Contrast us with what the Belt is doing. It’s startling how bad the MAC is comparatively.
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Well think we have a chance then…we looked pretty good against UK…our final numbers against Bob Mo were good…disappointing Hesson did not lead to points…and they got one late…
But maybe we are decent…and still have shot in MAC…need to sort some game planning.
There is no denying that it was a very rough night for the league. We need a jolt. Like the “row the boat” of the mid 2010’s or Marshall joining the league in the late 90’s.
I guess Toledo looks good. Nobody else looks like a top 80 team in the country
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A good showing by Toledo next week could be just that jolt.
Or you know…us
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I feel Miami has a good chance in the MAC and get a bowl. UK is very good as they proved last night. Miami did what they had to do.
Most likely 1-3 again heading into Buffalo. Even without Gabbert this team can compete in the MAC.
App state doesn’t by and large have stronger or faster players than Texas AM. Neither does Marshall at Notre Dame. Or Ga Southern at Nebraska. What they have is desire and belief. MAC can pull upsets just like anyone else. Our players are ballpark if not better than the schools who just did.
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No longer certain of that as we haven’t proven it on the field consistently in some time.
The actual rankings haven’t dropped yet, but SP+ giving Toledo 53% to win the conference, Miami 19%, and everyone else 6% or less.
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That still suggests we get to the title game.
SP+ has the MAC east at:
90 Miami -6.9
111 Kent St -13.3
113 Ohio -13.5
115 Buffalo -13.8
118 BGSU -15.9
127 Akron -24.9
(SP+ ranks teams based on how much they be favorites by in a neutral site game against the average FBS team. So at -6.9, it thinks we should be a touchdown underdog against the average team)
Injuries don’t get factored in, so I think it’s probably a closer race if Gabbert is hurt for a lot of the season.
Death, taxes, Toledo fucking up and missing the title game
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Phil Steele, in his pre-season college FB mag, ranks the MAC as the weakest Div-1 conference…Both the Sunbelt and Conference USA are rated higher than the MAC.
In past years, the MAC ranks closer to the Missouri Valley Conference than any other G-5 conference. I haven’t checked Jeff Sagarin’s ratings yet this year but I suspect the same might be true again.
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Below is Sagarin’s data through Saturday and includes Central Mean, Simple Average and Winning Percentages.
1 SEC-WEST (A) = 82.28 82.80 ( 1) 7 82.56 ( 1)
2 BIG 12 (A) = 80.04 79.75 ( 2) 10 79.84 ( 2)
3 BIG TEN-E (A) = 79.45 79.26 ( 3) 7 79.31 ( 3)
4 SEC-EAST (A) = 77.95 77.96 ( 4) 7 77.91 ( 4)
5 ACC-ATL (A) = 77.25 76.96 ( 5) 7 77.09 ( 5)
6 PAC-12 NORTH (A) = 76.43 76.63 ( 6) 6 76.60 ( 6)
7 PAC-12 SOUTH (A) = 75.35 75.15 ( 8) 6 75.28 ( 7)
8 BIG TEN-W (A) = 75.33 75.26 ( 7) 7 75.27 ( 8)
9 ACC-COA (A) = 72.33 72.27 ( 9) 7 72.28 ( 9)
10 SUN BELT EAST (A) = 68.47 68.46 ( 10) 7 68.46 ( 10)
11 AAC (A) = 68.10 67.51 ( 11) 11 67.68 ( 11)
12 MAC-WEST (A) = 64.83 64.62 ( 13) 6 64.64 ( 12)
13 MWC-MTN (A) = 63.97 65.26 ( 12) 6 64.61 ( 13)
14 MWC-WEST (A) = 62.83 62.50 ( 14) 6 62.65 ( 14)
15 I-A IND. (A) = 61.37 61.19 ( 16) 7 61.29 ( 15)
16 SUN BELT WEST (A) = 61.15 61.21 ( 15) 7 61.25 ( 16)
17 CONF-USA (A) = 58.14 57.76 ( 17) 11 57.96 ( 17)
18 MAC-EAST (A) = 57.66 56.65 ( 18) 6 56.94 ( 18)
19 MVC (AA)= 55.58 55.54 ( 19) 11 55.49 ( 19)
20 BIG SKY (AA)= 53.33 53.03 ( 20) 12 53.12 ( 20)
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Agree. NDSU and South Dakota State are playing at an FBS level right now. A couple of Big Sky teams are also showing pretty well with Montana’s upset of Washington last season, UC Davis’ 2021 win at Cal and Idaho’s resurgence this season. The Vandals took WAZZU and Indiana deep into the fourth quarter - both games on the road. Buffalo’s loss to a good non-scholarship Patriot League team last week was another big loss for the MAC’s prestige.
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Patriot League has allowed scholarships for several years. They only allow 60, instead of 63 but they aren’t non-scholarship (otherwise they wouldn’t count towards bowl eligibility and Buffalo wouldn’t have scheduled them)
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Thanks for clarifying. When I lived in that region in 2008 they followed the Ivy and Frontier League model and didn’t. I know we’ve got HC as our FCS game in a few years.
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Holy Cross has been a really good program at that level for a bit now…also where our OL transfer came from…Brekke (who starts for us)?
So not sure that says that much about UB, other than maybe they are closer to BGSU as of late than say Toledo.
Yeah, Holy Cross was 10-3 with a first round win in the FCS playoffs last year. Decent FCS teams and bad MAC teams just aren’t that far apart
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Church it up however you want but if you lose at home to an FCS, ya freakin’ stink.
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