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A lot happened while Buffalo was on break during thieir bye week. CMU took down a ranked opponent, Ohio beat Kansas, and two teams lost to an FCS opponent. Below are the full power rankings for week three:
| Rank | Team | Score | LW | CH | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WMU |
1.0 |
1 | 0 | WMU had an easy week putting away FCS North Carolina Central 70-21. Fleck and co. still seem to be the MAC program to beat. |
| 2 | CMU | 2.0 | 3 | +1 | No matter how controversial the final play of the game was to get the upset, Central Michigan kept up with a top-25 program and that's nothing to sniff at. |
| 3 | TOL | 3.0 | 2 | -1 | Maine went home after a rough smacking by Toledo. The Rockets ended up holding the FCS opponent to just a field goal. |
| 4 | OHIO | 4.0 | 7 | +3 | Ohio started the season mid-pack but now they're showing that they might be the class of the East this year (which doesn't look like to be that much of a prize). |
| 5 | BALL | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | Despite losing to Indiana by 10, Ball State hangs tough at the five spot. Not bad for a team who only won a handful of games last year. |
| 6 | EMU | 6.7 | 9 | +3 | Remember the days where people said "at least we aren't EMU"? Well, it's concerning that the Eagles are better than half of the conference right now, especially since they just got a 61-21 bruise from Missouri. |
| 7 | AKR | 7.0 | 6 | -1 | It's tough to grade Akron right now since they've only faced an FCS opponent — in which they struggled with for a bit — and a ranked opponent. This week might be more telling of Bowden's squad. |
| 8 | NIU | 8.3 | 4 | -4 | Northern Illinois has come out to an abysmal start this season. The Huskies lost to an awful Wyoming team and now they've lost to South Florida. There goes their argument for the Big 12. |
| 9 | KENT | 9.0 | 10 | +1 | For me, this is the biggest surprise in the MAC. Kent returned a lot of defensive talent this year but just lost to FCS North Carolina A&T 39-36 |
| 10 | BG | 9.3 | 8 | -2 | Bowling Green absolutely struggled with FCS North Dakota and it doesn't bode well for how their season will go. |
| 11 | M-OH | 11.0 | 11 | 0 | Chock up another loss to an FCS team. This time it's the RedHawks. |
| 12 | BUFF | 11.3 | 12 | 0 | Well, there's only room to go up! |
Notable picks from the editors
- Tim still thinks pretty highly of Bowling Green, ranking them seventh in the field despite almost losing to North Dakota.
- Tim is also the only editor that doesn't pick Buffalo to be last in the conference.
- Ok....so Tim is the one obviously going against the grain here. Despite NIU starting 0-2, he thinks they're the 5th best team in the conference.