Hey, look, another eight games to digest for your refreshing weekend. An October octet. Many of them are televised, and some of the nonconference opponents appear to be curiously excellent at football. So let's skip over them.
Hey, wouldn't it be a hoot if Ball State began 2-0 in the conference? Because that could definitely happen. Ball State-Miami in the MAC championship! Who's with me?
No?
Okay, then let's just quickly graze the games.
Okay, so you have Ball State, who stunningly beat CMU. Outlier? Western Michigan only has one win: a huge romp over Nicholls State. Underperformer? I like to ask questions that remain unanswered.
But I can say this. Does WMU have any fight left in them? Of course they do — provided you're talking about them fighting each other. Still, I can't look at the result last week in Mount Pleasant and turn it into a trend. Guess: WMU 27, Ball State 14
AHEM ALREADY MENTIONED.
The Team That Lost To James Madison is no longer a laughingstock. They rattled off three straight wins and won at ranked NC State. You're looking at two teams who are on polar extremes of the momentum pendulum. Guess: Virginia Tech 38, CMU 17
Oh, good. Two teams with fragile quarterback situations. Heck, just put three men in the backfield for each snap, and whoever gets the ball is the one that gets to throw it.
For BG, Aaron Pankratz had the completion percentage of a baseball batting champion, Matt Schilz is still dinged up, and Kellen Pagel and Trent Hurley are innocent freshmen. Then OHIO has Boo Jackson, or maybe Phil Bates, or perhaps Tyler Tettleton in a Phil Bates costume. It is getting close to Halloween weekend, y'know. For either team, this is the suggested viewing pose. Guess: OHIO 16, BGSU 6, and I really picked the wrong season to start a MAC sportsblog.
WAGON WHEEL! Hey, if someone wins this rivalry game four years in a row, do they get to actually build a wagon and make the losing team drag them onto the field for next year? Guess: Kent State 20, Akron 13
The Vanderbilt of the MAC and the EMU of the SEC. I see no reason why these two fine teams don't play each other every year. Guess: Vandy 28, EMU 13
VICTORY BELL! Hey, if you win this trophy four times in a row ... is that a lot of bells or what?
More important is the quarterback matchup of Zac Dysert and Zach Collaros. To decide once and for all: which spelling of that first name is the correct one? We may need an impartial judge, whose name is not Zack, to decide this. Guess: Cincinnati 38, Miami 28, and oh my, I was really tempted to pull the trigger on the upset pick here, but I'm too much of a wimp.
We end our shenanigans with this snuff film waiting to happen. Had Toledo waltzed all over Wyoming last week, you might've seen a very interesting showdown, but unfortunately Toledo, for the first time in history, doesn't have the offense to win in Idaho. It would require Eric Page to basically play the best football game any sports athlete has ever played, because nobody else is really going to beat them. And since only Boise State ever wins at Boise State, it may assist Page's cause if he dyes himself to match the ground. Guess: Boise State 48, Toledo 17
BYE: Buffalo