MAC Football

MAC Football Power Rankings Week 4

Week 4 is in the books, and surprisingly, not much has changed in our updated power rankings.

By Bryan M. Vance Sep 22, 2013, 2:56pm EDT

Rank	Rank (Pv)	Team	Record	What We Learned
1	1	NIU	3-0 (0-0)	Say what you want about the Huskies narrow win over an FCS school, but the Panthers would have beaten any other MAC team with that performance last night. NIU pulled out an impressive offensive performance that showed off the team's depth and are the lone undefeated MAC team.
2	2	BGSU	3-1 (1-0)	Bowling Green bounced back from a horrible loss a week ago with a dominating performance. Matt Johnson has been the surprise of the year so far, and Travis Greene is an excellent running back. Couple that with a defense that's full of stars and you get a team that should have no problem in the inferior MAC East.
3	3	Ohio	3-1 (0-0)	Ohio pulled off its first shutout since 2004, and despite some sloppy play, had the most dominating performance of the week by a MAC team. There is still some questions about the defense and the offensive line, but if the 'Cats can fix those during the bye week, it should be smooth sailing for the 'Cats.
4	4	Toledo	2-2 (1-0)	The Rockets offense is good. David Fluellen is a beast, and even the third tier receiver is capable of being an All-MAC contributor. If the defense can bend a little less, Toledo could be a real threat to NIU come season's end.
5	5	Ball State	3-1 (1-0)	I still think Ball State has the best offense in the MAC. With Jahwan Edwards back from injury, it got that much better in the Cardinals' dismantling of Eastern Michigan.
6	6	Kent State	1-3 (0-1)	Man oh man, if Dri Archer can't come back immediately, Kent State is in some serious trouble. Luckily for them after the first five schools, everyone else in the MAC looks just as dreadful, or worse.
7	7	Buffalo	1-3 (0-0)	Buffalo had a bye week, nothing to see here.
8	9	Akron	1-3 (0-0)	The Zips lost, and had some bonehead plays, but they still hung in there with a good Louisiana team. They didn't snap their FBS losing streak this week, but with games on the schedule against UMass and Miami it's unlikely they don't double last year's win total.
9	11	CMU	1-3 (0-1)	The Chips' offense has shown promise, but is still making too many mistakes and it's costing the team games. If Cooper Rush can cut down on his turnovers CMU should be OK, but after this past week that appears to be a big if.
10	8	EMU	1-3 (0-1)	Wow was this week bad for EMU. The Eagles' offense is having few problems putting up yards, but like CMU is committing too many mistakes that keeps it from finding the endzone. Unlike CMU, there's almost no hope for the EMU defense.
11	10	WMU	0-4 (0-0)	I'm going to refrain from boat jokes here. That loss to Iowa was brutal. Luckily for the Broncos their non-conference schedule is over, which means plenty of games against opponents equally as bad. But it also means against against Ball State, Toledo and NIU.
12	12	Miami	0-3 (0-0)	Honestly, I think the RedHawks might be the worst team in the MAC, but considering they've faced tougher opponents in their three games than UMass I'm going to give them a slight bump over UMass. But unless Miami learns how to play football, it could easily be on the bottom soon.
13	13	UMass	0-4 (0-0)	Well the Minutemen gave another heck of a fight, but ultimately lost...again. Now A.J. Doyle could be hurt too, meaning more quarterback carousel action for UMass.