MAC Football Power Rankings: Week 1

We agree Toledo’s the best and Kent State isn’t. What about Ball State and Akron.

We didn’t do a preseason power rankings by complete accident. It wasn’t talked about or ignored, we just had better things to do with our lives than do one of those.

Myself, Justin Coffin and Brandon Fitzsimons will be doing these every week now that we actually have games in the year of 2017 to refer to. Pretty simple with three people: we just average out our rankings and expect to see some ties here and there.

Let’s review how the teams did during the opening weekend college football. The Mid-American Conference teams won four of 12 games and the only MAC win over a Football Bowl Subdivision team was Eastern Michigan over Charlotte (24–7). Toledo beat Elon (47–13), Central Michigan didn’t lose to Rhode Island (30–27 in three overtimes) and Ohio shutout Hampton (59–0).

Of the teams starting the season with an 0–1 record: Buffalo’s defense kept its first game at Minnesota, P.J. Fleck’s new squad, close (17–7), Northern Illinois looked sloppy but was edged out by Boston College at home (23–20), Akron failed to score a dang point and let Akron’s Saquon Barkley rush for 12.3 yards per carry (52–0), Kent State scored more points (3) than passing yards (1) against the defending National Champions Clemson (56–3), the Ball State loss at Illinois was actually fun to watch (24–21), as was Western Michigan’s loss at USC (49–31), Bowling Green was fun to watch for all of eight minutes and scored zero offensive touchdowns at Michigan State (35–10) and Miami gave up two kick returns for touchdowns at Marshall (31–26).

WEEK 1 POWER RANKINGS

1. Toledo (3 first-place votes), average rank 1
2. Western Michigan, 2.333
3. Ohio, 2.667
4. Eastern Michigan, 4.333
5. Miami, 5
6. Northern Illinois, 6
7. Ball State, 6.667
8. Bowling Green, 8.667
9. Buffalo, 9.333
10. Akron, 10 (tie)
11. Central Michigan, 10 (tie)
12. Kent State, 12

Obviously, don’t read too much into our rankings since 1. it’s power rankings 2. it’s through the first week 3. there are three of us and this is just how simple division works 4. these should never be taken too seriously 5. there’s a good chance that your favorite MAC football team lost this weekend 6. these should never be taken too seriously.

If you were to poll us before the season, these rankings wouldn’t look all too different than what they would right now. Some of the surprises are in the 6–11 neighborhoods like Akron below Ball State, but some of these, like Northern Illinois above Buffalo, are pretty easy to understand.