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ESPN released their preseason FPI rating for 2016. MAC members and WMU OOC opponents:

#53 - Northwestern
#61 - Western Michigan Projected W/L - 9.1-3.4
#71 - Central Michigan
#76 - Northern Illinois
#78 - Illinois
#85 - Toledo
#86 - Georgia Southern
#91 - Bowling Green
#101 - Ohio
#105 - Kent State
#106 - Ball State
#110 - Miami (OH)
#111 - Buffalo
#113 - Akron
#118 - Eastern Michigan
#124 - UMass (I know, not MAC anymore...but whatever)

http://espn.go.com/college-football/stat...eamratings


Takeaways:

- WMU highest rated in the MAC. Only 1 of our opponents is ranked higher: Northwestern at 53. And that's a winnable game.

- CMU ranked second in the MAC at 71. Interesting. If Rush takes one bad hit and goes down...their season is over. Not sure what else ESPN is seeing on CMU's team.

- Four highest-rated MAC teams are from the West. Highest East team is Bowling Green all the way down at 91.

- Akron is a bit of a surprise down at #113. Terry Bowden seems to have them on the rise. But they did just graduate something like 25 seniors, including much of their vaunted defense and their entire O-line.

- They give WMU a 34.4% chance to win the MAC, highest percentage in the MAC.

- They also give WMU a 1.2% chance to go undefeated, the highest percentage of all teams below them and all teams up to Boise State at #36, which has a 6.5% chance to win out. Only seven other teams have a higher chance than WMU to win out their season: #11 Michigan (5.8%), #9 Oklahoma State (1.7%), #5 Tennessee (4.0%), #4 Clemson (8.0%), #3 Oklahoma (15.2%), #2 LSU (5.6%), #1 Florida State (10.0%).

(05-06-2016 12:00 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  ESPN released their preseason FPI rating for 2016. MAC members and WMU OOC opponents:

#53 - Northwestern
#61 - Western Michigan Projected W/L - 9.1-3.4
#71 - Central Michigan
#76 - Northern Illinois
#78 - Illinois
#85 - Toledo
#86 - Georgia Southern
#91 - Bowling Green
#101 - Ohio
#105 - Kent State
#106 - Ball State
#110 - Miami (OH)
#111 - Buffalo
#113 - Akron
#118 - Eastern Michigan
#124 - UMass (I know, not MAC anymore...but whatever)

http://espn.go.com/college-football/stat...eamratings


Takeaways:

- WMU highest rated in the MAC. Only 1 of our opponents is ranked higher: Northwestern at 53. And that's a winnable game.

- CMU ranked second in the MAC at 71. Interesting. If Rush takes one bad hit and goes down...their season is over. Not sure what else ESPN is seeing on CMU's team.

- Four highest-rated MAC teams are from the West. Highest East team is Bowling Green all the way down at 91.

- They give WMU a 34.4% chance to win the MAC, highest percentage in the MAC.

- They also give WMU a 1.2% chance to go undefeated, the highest percentage of all teams below them and all teams up to Boise State at #36, which has a 6.5% chance to win out. Only seven other teams have a higher chance than WMU to win out their season: #11 Michigan (5.8%), #9 Oklahoma State (1.7%), #5 Tennessee (4.0%), #4 Clemson (8.0%), #3 Oklahoma (15.2%), #2 LSU (5.6%), #1 Florida State (10.0%).

Good stuff .. Thanks for the share

Have to chuckle seeing Oklahoma State rated higher than Ohio State and
Vandy above San Diego State.

ESPN's 2015 Power PreSeason Rankings for the MAC:
61 WMU
71 NIU
72 Toledo
76 Ball State
93 BGSU
94 OU
98 UMass
99 CMU
104 KSU
115 Akron
120 Buffalo
122 Miami U
128 EMU

They were way off on BGSU. And I was surprised their QB didnt get drafted.

So based on these ratings, we only lose one game and possibly go undefeated? Sounds good!

MACC or bust!!

(05-07-2016 06:58 PM)Broncodan Wrote:  So based on these ratings, we only lose one game and possibly go undefeated? Sounds good!

MACC or bust!!

Not exactly. These are power ratings. They project WMU to have about 9 wins.

Of course, with this improved team and more favorable schedule, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect at least a MACC berth.