I saw this on the Bowling Green message board, maybe someone with the magazine can fill in the blanks:

http://www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com/phpBB2/vi...hp?t=20370

The Sporting News' 2008 College Football Preview hit newsstands today. Here's the rundown:

MAC East
1. Miami
2. Temple
3. Bowling Green
4. Buffalo
5. Ohio
6. Akron
7. Kent State

MAC West
1. Ball State
2. Central Michigan
3. Western Michigan
4. Toledo
5. Northern Illinois
6. Eastern Michigan

BG All-MAC Selections:
Diyral Briggs
P.J. Mahone

BG Honorable Mention All-American Selections:
Diyral Briggs
P.J. Mahone

BG’s biggest game:
vs. Miami

MAC Bowl Predictions:
Miami to the GMAC Bowl
Ball State to the Motor City Bowl
CMU to the International Bowl
Temple to the St. Pete Bowl

MAC Ratings:
Fastest Receiver: Dante Love, Ball State
Best Hands: Corey Partridge, Bowling Green
Best Passing QB: Nate Davis, Ball State
Best Running QB: Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan
Mot Elusive RB: James Starks, Buffalo
Best Instincts: Barry Church, Toledo
Best Athlete: Naaman Roosevelt, Buffalo
Best Under Pressure: Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan
Top NFL Prospect: Londen Fryar, Western Michigan
Top Impact Freshman: Danny Green, Miami
Hardest Hitter: P.J. Mahone, Bowling Green
Biggest Underachiever: Tim Hiller, Western Michigan
Best Home-Field Advantage: Northern Illinois
Best Fans: Central Michigan
Best Mascot: Ball State
Best Stadium: Toledo

MAC Recruiting Class Rankings:
1. Western Michigan
2. Toledo
3. Kent State
4. Akron
5. Temple
6. Miami
7. Eastern Michigan
8. Ohio
9. Ball State
10. Central Michigan
11. Buffalo
12. Bowling Green
13. Northern Illinois

So NIU has the best home-field advantage yet Central Michigan has the best fans and Toledo has the best stadium....and our home-field advantage consists of what, fog? (Then again, that didn't help us win)

Playing in DeKalb is one big PIA.

You can not really fly into "DeKalb International" we are the most out of the way school in the MAC west. The fans (west side) are annoying ask BG and Urban Meyer. Its usually gray and windy. Combine that with our usual 300 Lb beefers upfront and Saturday afternoon in DeKalb ends up being one big PIA for visitors. We have beaten -3- three national ranked teams in DeKalb that I can remember, Fresno early 90's 73-10 (they were loaded), MD and BG. Believe me teams do NOT look forward to playing in DeKalb.

NIU05 Wrote:Playing in DeKalb is one big PIA.

You can not really fly into "DeKalb International" we are the most out of the way school in the MAC west. The fans (west side) are annoying ask BG and Urban Meyer. Its usually gray and windy. Combine that with our usual 300 Lb beefers upfront and Saturday afternoon in DeKalb ends up being one big PIA for visitors. We have beaten -3- three national ranked teams in DeKalb that I can remember, Fresno early 90's 73-10 (they were loaded), MD and BG. Believe me teams do NOT look forward to playing in DeKalb.

Then there was 2006, where the Huskies beat the future MAC champion, CMU 31-10.

Even last year, Huskie games were highly attended. That's were the home field advantage comes in, for what it is worth. According to SN, NIU will still finish in 5th, in spite of the home field advantage.

I'd have to rank CMU as the most out of the way school in the MAC west....they have a pretty rowdy student section and good tailgating scene but I wouldn't rank their fans (overall) above NIU's

Recusing NIU for my personal bias, I like CMU fans the best.

Barber Greene Wrote:I'd have to rank CMU as the most out of the way school in the MAC west....they have a pretty rowdy student section and good tailgating scene but I wouldn't rank their fans (overall) above NIU's

I have a more limited experience with MAC fans, the only away stadiums Ive been to is Ball State, Toledo, and Central Michigan, and for basketball a game at Western Michigan. From my experience, I think its hard to beat WMU fans. But I was also impressed with Central Michigan fans. Worst fans from my experience is Toledo and Ball State.

Interesting (but not surprising) how the resident nutbag has zero rebuttal to the following two analysis points made by The Sporting News. I guess because it runs severely foul of his belief that NIU is poised for a 10 win season and shall be the top team in the MAC West.

MAC West:
1. Ball State
2. Central Michigan
3. Western Michigan
4. Toledo
5. Northern Illinois
6. Eastern Michigan

MAC Recruiting Class Rankings:
1. Western Michigan
2. Toledo
3. Kent State
4. Akron
5. Temple
6. Miami
7. Eastern Michigan
8. Ohio
9. Ball State
10. Central Michigan
11. Buffalo
12. Bowling Green
13. Northern Illinois

Barber Greene Wrote:So NIU has the best home-field advantage yet Central Michigan has the best fans and Toledo has the best stadium....and our home-field advantage consists of what, fog? (Then again, that didn't help us win)

Yeah that doesn't make much sense. NIU has the best student support of any of the MAC schools in football. From what I've seen, CMU is 2nd.

NIUtrav09 Wrote:

Barber Greene Wrote:So NIU has the best home-field advantage yet Central Michigan has the best fans and Toledo has the best stadium....and our home-field advantage consists of what, fog? (Then again, that didn't help us win)

Yeah that doesn't make much sense. NIU has the best student support of any of the MAC schools in football. From what I've seen, CMU is 2nd.

