At least they're honest in numbers. There is no clear favorite for either division, let alone the conference as a whole.
In a collaboration of 13 media members, the reigning MAC West champion Northern Illinois Huskies are picked to finish second in the MAC West with 81 points. The Toledo Rockets, as expected, are the favorite in the West with 83 points, and Western Michigan becomes a dark brown horse with 76 points and a couple first-place votes.
Meanwhile, even with a new head coach and a quarterback controversy, the Miami RedHawks is picked to win the MAC East with 97 points. They had one more point than OHIO, who ironically had twice as many first-place votes. Which means nobody's quite sure how they'll do. Temple had equal the first-place nods as MU and was chosen third.
Full results:
West Division
1. Toledo (8) - 83
2. NIU (5) - 81
3. WMU (2) - 76
4. CMU (1) - 55
5. Ball State - 27
6. EMU - 24
East Division
1. Miami (4) - 97
2. OHIO (8) - 96
3. Temple (4) - 88
4. Kent State - 57
5. BGSU - 48
6. Buffalo - 37
7. Akron - 25
MAC Championship
Toledo - 5
NIU - 3
Miami - 3
OHIO - 1
WMU - 1
What I gather from this is that the MAC West is going to feature the stronger team, whoever it is. There are three-team races in each of the divisions with CMU playing a wild-card. And the monkey wrench that'll be thrown into the logic machine will be Akron winning eight games.
We'll have a poll of our own being posted in about a week.