Hustle Belt MAC Power Rankings: Week 8
by geeves on Oct 19, 2011 7:06 PM CDT
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PrintGetting into the meat of the season, and it sure seems like an appropriate metaphor for the conference. Some teams are looking rather carniverous (Temple, Toledo in conference play), while others are looking like rather toothless, frail vegan waifs (Akron, Kent, BGSU since conference play). The Falcons make the big jump this week, and everyone else just shuffles around a bit.
After the jump, ye find yonder rankings treasure.
| Rank | Rank (Pv) | Team | Record | What We Learned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |  |
(5-2) | As expected, they ran over, around and through the Bulls' defense. Welcome back to the top, Temple. Please stop screwing with our expectations by doing things like not showing up against Toledo. |
| 2 | 1 |  |
(4-3) | Boy was that not the result that I - or any of the rest of us - expected. Hope they can handle what has been an impressive EMU running game, since they clearly couldn't handle the Huskies. |
| 3 | 4 |  |
(4-3) | Still climbing, though the complete lack of first half production may be cause for concern. |
| 4 | 2 |  |
(4-3) | This defense needs to get healthy NOW. |
| 5 | 6 |  |
(4-3) | Back in the win column after Lembo and Wenning held off Ohio, they appear to be the definition of an "o.k." team. |
| 6 | 7 |  |
(4-3) | The defense faltered early, but more or less shut down WMU - certainly more than their offense needed them to. I can rank them appropriately when I see consecutive similar performances. |
| 7 | 8 |  |
(4-3) | The offense did indeed rebound, and it was just enough to beat Radcliff. Now they face a team that is getting good at sucking at defending the run. |
| 8 | 5 |  |
(3-4) | And the slide continues. Perhaps the teams they beat earlier in the season are MUCH worse than we anticipated? |
| 9 | 9 |  |
(2-5) | Radcliff was impressive…the defense much less so. |
| 10 | 10 |  |
(2-5) | Nice that they got that annoying "winning" thing out of their system against Ohio. |
| 11 | 11 |  |
(2-4) | Wow. One offensively productive drive and nine points. That's not enough to beat anyone but Kent (and maybe Akron). |
| 12 | 12 |  |
(1-6) | Are we there yet? And by there, I mean 2012. |
| 13 | 13 |  |
(1-6) | This team continues to remind Roosevelt Nix why sometimes it's a good idea to leave early for the draft. |
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Look we all know Miami is going on an inexplicable run and winning this thing, let's stop fooling around
Benevolent despot, Hustle Belt — SBN's MAC blog
Rankings Need revisiting
Not sure that I buy WMU #2 and NIU down at 6. I could buy that if WMU barely lost in DeKabl, but it was a blow out. Also, the NIU defense is starting to come around having given up 10 pts, and 64 total yards in offense to Kent State followed up by 22 pts and 324 total yards of offens to WMU. I think you need to accoutn for trends and how the performance against an opponent compares to that opponent’s other competitors performances. AKA, the NIU loss to Wisconsin, while horrible, doesn’t look so bad after the Badgers also blew out Nebraska in Madison.
so here's he thing
i always do these power rankings and then the day after have some minor remorse about some reshakes. If I redid it right now, I would probably flip WMU and Toledo, and maybe NIU and Ball. THat said…
cmadler – not sure what there is to quibble about. temple has the best record so they get #1…there’s no way i’d move EMU more than one or two slots higher, if that, because of their low quality wins, but also because i dont think any other 4-3 teams truly deserve to be below them.
Roadkill – that defensive performance over Kent almost literally means nothing. Everyone has shut them down. Yes, they were impressive against WMU, but when even our own NIU guy is surprised at the defensive performance, I want to see them do it again before I push them much higher.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I had no argument with where you put EMU. My issue was with the relative placements of Toledo, Temple, Northern Illinois, and Western Michigan, and also the placement of Ohio so high. Before today’s games, Toledo was 3-0 in the MAC with a dominating win at Temple, and I just don’t see how that doesn’t put them at
#1. NIU-WMU should be self-explanatory — not saying they needed to be flipped, but I don’t see how Western Michigan is the second best team in the conference after what they did last weekend. Ohio lost three of their last four (again, before any play today) and the run was a narrow one over a very bad Kent State team.
Eagle Totem - Comprehensive EMU coverage.
by cmadler on Oct 22, 2011 8:46 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Why is WMU at number 2 and NIU at 6???
I’m not saying NIU belongs at #2 spot but common they just blew WMU out and they’re 4 spots behind them!?
I see NIU in the #5 spot
but let’s see what happens this weekend when they’re on the road
But W. Michigan in the #2 spot?? no way……Temple and Toledo are the top 2 as things stand right now
Let the games begin…..
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