Now just 19 days from the beginning of college football, its time to unveil the 2012 MAC-East Conference projections! The Akron Zips open Thursday, August 30 at 7:00 PM ET on ESPN3 against the UCF Golden Knights; Kent State Golden Flashes host the FCS Towson Tigers at the same time, on ESPN3. At 7:30 PM EST, on ESPN3, the Massachusetts Minutemen, in their first year at the FBS level, will travel to Connecticut to take on the Huskies.
On Saturday, three MAC East teams play at noon, all taking on BCS conference foes on the road. Buffalo travels to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs, the Miami University Redhawks will travel to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes (Big Ten Network), and the Ohio University Bobcats will try to knock off a decimated Penn State Nittany Lions team (ESPN). The Bowling Green Falcons will appear on ESPN at 3:30 PM EST, taking on the Florida Gators in Gainesville.
Projected Team Overall Conference 1 Ohio University (11-1) (7-1) 2 Bowling Green (8-4) (6-2) 3 Miami University (6-6) (5-3) 4 Kent State (5-7) (4-4) 5t Buffalo (2-10) (1-7) 5t Akron (2-10) (1-7) 5t Massachusetts* (1-11) (1-7) Meet the favorites . . . (1) Ohio University Bobcats Let it be said that Frank Solich has done an amazing job with the Bobcats. The program had only seven winning seasons between 1970 and Solich’s arrival in 2005. In Solich’s seven seasons in Athens, the Bobcats have had four winning seasons, posting their best record last year (10-4). Ohio University avoids Northern Illinois, Toledo, and Western Michigan out of the West. Their strongest non-conference opponent is Penn State, who has been hit with huge losses due to sanctions. The Bobcats have an excellent shot at an undefeated regular season. (2) Bowling Green Falcons This is easily Dave Clawson’s best team at Bowling Green. That said, the Falcons face Florida and Virginia Tech in non-conference play. Clearly, Bowling Green is going to have to win at least four conference games in order to be bowl eligible. With home games against Eastern Michigan, Kent State, and Buffalo (at Columbus Crew Stadium), and road games against Akron and Massachusetts, the Falcons have an excellent shot at making the postseason. The November 7th game at Ohio University will likely determine who makes the MAC Title Game at Ford Field. (3) Miami University Redhawks I’ll start by saying Miami’s schedule is similar to Ohio’s in that they also avoid Northern Illinois, Toledo, and Western Michigan. The Redhawks do have to travel to Bowling Green, which could be troublesome, despite the road team dominating the series as of late (6-1 since 2005, 8-2 since 2001). Like BGSU, the Redhawks are going to have to get the bulk of their wins in conference play (Ohio State, Boise State, and Cincinnati are all on the road). Miami won’t post the number of wins they did under Michael Haywood in his second season (9), but they won’t post as few as they did in his first season, either (1).
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