACtion, where the ELITE teams play. RTB!

What a crappy schedule.

Start the conference season with CMU, then have 5 mid-week games to end the season. Wow. Only positive is that the weather might be halfway decent for the CMU game.

sighs

so elite

Not crazy about all the midweek football - the Thursday night game at EMU is particularly baffling - but I had a feeling that was coming. Outside of that, though, there are a couple of big positives to this schedule:

- I could be wrong, but I'm assuming the mid-October Homecoming game will be the Miami game. If that's the case, we have a great chance to have outstanding attendance for the first four home games (MSU, Communiversity Night vs. Murray State, CMU, and Miami).

- I love that the last two games are at NIU and at Toledo. Why? There's a good chance we could be favored in our first six league games (CMU, at Ohio, Miami, at EMU, Ball State, BG). I don't believe we'll run the table, so let's say we go 5-1 against those six teams. If that happens, we'll likely control our own destiny against the likely top two teams in the division at the end of the season (as opposed to last season, when we lost the heartbreaker to Toledo early and were stuck hoping they'd slip up twice the rest of the way).

Thanks to the MAC and ESPN for all the mid-week games. Western has no choice.

My predictions -- assuming no big injuries, we execute better than last year as we're still on our way up, but not in any fantastical way -- still learning in the process some:

- Michigan State: 20% [High? Maybe. We went 1-11 and lost by less than 2 TDs @MSU when MSU went to Rose Bowl. This is in Kzoo with hype]
- @GA-Southern: 45% [High? No. We learned things against AF who does similiar; GA-Southern lost a lot of people]
- Murray State: 96%
- @Ohio State: 10% [High? No. OSU has Indiana after us; They played the "MAC Threat" NIU before; if/when we don't beat MSU, they'll be too "ehhh"]
- Central Michigan: 75% [CMU's re-adjusting. Unless they have the next Urban Meyer as their coach, their a$$ is grass walking into our house]
- @Ohio: 52% [Low? No. Ohio's going to be better. Their QB who got settled in is going to be better, as will the team. Them vs BGSU to win the East]
- Miami-OH: 65% [High? Hopefully not. Miami will be better, most definitely. But so will we to some extent, and they'll be in our house and we'll know what to prepare for by this time]
- @EMU: 80% [High? No. We still have something to prove, despite it being in their house + them being a bit better or more]

- Ball State: 60% [They showed they could be Very Good or poor last year. BSU's going to be better. Thankfully, they'll be in our house.]
- BGSU: 52% [Pretty much a toss-up. BGSU has Johnson back. But it's in the Zoo. Advantage - WMU]
- @NIU: 45% [High? No, actually. NIU is going to be better, but this is more Rod Carey's team. Plus, CMU ain't going to beat them like they tend to -- this time, it's Fleck's of WMU's turn]
- @Toledo: 40% [Low? Maybe. If no injuries on both sides, and Toledo rolls as how they're Supposed to, generally, we're set to lose this one. We do in Toledo]

= 6.25W - 5.75L [6-6] (averaged out)
= 7W - 5L (of those 50+% W)

BOWL [If we get to 7-5; 50% Chance]:
Dec. 24: Popeyes Bahamas Bowl – Nassau, Bahamas -- WMU vs Marshall

(02-27-2015 07:18 PM)toddjnsn Wrote:  My predictions -- assuming no big injuries, we execute better than last year as we're still on our way up, but not in any fantastical way -- still learning in the process some:

- Michigan State: 20% [High? Maybe. We went 1-11 and lost by less than 2 TDs @MSU when MSU went to Rose Bowl. This is in Kzoo with hype]
- @GA-Southern: 45% [High? No. We learned things against AF who does similiar; GA-Southern lost a lot of people]
- Murray State: 96%
- @Ohio State: 10% [High? No. OSU has Indiana after us; They played the "MAC Threat" NIU before; if/when we don't beat MSU, they'll be too "ehhh"]
- Central Michigan: 75% [CMU's re-adjusting. Unless they have the next Urban Meyer as their coach, their a$$ is grass walking into our house]
- @Ohio: 52% [Low? No. Ohio's going to be better. Their QB who got settled in is going to be better, as will the team. Them vs BGSU to win the East]
- Miami-OH: 65% [High? Hopefully not. Miami will be better, most definitely. But so will we to some extent, and they'll be in our house and we'll know what to prepare for by this time]
- @EMU: 80% [High? No. We still have something to prove, despite it being in their house + them being a bit better or more]

- Ball State: 60% [They showed they could be Very Good or poor last year. BSU's going to be better. Thankfully, they'll be in our house.]
- BGSU: 52% [Pretty much a toss-up. BGSU has Johnson back. But it's in the Zoo. Advantage - WMU]
- @NIU: 45% [High? No, actually. NIU is going to be better, but this is more Rod Carey's team. Plus, CMU ain't going to beat them like they tend to -- this time, it's Fleck's of WMU's turn]
- @Toledo: 40% [Low? Maybe. If no injuries on both sides, and Toledo rolls as how they're Supposed to, generally, we're set to lose this one. We do in Toledo]

= 6.25W - 5.75L [6-6] (averaged out)
= 7W - 5L (of those 50+% W)

BOWL [If we get to 7-5; 50% Chance]:
Dec. 24: Popeyes Bahamas Bowl – Nassau, Bahamas -- WMU vs Marshall

Nice job. So the small stretch goal is to get 7-5 and a bowl. Seems like a good place to be for year 3 and a big boy schedule.

