What a weekend for the Mid American Conference. In the first weekend after having every team in the SEC West ranked (DAE SEC overrated?), Toledo walks into Little Rock as three touchdown dogs and upsets Bielema’s Razorbacks. Now the Razorbacks have been one of the only SEC West teams I enjoyed rooting for the past couple years, mainly because they were in many ways the underdog of that side of the conference. But Bielema made it easy for me to root for the Rockets on Saturday (something that is pretty damn hard to do) when he pointed the finger at tOSU’s ‘easy’ schedule before his matchup against Toledo. “We are going to play eight straight ranked opponents”. Well, Bielema, looks like you should have focused on the one that wasn’t.

The true surprise to me was the fact that Matt Campbell’s Rockets were able to limit the Razorbacks to 103 yards on 31 attempts on the ground. Arkansas is a year removed from boasting one of the largest offensive lines in the country, averaging 5.1 yards/attempt, and 218 yards/game. For the Rockets, who are from a conference whose motto is “defense optional”, to waltz into SEC country and limit Arkansas’s running game is truly remarkable. I tip my hat to Matt Campbell and the players on Toledo’s D. Well done.

That being said, I am not budging from my pick of NIU to win the MAC West. After five seasons of MAC West dominance, have learned my lesson. Until someone goes out and takes down the king, Northern Illinois will be my favorite. NIU blew out FCS opponent Murray State over the weekend in a game that proved three things: Drew Hare is as accurate as it gets, Kenny Galladay is FOR REAL, and the Huskies are a second half team. I’ll talk about those things in a soon to come article, but for now you’re just going to have to trust me.

Going against the current this week (heh heh) was PJ Fleck’s W. Michigan, who may be learning that there is a hole in their rowboat after losing their last four games going back to last year. After keeping it relatively close at home versus Michigan State last week, the Broncos got blown out on Saturday by Georgia Southern, 43-17. Zach Terrell will never forget the name Antonio Glover after throwing three passes to the Eagle. To further the pain, the Broncos were held to 25 yards rushing. The only thing that I believe will help the Broncos come conference play is experience. The Broncos will have gone up against the B1G’s best in MSU and OSU, as well as hopefully learning some lessons in their loss slaughter to Georgia Southern.

On the East we had a huge wins for Dino Babers’ Falcons, who bested Maryland 48-27. Coming off of a week were they hung tough with Tennessee, the Falcons have become a lot of fans’ favorite to win the MACC, and I can see why- Dino Babers is the real deal. I knew it too, back when Babers’ Eastern Illinois Panthers took the NIU Huskies for a ride back in 2013 in what was one of the best college football games I have ever seen. Were those two offenses sexy at the time. An EIU squad (that went 12-2 that year, losing in the national championship) led by Jimmy Garoppolo took an early (like, ridiculously) 20-0 lead against NIU, lead by the greatest Huskie ever Jordan Lynch. The two battled hard in what eventually ended in a NIU victory, 43-39. Unfortunately the highlights I posted cut some pretty impactful plays, but it gives the gist of it and I hope you watch it. After that season I knew Dino Babers would be on the move, and hoped oh so bad that Carey would get picked up by a bigger school and we would come in a swoop Dino. Well that didn’t happen, in fact the opposite happened as BGSU’s Head Coach Dave Clawson got picked up by Wake and hired Dino as their replacement. Now BGSU’s spread offense is looking great, and Matt Johnson has 915 passing yards and 8 touchdowns in two games. Oh boy.

The East may not be so easy to win, however, as Ohio beat Marshall 21-10. While Marshall may not be the team they were last year, they did big B1G’s Purdue 41-31 in their opener, for whatever that is worth. I think we’ll get a real taste on whether Ohio is real or not on the 26th, when they take on Jerry Kill’s Golden Gophers.

Overall, the real winner this week is the MAC. Tune in next week when I highlight the conference’s wins over Ohio State (NIU), Minnesota (Kent St), Cincinnati (Miami), and Iowa State (Toledo).