:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61238331/Pin__Em_Down.0.0.jpg)
Week 1 of the college football season is in the books.
It was an upset-free weekend of football, with Maryland defeating Texas and Cincinnati stunning Chip Kelly’s UCLA squad on the road checking in as the only legitimate surprises.
That being said, it was not a great week for the Mid-American Conference.
As expected, the MAC finished a perfect 5-0 against FCS teams, with Toledo leading the charge after a 66-3 domination of VMI. But against FBS teams, the MAC finished an imperfect 0-6, falling to Syracuse, Marshall, Kentucky, Iowa, Illinois, and Oregon.
A lightning delay prevented Akron from opening the season against Scott Frost’s Nebraska Cornhuskers, but the Zips will debut their 2018 campaign in much simpler fashion at home against Morgan State of the FCS.
From the Big House in Ann Arbor to DeKalb, Illinois to Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, here are our staff’s Week 2 picks:
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/12867865/Pin_Em_Down_2.png)
No two pick sets matched last week, but there are five instances of the same set of picks across the board. Our writer Randy Carpenter is in the lead with a perfect 11-0 record, edging out Steve Helwick (who only lost Marshall-Miami (OH)) and the fans (who only lost Syracuse-Western Michigan).
Dr. Seuss once said, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” James Snyder took that quote to heart this week with some bold selections, including Western Michigan over Michigan, Eastern Michigan over Purdue, and Bowling Green over Maryland.
Out of the nine selectors, the Cincinnati-Miami rivalry at a neutral site — Paul Brown Stadium — is the only game in which eight selectors didn’t pick the same team. Cincinnati has won the Victory Bell 12 years in a row, but that doesn’t stop three individuals from thinking the RedHawks are finally due in 2018.