Buffalo just completed a November to Dismember and could have one of the biggest tankings in MAC history. They were 4-0 in the MAC and 5-3 overall -- on a five-game win streak -- and in first place in the East after taking out West leader Toledo when they played us on Nov 1. Since them, they're oh-for-November, losers of three straight. If they don't beat Akron next week, they'll be watching the bowl ganes on TV just like the rest of us. This, after needing just one win in their last four games to be bowl eligible. You gotta think the pressure's really on them to get a win next week.

On average, I think the MAC is stronger this year than usual. While the MAC lacks any really good teams, it also lacks any horrible teams, which brings up the average. It also means that pretty much every MAC game all year long was a coin flip, which is why every team other than Ohio has at least 3 conference losses.

Here's the Sagarin ratings of Conferences.
https://sagarin.usatoday.com/2022-2/college-football-fcs-... /

The West is down a bit from normal, but the East is up considerably, and in fact, unusually, the East is stronger than the West. In many years, the MAC-East has been the lowest rated FBS conference, and behind the MVS, but neither are true this year.

The final numbers, after bowls, may show a different story. Yes, the MAC has a lot of QB injuries. If, as a result of those injuries, the MAC under-performs in bowls, that will drop the entire MAC.

Here are the averages for the West for the last six years (ex covid year):
2016 64.34
2017 59.32
2018 60.32
2019 59.56
2021 66.55
2022 60.67

The West is clearly down from last year, but it's better than 2017-2019. On the whole, it's a pretty average year for them.

Here is the last six years for the East:
2016 53.95
2017 56.11
2018 59.47
2019 56.27
2021 56.27
2022 60.77

This is the strongest MAC East in many years, and the first time in a very long time that the East has been stronger than the West.

Here are the lowest rated teams in the MAC for these six years:
2016 Buffalo 44.84, 37.38 below the highest team, WMU at 82.22
2017 Ball State 34.49, 36.63 below the highest team, Toledo at 71.12
2018 Kent 49.30, 23.47 below the highest team, Ohio, at 72.77
2019 Akron 33.56, 33.94 below the highest team, Buffalo at 67.50
2021 Akron 44.80, 26.04 below the highest team, CMU at 70.84
2022 Akron 51.57, 18.02 below the highest team, Ohio at 69.59

Akron is far better that the truly horrible 2017 Ball State team, or the 2019 Akron team, and somewhat better than the other lowest ranked teams. Ohio and Miami are the only MAC teams that beat them by more than 1 TD. While they lost six games, there were competitive in most of them. I expect them to be competitive this week against Buffalo, and they might beat Buffalo. I do not consider them horrible, so I guess we'll have to disagree.

On that I totally agree. There is much about this year that I don't understand. In addition to games already played, I also don't understand why Toledo is favored, but they are. FWIW, the Toledo board is also confused at to why they are the favorite. Another mystery to me: Toledo won the West, and are favored to win the MACC. They have no threads congratulating and encouraging their team, but rather at least 7 separate threads demanding that their coach be fired immediately, and suggest boycotting the MACC game.