EMU- throttled decent FCS team
Toledo- throttled bad FCS team
Buffalo- throttled bad FCS team
Ball State- throttled bad FCS team
.... no real winner or loser here, but these 4 did not embarrass the conference.

Akron- did not play so the MAC east Champ in 2017 will stay on top of this group below

Ohio- almost lost to Howard. For the unanimous picked East Champs, something needs to improve or Virginia and Cincy will crush you.
CMU- Not the best showing. Lots of turnover will lead to growing pains in September. At least Kansas is worse than Kentucky!
WMU- Just no answer on defense. The offense will be fine. Is WMU just another 6-6 team?
BG- About what we expected from the Falcons against a talented Ducks team.
NIU- The defense can only do so much when the offense is hot trash. BYU knocked off Zona so 0-4 is a real possibility OOC. Not a lot of teams will score on NIU in the conference though.
Kent- well you started from the bottom, but NICE SHOWING. Kent will sneak up on some MAC teams, and they play with some heart.
Miami-Marshall is fine, but dude, wake up.

(09-02-2018 10:01 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  WMU- Just no answer on defense. The offense will be fine. Is WMU just another 6-6 team?

Hope not.

Also, questioning whether or not FBS teams should be allowed to play FCS teams. It waters the schedule down and it provides little to no competition. Just a wasted game in my view. Especially with P5s.

Well said Toledo guy. In the West, there is not a bad team, the favorite is in trouble with this scenario.

CMU was sloppy, but showed somerhing to me as I watched that game. All MAC West teams are tough outs.

I like seeing rankings based more on W vs L then who you beat and who you lost too (i.e. like some people would rank NIU over EMU and BSU) so nice work. That'd be similar to my list. I'd move WMU down and KSU up.

I know everyone is down on WMU's performance, but let me offer a counterpoint.

Syracuse's QB Dungey is a 5th year senior and the only returning QB in college football with over 6000 passing yards and 1000 rushing yards. He's a true dual threat QB and an incredible athlete. No MAC defense was going to be able to stop his running abilities.

WMU also outscored Syracuse in the 2nd half and had more total yardage at the end of the game. WMU put up 621 yards and 42 points on an ACC defense. Our offense will give MAC defenses all kinds of problems.

Our defense is a work in progress, but WMU is going to score points this year. I wouldn't underestimate them.

Our offense being labelled as hot trash is kinda generous.

Ohio's defense was absolutely terrible yesterday. 645 yards given up. We've often had lackluster performances against FCS schools but still kept teams in check. This was a scary performance and could easily have been a loss. that said, Rourke looked terribly rusty and shouldn't be that bad throwing after he gets his feet wet again. we were missing our top two pass defenders, both of whom should be back for Virginia. However... it was disheartening to see us get burned so badly and so often. Then, even after we appeared to take control of the game, we didn't produce enough to put the game away. Very, very frustrating to win the turnover battle 4-0, return a kick for a TD and still have to sweat it out to the end.

Howard... not sure what to make of them... they are a favorite in their conference. Cam's kid Caylin (true soph) is a good QB and they had a stud receiver who gave us fits. they had a returning starting qb and lots of returners from a team that already had an FBS win in their first year with their new coach. They knew how to attack us and made some huge plays. They'll be a factor in FCS I think.

(09-02-2018 10:22 AM)Fthechips Wrote:  

(09-02-2018 10:01 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  WMU- Just no answer on defense. The offense will be fine. Is WMU just another 6-6 team?

Hope not.

Also, questioning whether or not FBS teams should be allowed to play FCS teams. It waters the schedule down and it provides little to no competition. Just a wasted game in my view. Especially with P5s.

Most MAC teams struggle to get home OOC games. Most also need payday games which are almost always at the P5 school. FCS games help us balance those needs. Its as simple as that.

"edit"
I agree with you on P5 teams not playing FCS but w/o admitting G5 is a lower level than P5, that is a tough sell. I believe the B10 has implemented a policy (or is considering one) to omit FCS games.

(09-02-2018 02:39 PM)Roberto Gato Wrote:  Ohio's defense was absolutely terrible yesterday. 645 yards given up. We've often had lackluster performances against FCS schools but still kept teams in check. This was a scary performance and could easily have been a loss. that said, Rourke looked terribly rusty and shouldn't be that bad throwing after he gets his feet wet again. we were missing our top two pass defenders, both of whom should be back for Virginia. However... it was disheartening to see us get burned so badly and so often. Then, even after we appeared to take control of the game, we didn't produce enough to put the game away. Very, very frustrating to win the turnover battle 4-0, return a kick for a TD and still have to sweat it out to the end.

Howard... not sure what to make of them... they are a favorite in their conference. Cam's kid Caylin (true soph) is a good QB and they had a stud receiver who gave us fits. they had a returning starting qb and lots of returners from a team that already had an FBS win in their first year with their new coach. They knew how to attack us and made some huge plays. They'll be a factor in FCS I think.

Howard is a scary team. Newton I believe had 500+ yards passing and running.

(09-02-2018 12:36 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  I know everyone is down on WMU's performance, but let me offer a counterpoint.

