CFN Rankings: MAC

The always reliable CFN rankings came out the other day (yes, that's sarcasm, folks). Anyway, they consider themselves to be experts and here's how the MAC was ranked (BTW, this is my commentary, not what CFN said). (In the Notable Teams part, the "ahead" means teams that the MAC Team X was ranked ahead of; "behind" means they finished behind these teams):


#113: Northern Illinois

Notable Teams: Ahead-Minnesota, Duke; Behind-UAB, Rice, UL Lafayette

NIU was the lowest ranked MAC team this year and with good reason. The Huskies weren't a good team at all to begin with considering Garrett Wolfe was the entire offense last season. If you add onto the fact that they didn't have enough talent to compete for the MAC championship, their defense, specifically the line, was decimated by injuries.


#102: Kent State

Notable Teams: Ahead-Baylor, Tulane, Syracuse; Behind-Army, Colorado State, Middle Tennessee

Kent State was rolling early on looking a bit like they did in 2006, but the loss of Julian Edleman really hurt the running game. KSU had a ton of injuries at the QB position this year putting them in a tough spot. They did drop the final seven games, but the defense played pretty decent overall. The main reason the Golden Flashes ended the year as cold as they did was the lack of efficiency from the QBs. You have to give Doug Martin a pass here for having to throw almost all of the QBs on the roster out on the field at some point in time.


#99: Temple

Notable Teams: Ahead-Marshall, Iowa State; Behind-Notre Dame (by a spot), San Diego State, Louisiana Tech

Hey, they delivered by beating expectations, didn't they? I know Al Golden must be happy with the progress that Temple has been making. Not only did they save face in a lot of games that would have been total blowouts for the previous two seasons, but they even won four games. Golden showed just how committed he was to the program by staying at Temple and declaring himself not-interested in the UCLA job. Temple was able to do it by playing about as good defensively as anybody in the MAC down the stretch.


#93: Buffalo

Notable Teams: Ahead-Notre Dame, Colorado State; Behind-North Carolina, San Jose State

WOW. That's pretty much what I have to say. It's an absolute amazing turnaround. The Bulls were one of the worst teams in the nation during the 2006 season, just God-awful. But Turner Gill must have seen something in this crew. Now, you can argue all you want about the strength of the conference, but the very fact that this Bulls team competed with Baylor and Syracuse might have just been the most positive things to ever happen to this team at the FBS level.


#90: Akron

Notable Teams: Ahead-SJSU, North Carolina; Behind-Stanford, UTEP

J.D. Brookhart is supposed to be one of the best coaches in the conference. So, it leaves one to ponder, what happened? Akron took a step back from their MAC championship from 05 in the 2006 season, but this year was an unmitigated disaster for the Zips. Things looked like they were coming together for a while with a win against Army and arch rival Kent State along with solid showings against Ohio State and Indiana. Even with the miracle against Western Michigan, things really did take a turn for the worse going 1-5 down the stretch. I thought CFN brought up a good point about how Akron was competitive in most of their losses, but they included defeats against Buffalo and Temple (which are never good things, no matter how improved they might be).


#89: Eastern Michigan

Notable Teams: Ahead-Same as Akron; Behind-Same as Akron

I thought this ranking was a little high. Although, when you think about it, Eastern Michigan was a competitive football team. I know I'm a pathetic MAC homer trying to find the good in all of these teams when the conference was terrible this year, but they were able to find ways to compete with Northwestern, Michigan, Ohio, and Bowling Green. Also, don't forget, these guys won the three-way race to be declared MAC champion of the state of Michigan. They stunningly beat both Western and Central this year.


#88: Miami OH

Notable Teams: Ahead-Same as Akron; Behind-Same as Akron

Miami wasn't very good this year. I know they slammed Bowling Green, but the Falcons didn't have their heads screwed on for that game. The RedHawks basically were dealt a killer non-conference scheduling having to play Vanderbilt, Syracuse, Colorado, Minnesota, and Cincinnati. They were champions of the East, but they failed to qualify for a bowl game. The issue with Miami was offensive injuries. They took hit after hit on that side of the ball and you have to wonder what might have been if those guys remained healthy. They would probably be looking at bowl season...


#87: Toledo

Notable Teams: Ahead-Same as Akron; Behind-Same as Akron

Toledo was supposed to really break through and become legitimate competitors for the MAC West. Well, that didn't happen. The main reason was the defense; it was atrocious. But that side of the ball aside and even though next year should be the season things start to click again for this usual MAC powerhouse, they had a wonderful stretch during the middle of the year. They skated past Liberty and lost by 10 to Buffalo before they went on an offensive rampage. Ohio, Eastern Michigan, and Northern Illinois got torched giving up an average of 55 points a game! Even with that great offensive stretch, they lost hopes of going bowling by poor showings during the final two games against Ball State and Bowling Green.


#80: Western Michigan

Notable Teams: Ahead-Vanderbilt, Washington State, Ole Miss; Behind-Memphis, Wyoming, Nevada

If you're looking for the most disappointing team for the 2007 season, look no further from the guys from Kalamazoo. This team was projected by many to win the Mid-America Conference. The setback of the season occurred when Akron won the game on that miracle lateral on the kickoff. However, they really did make a strong finish to the year by hanging on against Central Michigan, spoiling Iowa's season, and defeating Temple. Look for these guys to get back on track in 08.


#77 (tied): Ohio

Notable Teams: Ahead-Arkansas State, Memphis, Wyoming; Behind-Miami FL, Northwestern, NC State

If you're looking for that one team that was probably a little better than two of the ones who went bowling (ahem, Ball State & Bowling Green, ahem), this could have been it. Even though the Bobcats finished an average 6-6, they were at least decent down the stretch with only one bad game against Akron from tasting the postseason for the second consecutive year.


#64: Central Michigan

Notable Teams: Ahead-Navy, Nebraska, Southern Miss; Behind-Bowling Green, Houston, Colorado

Hmmm, this one confused me a little. CMU dominated this entire conference with the wee exception of that inexcusable Eastern Michigan loss. Not really sure what CFN was thinking here, but I can understand them up to a point. I mean, this team did get slaughtered by North Dakota State, Clemson, Kansas, and Purdue in September. Their non-conference performance was ridiculous and CMU fans have to demand more out of this program. Those ones fall on Butch Jones' shoulders.


#63: Bowling Green

Notable Teams: Ahead-Kansas State, Arizona, Iowa; Behind-Georgia Tech, Pitt, FAU

How is this possible after that horrid showing from the GMAC Bowl? I digress, but even though they did get knocked out hard and cold in that game, it looked like they were so unprepared for that game. Maybe Brandon should have kept them fresh on fundamentals instead of "gadget" plays for Anthony Turner.


#58: Ball State

Notable Teams: Ahead-Pitt, Georgia Tech, Colorado; Behind-Indiana, Maryland, Louisville

I can see Ball State being the best team in the conference. They aren't as horrible as they looked against Rutgers because of the mismatch that future NFLer Ray Rice presented. But even so, that's not an excuse for getting your butt kicked. The Cardinals only bad loss in 2007 was against Central Michigan where the defense evaporated like water in the middle of the Sahara Desert. I'm still trying to figure out how CMU won that game 58-38...


Well, there you have it. CFN generally does some solid hindsight articles and I was kind of kidding earlier about the "reliable" ranking thing. You gotta hand it to Pete Fiutak & Co., they generally do a much better job than anything you'll find on ESPN.com. At least they back up what they say have some valid points.