College Football Rankings: MAC Power Rankings Week 2

Two wins over Big Ten teams capped a pretty good week for the conference. It would have been much better if Ball State had been able to hold on at Iowa, but unfortunately that was not in the Cards. There wasn't a whole lot of change from last week's rankings but some teams got a nice jump with good performances against power conference competition.

EHHH

13. Miami (LW: 11)

11T: Eastern Michigan (LW: 12)

Not much to say here. The RedHawks got beat by an FCS team and Eastern Michigan looked like they were trying to crack through a cinder block wall against Florida's defense. Thank goodness these two don't play each other this season.

Progress, Maybe?

11T: Massachusetts (LW: 13)

10: Western Michigan (LW: 10)

9. Kent State (LW: 9)

Let's give some props to UMass! A loss to Colorado was expected, but the Minutemen actually hung with the Pac-12 Buffaloes until the fourth quarter. Certainly signs of progress are encouraging and they should be able to put another good performance together next week against struggling Vanderbilt. Western Michigan had an off week but get a winnable game at Idaho on Saturday. Kent State looked bad at home against South Alabama and next week get an Ohio State team that isn't too happy about losing at home yesterday.

Not Sure Yet

8. Buffalo (LW: 7)

7. Ohio (LW: 6)

6. Central Michigan (LW: 8)

5. Akron (LW: 4)

This gaggle of 1-1 teams (and Central Michigan) have shown both a great performance and an average one. No team is more evident of that than the Chips, who barely squeaked by Chattanooga but pummeled Purdue. It's not certain which team will show up week to week with all of these teams. Both Akron and Ohio looked decent against power conference competition and Buffalo struggled yet again yesterday. Everyone but Akron has a tough game this week (the Zips are on a bye) and things could very much be the same at this time next week.

Close But No Cigar

4. Ball State (LW: 5)

3. Bowling Green (LW: 3)

2. Toledo (LW: 1)

All three of these teams should be there in the end but are not yet on the level of our number one team. Ball State probably should be higher after just missing out on a victory at Iowa and Toledo looked human against a very good Missouri squad. Bowling Green and Toledo face two tough tests this week (Indiana and Cincinnati, respectably) and the two rivals would do well for themselves to put up a good performance against better competition.

In a Class By Themselves

1. Northern Illinois (LW: 2)

The Huskies are clearly the best team in the conference so far after beating Northwestern in Evanston. No matter who is playing quarterback this team will always be successful it seems. Drew Hare looked fantastic and should have the reigns going forward. The Huskies may have some weaknesses but not many as they've looked great over the past two games. A tricky contest awaits them next week as they travel to Las Vegas to take on UNLV.