Every year in my magazine, I list my Top Non-AQ teams for that particular year and over the course of the last six seasons I have had great success!

In 2006, my top non-AQ team was Boise St and I PROJECTED THEM INTO A BCS BOWL and they went undefeated and got to the Fiesta Bowl where they beat Oklahoma. In 2007, I called for Hawaii to go 12-0 and grab a SUGAR BOWL BERTH and that is exactly what they did!

In 2008 my top non-AQ team was Utah and while they were NOT RANKED in the preseason and no one picked them to even win the MWC at the start of the year except me, they finished unbeaten and #2 in the country! In 2009 my Top non-AQ team was Boise St and when they beat TCU in the Fiesta Bowl they finished #4 and the top non-AQ team in the country. In 2010 it was FIVE in a row. EVERYONE had Boise St as their top non AQ team but I went against the grain and picked TCU and coach Patterson and company did not disappoint as they knocked off Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and finished #2 in the country, naturally the top rated non AQ team out there (Boise #9!)

My Top Non-AQ Teams for 2011 as Featured in my College Preview Magazine Published in May!

This past year I picked Boise St as my Top Non-AQ Team and the Broncos came within one missed 39-yard FG vs TCU away from yet another unbeaten season and a possible berth in the national title game as LSU and Boise would have been the only two remaining unbeaten teams. Keep in mind there was a lot of resentment against having an Alabama/LSU rematch and there probably would have been some support for Boise and the little guys to finally get their shot at the title. The Broncos were even shutout of a BCS game but would go on to finish 12-1 and #8 in the AP poll ranking ahead of every other Non-AQ team.  That means in the 6 years I have posted my Top non-AQ team 5 of them have gone to BCS bowls and ALL SIX have finished as the best non-AQ team!

Also listed in this past year’s magazine were 5 other Top Non-AQ teams and I am very pleased with their success as well. Each of the top 5 Non-AQ teams finished in the top 25 of either the final AP or Coaches poll and all SIX of them had double digit wins!

TCU was my #2 AQ team and the Horned Frogs despite returning the 2nd fewest amount of starters in the country won the MWC title finishing with 11 wins and indeed finished as the #2 Non-AQ team at #14 in the AP Poll. My #3 Non-AQ team was Southern Miss and the Golden Eagles would finish with their best season in school history with 12 wins and a #20 AP finish which included an upset over my #4 Non-AQ team Houston in the CUSA Championship Game. The Cougars also had a dream season finishing with 13 wins and a #18 finish in the AP poll. Also listed was BYU who won 10 games and finished #26 in the AP poll and #25 in the Coaches’ Poll while Ohio was my #6 Top Non-AQ team and the Bobcats finished with their first double digit win season since 1968!

This year I’m going for SEVEN IN A ROW! So make sure you buy my pre-season college football preview to see which Non-AQ team will top my chart with a great shot at grabbing a BCS Bowl next year!

The AP Poll was released over the weekend and today I can officially come up with Overrated and Underrated teams for the upcoming year.

First, here is the Preseason AP Top 25.

Overrated Teams

#23 Auburn-There are several signs pointing downward for last year’s defending champ. This year they lose the best offensive player in the NCAA in Heisman winner QB Cam Newton as well as arguably the best defensive player in DT Nick Fairley. Auburn also benefited from an amazing 7 net close wins and naturally the schedule gets tougher with road games vs Clemson, South Carolina, Arkansas, LSU and Georgia. They lose an incredible 31 lettermen and return just 6 starters (fewest in the country). Last year I had Texas as my #1 overrated team (preseason AP #5) and they went from the National Title game to 5-7 and Auburn will have to have some talented youngsters grow up quickly to avoid a similar fate

#22 Florida-After an 8-5 season (NR) former head coach Meyer stepped down due to health concerns and they bring a new HC in Muschamp who has no previous HC experience and just 10 returning starters. The Gators have just 3 SEC HG’s and play South Carolina and UGA away from home and pull the top two teams (Bama and LSU) out of the West. I think UF may have a tough time topping last year’s 8 wins and will not finish in the AP Top 25 at the end of the year.

