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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!