Syracuse's QB Dungey is a 5th year senior and the only returning QB in college football with over 6000 passing yards and 1000 rushing yards. He's a true dual threat QB and an incredible athlete. No MAC defense was going to be able to stop his running abilities.

WMU also outscored Syracuse in the 2nd half and had more total yardage at the end of the game. WMU put up 621 yards and 42 points on an ACC defense. Our offense will give MAC defenses all kinds of problems.

Our defense is a work in progress, but WMU is going to score points this year. I wouldn't underestimate them.

Your offense has potential to light some teams up. Your defense...needs work. And your special teams, well...

Shhh we don't talk about special teams

Attended Syracuse/WMU and NIU/Iowa. WMU really impressed in the 2nd half making it a fun game. NIU’s defense was great until inevitably wearing out because of how depressing the offense was.

Eliminating preconceptions entirely, I’d rank Kent State #1 for the first week with every win being an FCS win and Kent coming razor close to a P5 scalp.

(09-02-2018 05:53 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  Shhh we don't talk about special teams

i heard Western just pooched another kickoff to the 28. has anyone explained their "let them start at to 40 every possession" special teams strategy?

Its too early for power rankings IMO.

(09-04-2018 05:38 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Its too early for power rankings IMO.

They actually mean something? Simply conjecture.

(09-02-2018 10:22 AM)Fthechips Wrote:  

(09-02-2018 10:01 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  WMU- Just no answer on defense. The offense will be fine. Is WMU just another 6-6 team?

Hope not.

Also, questioning whether or not FBS teams should be allowed to play FCS teams. It waters the schedule down and it provides little to no competition. Just a wasted game in my view. Especially with P5s.

Same can be said for P5's playing G5's.

(09-04-2018 10:17 AM)george14 Wrote:  

(09-02-2018 10:22 AM)Fthechips Wrote:  

(09-02-2018 10:01 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  WMU- Just no answer on defense. The offense will be fine. Is WMU just another 6-6 team?

Hope not.

Also, questioning whether or not FBS teams should be allowed to play FCS teams. It waters the schedule down and it provides little to no competition. Just a wasted game in my view. Especially with P5s.

Same can be said for P5's playing G5's.

I can get on board with the 2 step below games. Aka: P5 vs FCS, and G5 vs D2. Then again, Nichols just beat Kansas. ND State has beaten Oregon State and ISU among others. Money from the big dogs is what keeps the pups alive.

I think there is a good deal of overlapping bwtween high G5 and low to mid P5. The same with high FCS and mid to low G5.

(09-04-2018 10:24 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(09-04-2018 10:17 AM)george14 Wrote:  Same can be said for P5's playing G5's.

I can get on board with the 2 step below games. Aka: P5 vs FCS, and G5 vs D2. Then again, Nichols just beat Kansas. ND State has beaten Oregon State and ISU among others. Money from the big dogs is what keeps the pups alive.

I think there is a good deal of overlapping bwtween high G5 and low to mid P5. The same with high FCS and mid to low G5.

Right, I completely agree and that was my point. I get annoyed when G5 fans bash the FCS games yet always want their shot at the P5.

Last year, FCS was 9-89 over FBS while G5 over P5 was 11-57. Sure there is a difference, but I would say it's fairly negligible. It's a win % of 16 vs. 9.

(09-04-2018 10:40 AM)george14 Wrote:  

(09-04-2018 10:24 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(09-04-2018 10:17 AM)george14 Wrote:  Same can be said for P5's playing G5's.

I can get on board with the 2 step below games. Aka: P5 vs FCS, and G5 vs D2. Then again, Nichols just beat Kansas. ND State has beaten Oregon State and ISU among others. Money from the big dogs is what keeps the pups alive.

I think there is a good deal of overlapping bwtween high G5 and low to mid P5. The same with high FCS and mid to low G5.

Right, I completely agree and that was my point. I get annoyed when G5 fans bash the FCS games yet always want their shot at the P5.

Last year, FCS was 9-89 over FBS while G5 over P5 was 11-57. Sure there is a difference, but I would say it's fairly negligible. It's a win % of 16 vs. 9.

I get annoyed when people act like G5 schools are not in the same division as P5 schools.

(09-04-2018 10:55 AM)GRBRONCO Wrote:  

(09-04-2018 10:40 AM)george14 Wrote:  

(09-04-2018 10:24 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(09-04-2018 10:17 AM)george14 Wrote:  Same can be said for P5's playing G5's.

I can get on board with the 2 step below games. Aka: P5 vs FCS, and G5 vs D2. Then again, Nichols just beat Kansas. ND State has beaten Oregon State and ISU among others. Money from the big dogs is what keeps the pups alive.

I think there is a good deal of overlapping bwtween high G5 and low to mid P5. The same with high FCS and mid to low G5.

Right, I completely agree and that was my point. I get annoyed when G5 fans bash the FCS games yet always want their shot at the P5.

Last year, FCS was 9-89 over FBS while G5 over P5 was 11-57. Sure there is a difference, but I would say it's fairly negligible. It's a win % of 16 vs. 9.

I get annoyed when people act like G5 schools are not in the same division as P5 schools.

Same. In fact, I have heard a number of casual fans express suprise that the MAC and the Big Ten are on the same level. All this P5/G5 stuff really is creating a division in most people's minds.