#9 Oklahoma St-Last year I took a lot of flack for picking the Cowboys last in the Big 12 South but nearly every magazine picked them 5th or 6th as they were one of the more inexperienced teams in the country. Naturally they went on to a great season with their first 11-win season in school history. This year they return 2 of their 3 “triplets” in Weeden and Blackmon but OSU loses OC Holgorsen and RB Hunter from an off avg 44.2 ppg, which was their best since 1988. OSU was also +12 in TO’s, has five Big 12 away games (incl at Texas A&M, Texas, Missouri, and Texas Tech) and only had 2 starts lost to injury last year. They do get Oklahoma at home again this year but were outgained by 209 yds to the Sooners last year. There is no question that the Cowboys are very talented but because of having such a tough B12 schedule I do not have them in my Top 15.

#7 Stanford-Last year was a dream season for the Cardinal as they had the 2nd highest AP Poll finish (#4) in school history. This year they do return QB Andrew Luck who is clearly the #1 player for next year’s draft but do lose their top 2 WR’s, 3 starting OL and 4 starters from their defensive front 7. They have just 11 returning starters and go from the battled tested coaching legacy of Harbaugh to a 1st-yr HC. While two of my 9 sets of power ratings call for an unbeaten year, with the loss of their HC and finishing up with USC, Oregon St, Oregon, California and Notre Dame all in a row, they will not match LY’s 12 win total and will finish outside the Top 10.

Underrated Teams

#13 Virginia Tech-The Hokies are not dominant but remind me of LY’s Auburn team in terms of schedule. VT should be favored in all 6 road games and get its toughest opponents at home (like eventual National Champ Auburn who had 4 of its 5 toughest at home). At 6-6 245 with a powerful arm and great mobility which sound a little like Cam Newton, QB Logan Thomas could be a breakout player this year. Finally despite ranking only #15 in my Power Poll, 8 of my 9 sets of power ratings calls for a 12-0 regular season!

#16 Notre Dame-Yes I know the Fighting Irish are probably the most underachieving team in the last 20 years but many signs are pointing upwards this year. HC Kelly who has a history of exceeding my expectations (6 of L/7 years) has a veteran squad with 17 returning starters that are now in the 2nd year of his schemes. While they do not have any cupcakes on the schedule they also have no teams in my Preseason Top 15. They could be favored in their first 11 games and remember Bob Stoops, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer and Gene Chizik all won national titles in their 2nd years. All 9 sets of my power ratings call for double digit wins with 3 of them calling for a 12-0 season!

#19 Georgia-This is a must-win season for HC Mark Richt as he is definitely on the hot seat. The Bulldogs did have 4 net close losses last year and have signed some key newcomers in RB Isaiah Crowell and NT Jonathan Jenkins who should have a huge impact. The Bulldogs avoid the top 3 teams in the SEC West plus get South Carolina at home. UGA is one of my Most Improved Teams and is my upset pick to win the SEC East.

#25 USC-The Trojans were hit hard by the NCAA LY with a loss of scholarships and no bowls for 2 years. I expected them to be thin but Kiffin found some loopholes and was able to sign 31 players this year and will field a very talented team that can win the Pac-12 South (just not play in the title game). QB Barkley pilots a potent offense and Kiffin Sr will have a much improved D.

Texas-Mack Brown had led UNC and UT to winning records for 20 str years, the longest active streak of any FBS coach but last year they stunningly plummeted to 5-7. I think Mack Brown has made some great hires at coordinator and keep in mind that UT was -12 in TO’s LY. In ’07 QB Colt McCoy threw 18 int’s but he was much better as a Jr and they will get much better QB play this year after 17 int’s by a soph QB LY. The Horns  finally have a featured RB in true frosh Brown and UT will have a much better year than most expect.

