Bulls ranked 88th by “SoE”

Hat tip to community member bsmit, for throwing this into a fan shot.

So the Bulls are ranked #88 in an early preseason ranking set up by “Sports On Earth”. I’ve never heard of them before but bring 88th caught my eye. It’s the highest preseason ranking I can recall for UB.

Here is what they have to say about Buffalo

After winning seven games in his first two years combined, Lance Leipold pushed the Bulls to 6-6, although they didn’t get a bowl bid. Three of those losses came while talented QB Tyree Jackson was injured. This is a team to watch in the MAC with a healthy Jackson, plus the return of prolific wideout Anthony Johnson.

Personally I feel like this is something of a slight.... Given what UB is returning next year and how they played during the season (Their losses were all pretty razor thin) I’d expect the Bulls to be about 10-15 places higher.

But what about our opponents?

Temple: comes in ranked 68th.

The Owls finished strong with four out of five wins in Geoff Collins’ debut thanks in part to the emergence of QB Frank Nutile, who started for the second half of the season and will be back as a senior.

Rutgers: comes in at 86th

This one kind of shocked me... Rutgers is not “Big 10 Bad” they are plain bad. Their 3 wins came over Purdue (barely), Illinois, and Morgan State. Here is what the site had to say.

After Jerry Kill stepped down, Chris Ash hired John McNulty to be Rutgers’ ninth offensive coordinator in nine years. The Scarlet Knights showed improvement in 2017, winning three Big Ten games, but the gap in the Big Ten East remains large.

Army: Our highest ranked OOC opponent.

Army enters 2018 with back-to-back bowl wins, back-to-back wins over Navy and 18 wins overall over two seasons. It’s been a spectacular turnaround under Jeff Monken, and a third straight bowl bid is likely.

So out of conference by this site, our only OOC opponent that we are the better of is Delaware State.

Now, in conference

Home

• Akron -> 103
• EMU -> 99
• Kent State -> 129
• Miami -> 95

Road

• Bowling Green -> 120
• Central Michigan -> 110
• Ohio -> 67
• Toledo -> 73

So there you have it, if SoE is accurate Buffalo is batter than 7 of their 2018 opponents...