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2018 MAC Football Power Rankings: Week 2

There’s a lot of movement in the middle after a rough second week for the MAC.

By James H. Jimenez
NCAA Football: Eastern Michigan at Purdue Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports

Week 2 was an odd week for MAC fans. There were multiple unexpected upsets in Power Five games (including a six-point dog Kansas road win), two BYE Weeks, and a lot of “what could have beens?” with some of the middling squads.

This resulted in a lot of movement all over the board, as voters were uncertain with how to rank the middle teams especially.

Without further ado: the rankings:

12. Central Michigan Chippewas (Previous Ranking: 5)

  • 0-2 overall
  • Average vote: 11.883
  • High vote: 5, low: 12 (five times)

The Chippewas ruined all the good college football jokes after giving up 34 points to the laughingstock Kansas Jayhawks to allow the visiting squad to wave the wheat on the road for the first time since 2009.

To put that in perspective, Instagram and the iPad did not yet exist. MySpace was a more popular social medium than Twitter. Stew on that for a second.

There’s a lot Coch Bono and crew need to examine in the lead up to their game against Northern Illinois, as the offense seems to be regressing at a concerning rate.

11. Western Michigan Broncos (PR: 6)

  • 0-2 overall
  • Average vote: 10.33
  • High vote: 7, low: 11 (four times)

Well, so much for the Drake Harris revenge game.

The Broncos were outclassed by a vengeful Michigan squad from the start, falling behind 21-0 in the first quarter en route to a 49-3 destruction on the road. The Broncos defense has looked rather listless in two games against Power Five opponents, but the road looks to get a little bit easier with Delaware State and Georgia State up next on the schedule.

10. Miami-Ohio RedHawks (PR: 9)

  • 0-2 overall
  • Average vote: 10
  • High vote: 9, low: 12

The Victory Bell still holds residence in Cincinnatti for a thirteenth-straight year after a rough and tumble loss suffered to the Bearcats at Paul Brown Stadium, leaving many Miami fans to wonder if changes need to be made in Oxford.

This game puts Chuck Martin at 5-18 in one-possession games and a paltry 0-12 against Miami’s rivals (0-5 vs. Cincy, 0-4 vs. Ohio and 0-3 vs. Marshall, per Winsipedia.) Gus Ragland and James Garner are saving the RedHawks from irrelevancy at this point.

9. Bowling Green Falcons (PR: 12)

  • 0-2 overall
  • Average vote: 9.5
  • High vote: 8, low: 12

The Falcons have shown a lot of moxie in their two games thus far this season, even if they ended up losing in both games. After building up an early lead on the road vs. Oregon last week, BGSU managed to carry a 14-10 halftime lead on the road agaisnt the Terrapins. In both games, the Falcons couldn’t maintain momentum, an admittedly bad concern from a coaching perspective.

That said, there’s reason to hold at least a little bit of optimism heading into what should be an easy win vs. FCS Eastern Kentucky.

8. Kent State Golden Flashes (PR: t-10)

  • 1-1 overall
  • Average vote: 7.5
  • High vote: 6 (twice), low: 10

Kent State dominateda game vs. Illinois before a luckbox loss last week, and this week, the Flashes posted 50+ points for the first time since 2008 in a convincing win over Howard. Keep in mind, this is the same Howard which pushed MAC East preseason favorite Ohio around in Week 1.

Flash fans are most assuredly excited about the debut of Sean Lewis as a head coch as he’s certainly brought some wonderful results in the opening weeks of the season. A market correction comes soon, however, as Penn State and Ole Miss close out the out-of-conference slate.

7. Northern Illinois Huskies (PR: 4)

  • 0-2 overall
  • Average vote: 6.883
  • High vote: 6 (three times), low: 9

High preseason expectations for the Huskies have plummeted back to reality, as NIU’s offensive struggles have pushed to the fore in the 2018 season. The Huskies will get no reprieve either, as they get a conference game vs. CMU next week followed by a weeknight BYU game and a sure-fire demlition with Florida State.

Marcus Childers struggled to reach over 100 yards passing in both games and the Huskies have scored 13 points over two games while opponents have hung 50 points on a highly-rated Huskies defense. The calls for Rod Carey’s head are getting louder. (Not that they were particularly quiet prior to the start of the season.)

6. Akron Zips (PR: 8)

  • 1-0 overall
  • Average vote: 6.5
  • High vote: 5, low: 11

Akron picked up an expected win vs. Morgan State and looked fairly recent doing it. We’ll get to know how good this Akron team really is further along in the schedule, as their next two opponents are Northwestern and Iowa State.

5. Ball State Cardinals (PR:t-10)

  • 1-1 overall
  • Average vote: 5.33
  • High vote: 4, low: 8

The Cardinals did not get destroyed by Notre Dame. In fact, they held their own, especially on the defensive side of the ball, a shocking result considering how terribly the 2017 campaign went on that side of the ball. One could say Mike Neu was maybe a little too conservative on offense and may have let a good opportunity slip away. Anyway, it’s still a wonderful result.

As a bonus, they came out of the game relatively healthy. This puts them in really good position to make some noise in the MAC West come the conference slate. But first, they must face Indiana.

4. Ohio University Bobcats (PR: 2)

  • 1-0 overall
  • Average vote: 3.66
  • High vote: 2 (twice); low: 7 (twice)

The Bobcats fell victim to the BYE Week Drop, as they’re still stewing over an uninspired performance againt Howard, who just got destroyed by fellow MAC East squad Kent State.

They’ll have to get a gigantic headstart next week against Virginia to erase any doiubts that game may have caused.

3. Eastern Michigan Eagles (PR: 7)

  • 2-0 overall
  • Average vote: 3.166
  • High vote: 2, low: 4 (twice)

The Eagles became the first MAC team to #FlyTheFlag with a last-second walk-off 25-yard field goal attempt in the pouring rain against the Purdue Boilermnakers, who appered shaken by the unexpected performance from the boys of Ypsi.

Iowa transfer Tyler Wiegers especially looked good at the quarterback spot, finishing 20-of-28 for 312 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

EMU draws an explosive Buffalo squad for an early conference matchup in Week 3. (More on that here in a second.)

2. Buffalo Bulls (PR: 3)

  • 2-0 overall
  • Average vote: 2.33
  • High vote: 1 (three times), low: 4

Boy is Buffalo a lot of fun to watch. The Bulls had a back-and-forth battle with former MAC East rival Temple on the road in Philadephia, emerging with a 36-29 victory over the Owls, one of the teams expected to make noise in the American Athletic Conference.

The Bulls have shown great improvement on both sides of the ball and are making an argument to be the best team in the city of Buffalo after the Bills were blasted by a thoroughly average Baltimore Ravens squad.

The Bulls next face EMU in a battle of promising dark horse candidates in their respective divisions. Buffalo will host the game, which should give them a bit of advantage. Whoever wins the batle between the EMU defense and Buffalo offense should win the day out.

1- Toledo Rockets (PR: —)

  • 1-0 overall
  • Average vote: 1.33
  • High vote: 1 (four times), low: 2 (three times)

Toledo, like Ohio, also enjoyed a BYE Week in the second week of action. They also, like Ohio, saw their position slip just a little bit due to other teams outperforming expectation in Week 2.

We’ll see what the Rockets are made of against the nationally-ranked Miami (FL) Hurricanes at the Glass Bowl in Week 3.

What say you? Where did your Belt crew get it right or wrong?

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