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Mid-week MACtion struck again. This week, the Akron Zips hosted an upset of the Ohio University Bobcats. Akron now has the top spot in the actual MAC East standings, despite being sixth in the Roberts Poll standings. More wackiness of that nature is yet to come.
In case you weren’t here the first time, we at Hustle Belt (with the help of yours truly) came up with a formula to rank FBS teams. It basically comes down to a mathematical formula that takes the quality of a win or loss and combines it with margin of victory to assign a team points.
Keep in mind that these are just statistics, not our human rankings. My projections do not take into account any MACtion that makes this conference so much fun to watch.
MAC Standings:
The Mid-American Conference’s East Division has been hotly contested since week one. With Akron’s 37-34 victory over Ohio, the Akron Zips are the most likely team to represent the MAC East in the MAC Championship Game. The Roberts Poll still predicts Ohio to take their place, despite the actual MAC standings. With some slight modifications, Akron is now projected to finish 7-6 as the MAC runners-up.
Over in the MAC West, the race is also still up for grabs, but with the Toledo Rockets the current favorite. The Northern Illinois Huskies are right on the Rockets’ tails, needing a Toledo loss and a win of their own to earn a trip to Detroit. Toledo is expected to end the season with 11 wins, a conference championship, and a respectable bowl berth.
With the Western Michigan Broncos falling 35-31 to the Northern Illinois, the Broncos dropped a position to the rivaled Central Michigan Chippewas. Two other teams fell in the Roberts Poll MAC standings: Ohio and Miami. Ohio fell due to their Akron loss mentioned above. The Miami-Ohio Redhawks fell in a 27-24 loss to the Eastern Michigan Eagles.
Toledo earned the most points in the MAC this week from their 66-37 win in the Battle of I-75. Likewise, the Bowling Green Falcons lost 79 points in the same game, which was the lowest of the MAC.
MAC Standings: Roberts Poll
| Ranking | High | Low | Team | Bowl Week | Total | Overall | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking | High | Low | Team | Bowl Week | Total | Overall | Best |
| 1 | 1 | 3 | Toledo *# | -84 | 542 | #33 | #20 |
| 2 | 1 | 5 | Ohio | 85 | 433 | #39 | #27 |
| 3 | 3 | 8 | Northern Illinois | -62 | 270 | #54 | #37 |
| 4 | 3 | 9 | Central Michigan | -63 | 162 | #66 | #41 |
| 5 | 1 | 10 | Western Michigan | 0 | 89 | #77 | #40 |
| 6 | 4 | 11 | Buffalo | 0 | 24 | #88 | #71 |
| 7 | 1 | 9 | Eastern Michigan | 0 | -27 | #90 | #22 |
| 8 | 5 | 12 | Akron * | -97 | -72 | #93 | #76 |
| 9 | 7 | 10 | Miami | 0 | -106 | #97 | #87 |
| 10 | 10 | 12 | Bowling Green | 0 | -562 | #123 | #115 |
| 11 | 9 | 12 | Kent State | 0 | -628 | #124 | #106 |
| 12 | 4 | 12 | Ball State | 0 | -693 | #128 | #63 |
RP Top 25:
Right from the beginning, I have to comment on how there were so few upsets this week. Some may say the rankings are finally right; some may say cupcake scheduling. I am not taking sides there, but I am hungry now.
Alabama extended their lead for another week simply by not being blown out by 40 points to Mercer. The Crimson Tide lead will most likely stand until the end of the year. Every single one of the Roberts Poll’s top 12 teams won and remained in the same position as last week. The first sign of movement came from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish barely squeaking out a win against the Navy Midshipmen. Additionally, the Washington State Cougars enjoyed a late-season bye, allowing the TCU Horned Frogs to leap over both teams to the #13 slot.
Falling out of the all-important Roberts Poll Top 25 were the Army Black Knights. Army lost in a spectacular 52-49 showdown against the North Texas Mean Green. The Northwestern Wildcats earned Army’s vacant slot with a 39-0 beat-down of P.J. Fleck’s Minnesota Golden Gophers.
This week there are no ties for a ranking. Last week, the Memphis Tigers and San Diego State Aztecs were tied near the bottom of the rankings. San Diego State broke the tie this week in a 42-23 win over the Nevada Wolf Pack.
Roberts Poll Top 25
| Rank | High | Low | Team | Last Week's Result | RP Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | High | Low | Team | Last Week's Result | RP Points |
| 1 | 1 | 4 | Alabama # | W 26-23 vs UGA | 1282 |
| 2 | 2 | 27 | Georgia * | L 23-26 vs Bama | 1175 |
| 3 | 2 | 45 | Ohio State * | W 24-7 vs USC | 1173 |
| 4 | 2 | 25 | Wisconsin | W 34-24 vs MIA-FL | 1118 |
| 5 | 1 | 17 | Oklahoma * | L 48-54 vs UGA | 1043 |
| 6 | 6 | 46 | UCF *# | W 34-27 vs Auburn | 1028 |
| 7 | 1 | 10 | Penn State | W 35-28 vs WASH | 1027 |
| 8 | 2 | 10 | Clemson * | L 6-24 vs Bama | 1016 |
| 9 | 3 | 23 | TCU | W 39-37 vs STAN | 864 |
| 10 | 8 | 48 | Auburn | L 27-34 vs UCF | 845 |
| 11 | 4 | 15 | Washington | L 28-35 vs Penn St | 832 |
| 12 | 8 | 32 | USC * | L 7-24 vs Ohio St | 820 |
| 13 | 5 | 19 | Oklahoma State | W 30-21 vs VT | 783 |
| 14 | 5 | 53 | Notre Dame | W 21-17 vs LSU | 756 |
| 15 | 15 | 76 | Northwestern | W 24-23 vs UK | 749 |
| 16 | 16 | 70 | Boise State * | W 38-28 vs Oregon | 725 |
| 17 | 4 | 74 | Stanford | L 37-39 vs TCU | 685 |
| 18 | 18 | 63 | Michigan State | W 42-17 vs WAZZU | 669 |
| 19 | 9 | 73 | Miami (FL) | L 24-34 vs WIS | 655 |
| 20 | 20 | 122 | Florida Atlantic * | W 50-3 vs Akron | 650 |
| 21 | 21 | 92 | Troy * | W 50-30 vs UNT | 620 |
| 22 | 5 | 35 | South Florida | W 38-34 vs TTU | 607 |
| 23 | 21 | 51 | Army | W 42-35 vs SDSU | 601 |
| 24 | 6 | 52 | Mississippi State | W 31-27 vs LOU | 594 |
| 25 | 20 | 85 | Fresno State | W 33-27 vs HOU | 589 |
Analysis:
As mentioned previously, the Alabama Crimson Tide have a tremendous, 140-point lead over the Wisconsin Badgers. Such a lead will be difficult to overcome, but it is still very possible. A two-way tie for last place belongs to the UTEP Miners and San Jose State Spartans. Each team owns a -749 point deficit.
Honors for best game, as determined by the Roberts Poll supercomputers, belongs to the Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana put up a 41-0 win against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights to earn 111 points. By contrast, the biggest loss of points this week came from the South Alabama Jaguars in their 52-0 blowout loss to the Georgia Southern Eagles. Incidentally, this was also Georgia Southern’s only win of the year and it was a doozy.
As the season comes to a close, keep an eye on our bowl projections as well.