Southern Miss-The Golden Eagles have had 17 consecutive winning seasons, which is the 4th longest active streak among FBS schools. LY they were +94.1 ypg in CUSA play (#1) and were just 8 pts away from a perfect 8-0 CUSA record and a 11-1 regular season mark. This year none of my 9 sets of power ratings call them #1 in the CUSA but almost all have them #2 and they have a schedule that sets up perfect with winnable road games and all the toughest games are at “The Rock”. Four of my 9 sets of power ratings call for a 12-0 record.

Houston-LY UH was the preseason favorite to win CUSA led by QB Case Keenum. UH put up 122 pts in the first 2 but then Keenum was inj’d and OFY in their loss to UCLA. Keenum was granted a 6th year and college football will benefit from that. His return has me very excited for this year’s squad and 8 of my 9 sets of power ratings call for a double digit win season which will at least double LY’s 5 win total! Three of the 9 call for them to be 11-0 when they travel to Tulsa!

USF-Skip Holtz was very successful at East Carolina including B2B CUSA Titles. This year the Bulls are a very talented team and only lose 15 lettermen (fewest in Big East). Two of my 9 sets of power ratings call for 11 wins, and I will call for them to top last year’s 8 win total.

Ohio-This year the Bobcats return just 11 starters but have a schedule that is tailor made for MAC success. Their 4 MAC away games are vs teams that finished 1-7, 1-7, 1-7 and 2-6 and they are only one of the top 4 MAC East teams that kept their HC. They avoid the Big 3 out of the MAC West (UT, NIU and WM) and I give them an excellent shot at their first double digit win season since 1968.

Clemson-Last year the Tigers had their first losing season since 1998 and this year Dabo Swinney is on the hot seat. They do return 14 starters and bring in a great recruiting class with adding the best set of true frosh LB’s in the country. They did have 4 net close losses last year and do get a key division game vs Florida St (Noles off Oklahoma) at home. Clemson makes my Most Improved list and will easily top LY’s win total.

Only 10 Days Until The First College Football Game!!!

2010 was a memorable year for many of the teams and players in the Mid-American Conference. The ’10 season saw the conference send four of its teams to bowl games and both MAC Championship game participants Miami, Oh and Northern Illinois each won their bowl games. Both the RedHawks and Huskies also finished in the final AP Top 30 and Miami, Ohio had one of the greatest single season turnarounds in college football history going from a 1-11 record in 2009 to a 10-4 season last year which included a MAC Championship.

2010 was also a banner year for several MAC players including Toledo WR/KR Eric Page who was named 1st-Tm All-America by several different services after avg 31.3 yds per return with 3 TD’s. Page also had 99 rec (11.2) and 8 TD’s.

Also Northern Illinois RB Chad Spann was voted as the conference’s top football player after rushing for 1,388 yds (5.4) and set the NIU school record with 22 rushing touchdowns in a single season and he finished his career with 50 career touchdowns.

Finally Buffalo DB Davonte Shannon became one of only 4 players in MAC history to be named 1st Team All-MAC four times!

This year figures to be just as exciting for the MAC as they announced their 2011 football schedules on Monday, which is nearly a month earlier than usual.

The schedule will feature at least 15 regular season games on the ESPN networks and the regular season will conclude with the 14th MAC Championship game on Friday, December 2 at Ford Field in Detroit on ESPN2.  This will be the 8th year the game will be played at Ford Field.

The schedule will also feature a non-conference slate of opponents from 5 of the BCS conferences including 11 games against the Big Ten, 9 games vs the Big East, 4 games vs the Big 12, 3 games vs the SEC, and 2 games vs the ACC.

The season kicks off on Thursday, September 1st with four MAC teams in action highlighted by Bowling Green traveling to Idaho in a rematch of an exciting 2009 Humanitarian Bowl. Also on that day Villanova plays Temple in Owls coach Steve Addazio’s debut as the past two meetings have gone down to the final minute.

