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To be blunt, these rankings were really boring, but that's to be expected. Everybody's assumed that there'd be not a whole lot going on up until November gets rolling, so here's the rankings through the month of October:
| Rank | School | Votes (First place picks) | Preseason | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 |
| 1 | Toledo | 14 (12) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Bowling Green | 25 (1) | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Western Michigan | 41 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Northern Illinois | 57 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | Central Michigan | 58 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | Buffalo | 88 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 6 |
| 7 | Ohio | 101 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | Ball State | 102 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 10 | t8 |
| 9 | Akron | 105 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 7 | t8 |
| 10 | Kent State | 133 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 11 |
| 11 | Massachusetts | 144 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 10 |
| 12 | Eastern Michigan | 154 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| 13 | Miami | 164 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
There were only four games this past week and all of the higher-rated teams won, and nothing was so impressive or so disheartening that anybody had to really move up or down from the previous rankings.
Akron and Ball State both tied at 8 last week. Ball State's 20-10 win over UMass and Central Michigan's 14-6 win over Akron helped decide the separation there, but are still very close in the point totals. Ohio had a bye week and they also came very close to tying with Ball State, separated by one point. Minutemen slides down a spot and Kent State takes their position at 10.
The fact that Northern Illinois and Central Michigan are still so close in the rankings with the Huskies leading by just a tad, even though the Chippewas beat them at the beginning of October, is going to keep a lot of fans upset. Since that game, NIU hasn't lost a game and Central's only loss was to Western Michigan.
Like I said, these rankings have been boring. The top seven teams didn't budge, but this week includes some exciting match-ups that should make for a lot of arguments come next week.
Voters: Alex Alvarado, Brandon Fitzsimons, Brandon Hickey, Keith Scheessele, James Jimenez, Matthew Gritzmacher, Kaleb Carter, Norman Miller, Justin Coffin, Russ Johnson, Nick Fries, Matt Hammond, Matt Daley.