7-5 is a reasonable expectation, being underdog at Georgia Southern.

Anything less than that would be a disappointment and a step backward.

Pull that one out, maybe at NIU or Toledo, could get to nine wins before bowl game.

I like to hinge the season on GS, NIU, Toledo.

Establish the strength of your program versus those you want to be your peers.

You say, the next level of success hinges on beating my peers.

If you can do that, take up the next step.

Meanwhile beat up on CMU and make that an annual expectation. Be able to kick those who are down. No shame in that. You have to win those games, and do it as the normal course of business. Save your emotional strength for the hinge games, GS, NIU, Toledo. And for god sakes don't let up on Murrey State.

This friggin schedule is compliments of the MAC Conference...This really, really sucks.

Conference office has bought into the myth (and TV money) of "MACtion" when all it does is reinforce the perception of MAC as minor league, like a side show.

College Football was-is meant to be played on Fall Saturday afternoons (unless you're LSU). Night and mid-week games should be for the rare special occasion, not the norm.

Only pluses about this schedule are two home games in September (thanks to MSU) for once, and a bye week before CMU game.

(02-28-2015 08:50 AM)MajorHoople Wrote:  Conference office has bought into the myth (and TV money) of "MACtion" when all it does is reinforce the perception of MAC as minor league, like a side show.

College Football was-is meant to be played on Fall Saturday afternoons (unless you're LSU). Night and mid-week games should be for the rare special occasion, not the norm.

Only pluses about this schedule are two home games in September (thanks to MSU) for once, and a bye week before CMU game.

And that MSU game on a warm Friday night at Waldo is going to be FUN! Will be a great day in Kalamazoo.

Has anyone here ever said we have a good schedule???????

I think it's pretty good. For once we have 6 home games. Central Mich should be a warm weather game and it's on a Saturday (unlike the Toledo/BGSU game this past season in super cold weather on a Thursday). Having 2 Top 5 teams on the schedule is tough, but GA Southern makes it a bit more bearable as is not the typical 3 Big Ten games.

The Thursday games are bad and after seeing the attendance for the games on TV last season, I'm starting to really want the MAC to drop this deal with ESPN. I do realize though that it can be hard to gain even 40% capacity in November anyways so might as well put the game on Thursday.

At NIU and at Toledo to finish the season will be a challenge too but we should know by then if we're really in the MAC hunt. We can't even beat them at Waldo either!

Miami's looking like Homecoming?

I'm not going to do a season prediction yet as it's only Februrary. There's still a lot of time till kickoff vs MSU at Waldo, but I am looking most forward to. . . . . .. pretty much the whole season, especially the first TD vs MSU! Just don't get your hopes up for MSU. We saw Air Force dismantle us in the Bowl Game.


So what are we looking at? The MSU/OSU/UT/NIU games being on TV?

Bronco 14, I don't mean to put you down, because I do take exception to your description of the "Air Force dismantle" comment. I did not think that we were outclassed in that encounter one bit. I'm sure if you were in the film room with the coaches after reviewing the game film they would use those words either.

I saw a couple of evenly matched teams, the difference being in the more experience in the Air Force team that had a better history in bowl games. There were two huge plays that determined the outcome. A punt return for a touchdown, that was called back, and a fumble by a scrambling QB, that got returned for a TD.

I'm sure that there are people that will agree with you, but I hope that in the future we all look at keeping a positive attitude on the direction of our program.

Always proud to be a Bronco, RTB.

You can be realistic and positive at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive.

(02-28-2015 10:34 AM)Bronco14 Wrote:  Has anyone here ever said we have a good schedule??????? I think it's pretty good. For once we have 6 home games. Central Mich should be a warm weather game and it's on a Saturday (unlike the Toledo/BGSU game this past season in super cold weather on a Thursday).

I think it's more good than bad. I'm definitely happy the CMU game is still on a Saturday and not midweek like back in 2007.

#MACtion has been around for a while now and, with the 13-year extention the MAC signed a year ago, it's not going anywhere anytime soon. No one likes the midweek home games, but I don't really see much point in complaining about it. If nothing else, more midweek games means more national exposure and higher expectations for the program.