2024 MAC Football Power Rankings: Week 2

The Huskies stand triumphant at the top, but there’s clear divisions further down the table.

Welcome to the third week of our blog’s Power Rankings!

Last week was all about ties, as lots of uneven results forced a lot of uncertain rankings of the various MAC teams. This week? Pretty much all doubt was erased, as there was a clear hierarchy between all 13 programs.

Without further ado: the new and (hopefully) improved rankings!

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13. Kent State Golden Flashes (LW: t-11, down 2)

• High vote: 12 (once)
• Low vote: 13 (five)
• Average vote: 12.83

Last week was a massively disappointing result for the KSU faithful who turned out on home opening weekend, as they were met with one of the worst performances by a MAC team in nearly a decade. Simply put, you cannot lose to an FCS team that was 4-6 in last year’s campaign by multiple scores and expect to get away with it. The lack of consistency from this squad is frankly disappointing.

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12. UMass Minutemen (LW: 13, up 1)

• High vote: 8 (once)
• Low vote: 12 (four)
• Average vote: 11.16

UMass lost again, that isn’t a surprise. But what was a surprise was how closely they played Toledo in a hostile environment. The Minutemen either led or tied over most of the contest against the MAC runners-up, but when it actually mattered, there was no results to draw strength from and UMass fell apart to a superior Toledo squad. Encouraging, if a bit disappointing.

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11. Akron Zips (LW: t-11)

• High vote: 10 (three)
• Low vote: 12 (once)
• Average vote: 10.66

The Zips once again went into Big Ten territory and once again lost, this time to Rutgers. Akron held up admirably to start, but as has been the memo with this team, once they took a modicum of struggle, the team’s confidence waned and so did their performance. It’s okay though, Kyle Monangai will do that to anyone he faces. Colgate at home is an opportunity to redeem themselves.

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10. Ball State Cardinals (LW: 10)

• High vote: 8 (once)
• Low vote: 12 (once)
• Average vote: 10

We were looking at another potential FCS/MAC upset at Scheumann Stadium, but a win is a win no matter how you get it, and the Cardinals did just that. Missouri State looked like the better, more disciplined team over most of the contest, however, which is a major concern if you’re a BSU fan. Braedon Sloan (21 rush, 103 yards, TD) was a bright spot on an otherwise miserable day, though.

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9. Buffalo Bulls (LW: 9)

• High vote: 8 (twice)
• Low vote: 10 (twice)
• Average vote: 9

Buffalo took another tough loss to an Autonomous team on the road, this time in shut-out fashion to a nationally-ranked Missouri. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, it happens a lot in college football. This season in Buffalo is more about establishing a culture anyways, and the Bulls, to their credit, did not give up in either of their contests. There’s potential here.

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8. Central Michigan Chippewas (LW: 7, down 1)

• High vote: 7 (twice)
• Low vote: 12 (once)
• Average vote: 8.66

CMU put up easily one of the most befuddling performances in program history in a humiliating loss to FIU where they were 6.5-point gambling favorites on the road. It was no one specific thing to point to, either, it was just a failure on all counts. The only positive is that it happened in Week 2, so it’s easy to recover from. We’ll see how they respond going forward.

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7. Western Michigan Broncos (LW: 6, down 1)

• High vote: 5 (once)
• Low vote: 10 (once)
• Average vote: 6.83

There’s not much hope of a win when you walk into Ohio Stadium to play the Buckeyes, and WMU did not do enough to even keep pace, getting blanked by Ohio State on Saturday. It’s too bad they couldn’t put up more of a fight considering their game vs. Wisconsin, but OSU is expected to be a Playoff contender, so you can’t be too harsh in the assessment.

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6. Eastern Michigan Eagles (LW: 8, up 2)

• High vote: 6 (three)
• Low vote: 8 (once)
• Average vote: 6.66

EMU played a Big Ten team this week. Pretty normal for their scheduling philosophy, right? Well, this team ended up being Washington. The fun of modern college football! This time around, EMU was unable to find their upset magic as they struggled against the national champion runners-up. They did their best though, and already look much better than last year.

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5. Ohio Bobcats (LW: t-4, down 1)

• High vote: 4 (twice)
• Low vote: 6 (once)
• Average vote: 4.83

In an unexpectedly spicy home opener with South Alabama, the Bobcats needed every possession they could get. In the end, they won the game in front of the home crowd and are now able to claim a win over a team which qualified for the postseason last year. You like to see a team be able to win a gutsy one like that sometimes. This team certainly has more to say in the near future.

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4. Miami RedHawks (LW: 1, down 3)

• High vote: 3 (once)
• Low vote: 5 (twice)
• Average vote: 4.16

Miami had a BYE at the worst possible time for Power Rankings, as voters had an extra week to stew on what was a winnable game vs. Northwestern and other teams in the rankings put up great performances. We’ll see if Miami can bounce back with a trophy on the line against Cincinnati.

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3. Toledo Rockets (LW: t-2, down 1)

• High vote: 3 (five)
• Low vote: 4 (once)
• Average vote: 3.16

The Rockets had a bit of a sleepwalk against UMass for at least three quarters of the game, but once they got settled in and took advantage of the Minutemen’s mistakes, Toledo looked like their old selves again. That’s encouraging to come out with a win on what wasn’t your best day, but the league has tightened up considerably in recent weeks so you can’t afford to be lackadaisical for too long.

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2. Bowling Green Falcons (LW: t-3, up 1)

• Unanimous #2

Bowling Green put the fear of God in a Penn State squad with College Football Playoff aspirations, and when you can do that, you get ranked #2 in the Power Rankings. The Falcons were not scared of the Nittany Lions, taking an emphatic lead in the early going and getting a lot of key stops along the way. Alas, they gave way to the talent gap in the end— as most B1G/MAC matchups go— but don’t think we didn’t notice everything before that.

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1. #25 Northern Illinois Huskies (LW: 4, up 3)

• Unanimous #1

Last week saw some doubt as to who was actually the best team in the MAC, with three different teams all getting at least one top vote. This week left no doubt.

The Huskies, fresh off their win over fifth-ranked Notre Dame on the road, are the unanimous— and obvious— favorite this week. It wasn’t terribly pretty, but it didn’t need to be. They out-gritted, out-situationed and out-coached the Irish in most every way, doing what they had to in order to win. (We’d be remiss to say they didn’t get lucky a time or two, but hey, that’s football.)

Now, they’re #25 in the country (somehow behind Notre Dame), and get to enjoy a BYE week to rest up before the rest of the season. Combined this with their sterling effort against WIU and we might be seeing the makings of a title contender.

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For transparency, here is our anonymous chart for this week. Did we get it right? Did we miss the mark? Let us know on Twitter or in the comments section!