Bowls are over, national signing day is over, so face it, you're left in MAC football desert. That's not a fun feeling, but fear not, I have some data for us all to ponder over for at least the next hour.
I've taken the liberty in putting together a ranking of each MAC team's strength of schedule for the upcoming season. Note that this is just of the four out-of-conference games currently set.
I should note that this is vastly unofficial, and I expect more than one person to look for a bias, but let me explain the criteria used.
In measuring FBS schools, I used the most recent S+P rankings of all the FBS opponents scheduled. Typically I take an average of several sources, but no one has time to do all that math. So I picked the source that I felt is the most comprehensive.
In measuring FCS opponents, I had no real way to measure them objectively against their FBS counterparts. Sure, some FCS schools are better than some FBS schools, but there is no real cross-reference to back that statement up. It didn't seem fair to ignore all the FCS opponents so I had to develop a system. That system took the current rankings, which I pulled from this legitimate looking site, and then added 128 to each ranking. The 128 number comes from the total number of FBS teams, and I'm taking the assumption that even the best FCS school is ranked behind the worst FBS school. I certainly don't believe that at heart, but I need level data to use.
So I present to you the rankings, the lower the score the tougher the schedule.
MAC Team | Opponent 1 | Opponent 2 | Opponent 3 | Opponent 4 | Total |
Miami | 47 | 148 | 11 | 74 | 280 |
Bowling Green | 3 | 156 | 82 | 55 | 296 |
Western Mich. | 56 | 179 | 61 | 39 | 335 |
N. Illinois | 114 | 50 | 45 | 139 | 348 |
Akron | 217 | 31 | 64 | 43 | 355 |
Kent State | 30 | 155 | 187 | 1 | 373 |
Ball State | 91 | 60 | 172 | 93 | 416 |
Toledo | 79 | 210 | 100 | 38 | 427 |
Central Mich. | 225 | 33 | 106 | 73 | 437 |
Ohio | 112 | 127 | 22 | 208 | 469 |
Buffalo | 214 | 99 | 123 | 67 | 503 |
Eastern Mich. | 251 | 85 | 124 | 114 | 574 |
I'm sure you want to cross reference the schedules, so here we are:
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | |
Akron | VMI | Wisconsin | Marshall | Appalachin St. | |
Ball State | Georgia St. | Indiana | East. Kentucky | Florida Atl. | |
Bowling Green | Ohio State | North Dakota | Middle Tenn. | Memphis | |
Buffalo | Albany | Nevada | Army | Boston Col. | |
Central Michigan | Presbyterian | Oklahoma St. | UNLV | Virginia | |
Eastern Michigan | Miss. Valley St. | Mizzou | Charlotte | Wyoming | |
Kent State | Penn State | N. Carolina A&T | Monmouth | Alabama | |
Miami | Iowa | Eastern Ill. | W. Kentucky | Cincinnati | |
Northern Illinois | Wyoming | USF | San Diego St. | Western Illinois | |
Ohio | Texas State | Kansas | Tennessee | Gardner-Webb | |
Toledo | Arkansas St. | Maine | Fresno State | BYU | |
Western Michigan | N'western | NC Central | Illinois | GA Southern |
Note that teams in BOLD are power-5 schools, teams in Italics are FCS schools, and the rest are group of 5 schools.
Did I miss something? Is someone's schedule incorrect? Did I use poor data? Let me know below
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