Thursday Night #MACtion Open Chat: East hopes on the line while WMU looks to hold onto top West spot

After the first two days of some strong MAC play on ESPN2, the conference now shifts their eyes to Thursday with a pair of games going on tonight.

Buffalo takes on Kent State in a battle for the last remaining hope of knocking off Bowling Green from their 3rd straight MAC East title.  The winner has to win out, while the Falcons would have to lose out against their MAC West slate for a non-Bowling Green champion after a massive win over Ohio last night.  Additionally, this game has some additional hate with Buffalo fans not happy about a chance to get bowl eligible last year after a Kent State truck got caught in the freak snow storm to end the year last year.

In the West, Western Michigan looks to stay atop the standings with a win over Ball State.  After Toledo lost to NIU on Tuesday to throw the West into utter chaos (there are now three 4-1 teams behind the 4-0 Broncos), the Broncos look to gain a complete game lead on the other three schools before a brutal stretch of games to end the year.  Meanwhile, Pete Lembo's Cardinals look to keep their slim bowl hopes alive with a win.  A loss would give them a losing record, all but ending Riley Neal's solid freshman season.

Here are the Pick'em breakdowns for the teams involved in tonight's games.

Head-to-head winners

Western Michigan (93%) over Ball State
Buffalo (66%) over Kent State

High Team rankings

3. Western Michigan (11%)
t-6. Buffalo (1.4%)
t-9. Ball State (0%)
t-9. Kent State (0%)

Low Team rankings

t-1.  Kent State (17.8%)
3. Ball State (15.1%)
5. Buffalo (9.6%)
12. Western Michigan (0%)

Feel free to crack open a cold one (or three), follow along responsibly, and have fun in the comments section.  Just don't be lame.