You guys are really overthinking it, they probably didn't spend more than about 2-3 minutes figuring those categories out. It's just designed to be a "fun" type of thing to mix in there with actual analysis.

I also think that it's entirely possible to have the best home field advantage without the best field or fans. They're kind of separate issues, depending on how you define "best".

Nigel Incubator-Jones Wrote:Interesting (but not surprising) how the resident nutbag has zero rebuttal to the following two analysis points made by The Sporting News.

And you're the resident jack@ss.

Go away friend.

Conference Rankings

1. SEC
2. Big 12
3. Big Ten
4. Pac-10
5. Big East
6. ACC
7. Mountain West
8. WAC
9. MAC
10 CUSA
11. Sun Bel

epasnoopy Wrote:Conference Rankings

1. SEC
2. Big 12
3. Big Ten
4. Pac-10
5. Big East
6. ACC
7. Mountain West
8. WAC
9. MAC
10 CUSA
11. Sun Bel

That's not so bad considering the best we can do is 7th. We're in the middle of the pack for the non-BCS conferences. It will be a great achievement if the MAC can make the leap to 8th or 7th. The facilities upgrade projects going on around the conference are a good start.

UIHuskie Wrote:

NIUtrav09 Wrote:

Barber Greene Wrote:So NIU has the best home-field advantage yet Central Michigan has the best fans and Toledo has the best stadium....and our home-field advantage consists of what, fog? (Then again, that didn't help us win)

Yeah that doesn't make much sense. NIU has the best student support of any of the MAC schools in football. From what I've seen, CMU is 2nd.

You guys are really overthinking it, they probably didn't spend more than about 2-3 minutes figuring those categories out. It's just designed to be a "fun" type of thing to mix in there with actual analysis.

I also think that it's entirely possible to have the best home field advantage without the best field or fans. They're kind of separate issues, depending on how you define "best".

That is exactly why I have no response to this preview, TSN is the worst publication of them all and like Huskie says, they do not even analyze the MAC or have any idea who is on the teams.

MaddDawgz02 Wrote:

UIHuskie Wrote:

NIUtrav09 Wrote:

Barber Greene Wrote:So NIU has the best home-field advantage yet Central Michigan has the best fans and Toledo has the best stadium....and our home-field advantage consists of what, fog? (Then again, that didn't help us win)

Yeah that doesn't make much sense. NIU has the best student support of any of the MAC schools in football. From what I've seen, CMU is 2nd.

You guys are really overthinking it, they probably didn't spend more than about 2-3 minutes figuring those categories out. It's just designed to be a "fun" type of thing to mix in there with actual analysis.

I also think that it's entirely possible to have the best home field advantage without the best field or fans. They're kind of separate issues, depending on how you define "best".

That is exactly why I have no response to this preview, TSN is the worst publication of them all and like Huskie says, they do not even analyze the MAC or have any idea who is on the teams.

I believe John Wagner,sports reporter for the Toledo Blade does at least some of the MAC section for the Sporting News.I think he knows the MAC and who's on the teams.They probably have an article deadline before some springball is done.

Boca Rocket Wrote:I believe John Wagner,sports reporter for the Toledo Blade does at least some of the MAC section for the Sporting News.I think he knows the MAC and who's on the teams.They probably have an article deadline before some springball is done.

And my point had really nothing to do with their analysis (sorry MD)...I was really just talking about those category rankings. I don't think they spend a whole lot of time on them, and there's not exactly a scientific way of measuring such things anyway.

They tend to do a pretty good job on the writeups, although TSN doesn't give them as much space as I wish they would.

Also, FYI, you are correct on Wagner...his name is on the MAC's opening page where he gives a general overview of the conference. Probably safe to say he did some/most/all (?) of the team writeups, although they don't put the writers names on those.

UIHuskie Wrote:

Boca Rocket Wrote:I believe John Wagner,sports reporter for the Toledo Blade does at least some of the MAC section for the Sporting News.I think he knows the MAC and who's on the teams.They probably have an article deadline before some springball is done.

And my point had really nothing to do with their analysis (sorry MD)...I was really just talking about those category rankings. I don't think they spend a whole lot of time on them, and there's not exactly a scientific way of measuring such things anyway.

They tend to do a pretty good job on the writeups, although TSN doesn't give them as much space as I wish they would.

Also, FYI, you are correct on Wagner...his name is on the MAC's opening page where he gives a general overview of the conference. Probably safe to say he did some/most/all (?) of the team writeups, although they don't put the writers names on those.

There's a general concensus on NIU's recruiting for the 2008 Class,but everyone knows that was because Kill wasn't hired until almost the middle of December.

The Sporting News preview is GARBAGE

They lose all credibility when they say we only had 6 players in our recruiting class when we really had 13.

And BTW, in Phil Steele's recruiting rankings we are ranked 9 out of 13 in the MAC. He takes in to account the quality, not quantity of the players. Phil Steele also combines the recruiting rankings from all the services out there.

1. Miami OH
2. Temple
3. Toledo
4. Ohio
5. WMU
6. CMU
7. Ball St
8. Akron
9. NIU
10. Kent St
11. Buffalo
12. BGSU
13. EMU