ESPN MAC Conference Football Power Index 2022

[guest44]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/group/15

[mbenecke]

"MAC Conference" hurt me.

I don't think anyone will be surprised by these numbers. BG Football hasn't been very good since 2015.

[TommyG]

Come on guys…this thing is being built the right way. 8-10 more years and we’ll be back in a bowl game playing at 3pm on a workday.

[roguewarrior]

Funny how we picked up a few o-lineman and many here started booking bowl game flights, yet this evaluation still has us firmly in the basement. I wonder what measurables they use puts Akron ahead of us? I guess you stay in the basement “nationally” until you prove otherwise….

[mbenecke]

Funny how we picked up a few o-lineman and many here started booking bowl game flights, yet this evaluation still has us firmly in the basement. I wonder what measurables they use puts Akron ahead of us? I guess you stay in the basement “nationally” until you prove otherwise….

Can only be that they've beaten us the last 2 years.

[guest44]

I dont get the Akron thing other than maybe both teams being rated poorly and a slight edge to Akron with game being at Akron this year. Either way, those optimistic #TotheMoon folks are going to have plenty of chances to make money betting on the Falcons this Fall.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Funny how we picked up a few o-lineman and many here started booking bowl game flights, yet this evaluation still has us firmly in the basement. I wonder what measurables they use puts Akron ahead of us? I guess you stay in the basement “nationally” until you prove otherwise….

"To be the man, ya gotta beat the man! Woooo!!!"

[hammb]

Preseason rankings, whether through polls or mathematical formulas, are largely irrelevant. Every team, every season, is a whole new story.

That said, all you need to know about the state of MAC football is that the far & away best team in the MAC is ranked #68, with every other team ranked in the bottom 35, 6 in the bottom 20, and 3 in the bottom 10.

MAC football is a joke.

[roguewarrior]

I don’t think it’s a joke. It is what it is. The joke is thinking MAC teams will ever be on par with Power 5 consistently. It’s not possible, more so today than ever, with NIL. It needs an overhaul in marketing, direction and creation of some kind of niche.

[Flipper]

I don’t think it’s a joke. It is what it is. The joke is thinking MAC teams will ever be on par with Power 5 consistently. It’s not possible, more so today than ever, with NIL. It needs an overhaul in marketing, direction and creation of some kind of niche.

Been saying this for years...the schools outside of the P5 need to create an alliance of sorts to combat their inevitable irrelevance

[jpfalcon09]

Preseason rankings, whether through polls or mathematical formulas, are largely irrelevant. Every team, every season, is a whole new story.

That said, all you need to know about the state of MAC football is that the far & away best team in the MAC is ranked #68, with every other team ranked in the bottom 35, 6 in the bottom 20, and 3 in the bottom 10.

MAC football is a joke.

Yeah I'd take this is a massive grain of salt. Looks like it's basically built on data from the 2021 season. Not to say it won't be accurate, but whatever inputs are dated.

I disagree that MAC football is a joke. The conference has produced plenty of noteworthy NFL players in the last 20 years. 142 draft picks since 2000, 11 of which were first rounders and one #1 overall in 2013. I agree with rogue's assessment of what the conference needs to change to stay relevant.

[MarkL]

As always those preseason rankings belong best in the shredder as there is so little to extrapolate onto a whole new season. BG should do far better than 3 wins. Ohio is not a bottom 10 team nationally. Nothing UT has done indicates they are the best team in the conference as their last outing was an embarrassment. Nothing UB has done shows they are upper half. NIU and Kent will probably regress some to the mean but not that much.

[MarkL]

I don’t think it’s a joke. It is what it is. The joke is thinking MAC teams will ever be on par with Power 5 consistently. It’s not possible, more so today than ever, with NIL. It needs an overhaul in marketing, direction and creation of some kind of niche.

Been saying this for years...the schools outside of the P5 need to create an alliance of sorts to combat their inevitable irrelevance

I have for the longest time resisted the notion that a new division is necessary but the sudden onset of transfer portal and NIL and what each program has revealed about themselves has changed my mind. At this point I think it is pretty clear that Ohio State and Alabama and the likes have different competitive goals than Northwestern, Purdue, Boston College, and the mid major programs.

At this point I believe the SEC - Vanderbilt + Ohio State + Michigan + Penn State + Wisconsin + USC + Oregon + Miami + etc should make their own league. Admit that they do not give two sh**s about the student athlete model. Admit that they are an NFL feeder league. Generate a minor league football system where each university sponsors a football team. Players need not be students but can take classes for free if they choose to do so. Students get free or priority access to football tickets as a form of entertainment. Players get paid a salary and can seek endorsement deals, and can sign with other teams if they see fit. Let that group do it's own league and make it's own rules and see how quickly it becomes clear that Alabama has no use for a traditional blue blood like Michigan.

Meanwhile the remaining programs keep the conferences meaning the Big Ten will be gutted but headed up by Purdue and Minnesota. The NCAA will still sponsor football for all the remaining programs who care about the student athlete model.

I never would have suggested that before but recent developments in college football have sickened me.

[hammb]

I've been saying for the past couple years that the true blue bloods, the ones who make millions off of football need to breakaway and do their own thing. THey can still associate with the colleges if they wish, but they're not NCAA sanctioned. Let them be in name what they already are in reality: An NFL minor league that generates a crap ton of money for the schools. Let the players run wild with NIL deals and hell even salaries if the boosters can pay it. The true losers in that scenario won't be the MAC, already scraping for enough bucks to buy helmets, it'll be the Purdues of the world that are raking in 10s of millions in revenues by simply being part of the same conference as OSU/UM/PSU/etc

MAC football being a joke is in the landscape of what they're trying to be. Sure, it's still an entertaining product from time to time (as much as college football can ever be at this point). Yes, they've produced some quality NFL players over the years, have a couple of nice prospects for this year's draft (Come to Cleveland, Skyy!), and no doubt the conference will continue to do so.

But in the grand scheme of things (these specific rankings with whatever salt you want) the MAC is a joke as a D1-FBS conference. Financially the MAC cannot even compete with most other Group of 5 conferences. It's a testament to the schools and the coaches up here that we've managed to still hold our own on the field with those other G5 schools (and even plenty of P5 schools), but financially we cannot compete in large part because we feel irrelevant even to our students/alumni/locals. Finding relevance is the challenge, and I have no idea what the solution is. FCS or D2 is certainly not an answer, but the current FBS system doesn't feel right either.

[Schadenfreude]

Yeah I'd take this is a massive grain of salt. Looks like it's basically built on data from the 2021 season. Not to say it won't be accurate, but whatever inputs are dated.

I disagree that MAC football is a joke. The conference has produced plenty of noteworthy NFL players in the last 20 years. 142 draft picks since 2000, 11 of which were first rounders and one #1 overall in 2013.

Well said.

I would add that the relentless negativity on this board is tiresome, and some of it is ironic.

I mean, here is Hammb claiming MAC football is a joke when the basketball program he posts so much about hasn't unambiguously won a MAC title in 54 years and finished 272nd in the country last season, according to the RPI.

And here is TommyG joking about the football team potentially playing in a weekday afternoon bowl game when his baseball team is lucky if a few dozen people will bother to show up and watch.

This index from ESPN, or whatever it is, seems about as meaningless as Jeff Sagarin's preseason computer rankings, which are only based on information from previous seasons as I understand it.

We will know how good the football team is this year once the season starts and the games begin. I sure do hope for improvement.