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MAC Basketball Power Rankings: Week 17

Whoa we've done 17 of these?

Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports

Well it's finally here: TOURNEY TIME!!

The most important week for every single team in the conference (we're not getting two-bids, sorry) starts tonight with four games to weed out the weaklings before the big boys get involved. By the way, if you haven't read it, look through our MAC Tournament primer to catch up on all the games going on tonight.

Just like last week, these rankings may cause a little bit of a stir...

Rank Team Record Previously Last Week
1 Buffalo 21-9 (12-6) 4 W - Ohio, W - Bowling Green
2 Central Michigan 22-7 (12-6) 3 W - Toledo, L - at Western Michigan
3 Kent State 21-10 (12-6) 5 W - at Bowling Green, W - Akron
4 Bowling Green 19-10 (11-7) 2 L - Kent State, L - at Buffalo
5 Toledo 19-12 (11-7) 1 L - at Central Michigan, L -at Eastern Michigan
6 Western Michigan 19-12 (10-8) 6 L - at Northern Illinois, W - Central Michigan
7 Akron 18-13 (9-9) 7 L - at Miami, L - at Kent State
8 Eastern Michigan 19-12 (8-10) 9 W - at Ball State, W - Toledo
9 Miami 13-18 (8-10) 10 W - Akron, L -at Ohio
10 Northern Illinois 14-15 (8-10) 8 W - Western Michigan, W - at Ball State
11 Ohio 10-19 (5-13) 11 L - at Buffalo, W - Miami
12 Ball State 7-22 (2-16) 12 L - Eastern Michigan, L - Northern Illinois

Now, these don't exactly match the seeding of the tournament bracket, so we'd love to hear your constructive criticism.

Is Buffalo better than Central Michigan right now? Hard to tell. Central Michigan swept the season series between the two teams but the last time they played was Valentine's Day. The Bulls have been on a tear since Cupid's holiday, spinning off six consecutive wins with two of the over Bowling Green and one at Kent State.

Central Michigan on the other hand has gone just 4-2 in the timeframe, including a puzzling blowout loss at Northern Illinois and a rivalry loss at Western Michigan. The Chips didn't finish the regular season as strongly as they would have liked, and those two losses probably kept them from being at the top spot of our rankings.

The other change in our rankings versus tournament seeding is Toledo-Bowling Green. We have them flipped for power rankings purposes, but there is really little difference between the two teams. You could say that Toledo's losses were worse than Bowling Green's, especially with how the Rockets played at Eastern Michigan.

We only have one more chance to get these right, or else you'll never trust us again. Hopefully next week we come close!