The 1st Saturday of the college football season will see the MAC playing 6 games against BCS conference teams highlighted by Western Michigan playing at in-state foe Michigan in Brady Hoke’s debut, Kent St travels down to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama and Ball St hosts Indiana in the very first college game played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

September 17th features several key non-conference matchups. First, Boise St travels east to take on Toledo. Also Temple hosts Penn St and defending Big 10 champ Wisconsin takes on Northern Illinois at Soldier Field in Chicago in the 2nd college game played there recently.

October 1st will see the first Saturday with a lot of conference action highlighted by Toledo traveling to Temple while October 15th is the first Saturday with nothing but conference games highlighted by rivalries such as Toledo at Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan and a key game in the MAC West with Western Michigan at Northern Illinois.

The month of November will see the MAC play at least 15 mid-week league games televised by the ESPN networks highlighted by Northern Illinois at Toledo on Tuesday, November 1. The regular season action concludes on Friday, November 25 featuring 5 conference games including Toledo at Ball St, Buffalo at Bowling Green and Kent St at Temple.

To get complete schedules on all 13 MAC schools click here and make sure to select any game to get all the matchups played between the two teams in the last 13 years with complete statistics including first downs, rushing, passing, sacks, TO’s and much more.

Also don’t forget to check out our Spring Central section to get all the conference schedules, coaching changes, who’s back/who’s not and all the NFL Draft early entrants.

Finally within the next week we will start our coverage of the 2011 NFL Draft with bios on all the top players at each position complete with stats, strengths, weaknesses and projections on what round they will be drafted only at PhilSteele.com!

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For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

Yesterday Sun Belt 
Today MAC 
Tomorrow WAC 
Thursday CUSA 
Friday MWC 
Saturday Big East 
Monday, July 5th Pac-10 
Tuesday, July 6th ACC 
Wednesday, July 7th Big 12 
Thursday, July 8th Big 10 
Friday, July 9th SEC

The MAC opened the decade with 13 teams and added UCF in 2002. They were in the league for just 3 years before they left for CUSA along with Marshall. That put them back to 12 teams for two years but they added Temple in 2007. It was a very even league in terms of overall titles. With last year’s title, Central Michigan finished the decade with 3 while Marshall and Toledo had 2 league titles. Miami Oh, Akron and Buffalo all have one and 7 of the leagues current teams have 0.

Only two teams have not won at least a share of a division title this decade in Kent St and Eastern Michigan. Miami, Oh and Toledo are at the top with 4 each. Central Michigan, Marshall, Bowling Green, Ohio and Northern Illinois have 3 each while Akron, Buffalo and Ball St have two. Tied with one are Western Michigan and Temple.

Here are my overall Rankings for MAC teams of the decade.

MAC Rankings ’00-09

Despite the fact that Marshall was only in the league for 5 years, their 80% win % was far superior to the rest of the league and they did finish in a tie for second with 2 league titles. Their 3 division titles also tied for 2nd best and the Thundering Herd won three bowl games in that five year span which finished 1st in the league! With all things considered Marshall is my MAC team of the decade for 2000-2009!

Just a couple of years ago, Toledo appeared lock for the title with 2 league titles, four division titles and four bowl games. However, after four straight losing seasons to finish the decade the Rockets fall to #2 as their 62% win % was far below Marshall.

Keep in mind this list considers the entire decade. If I were to name the team of recent memory it would clearly be Central Michigan who has won 3 titles since 2006. However, the Chippewas started the decade with five straight losing seasons and were just 10-30 in league play. Because of this horrible start, I can’t imagine my team of the decade with just a 53% win % and since the Rockets were 7 full games ahead of Central in the wins/losses, the Chippewas fall to #3 in this list despite having the most titles.

Bowling Green, Miami, Oh and Northern Illinois all had successful decades in MAC play and they deserve mention here. Miami, Oh won the MAC in 2003 and had a chance at being named team of the decade until falling on hard times the last couple of seasons. BG hired Urban Meyer in 2001 and has been consistent with only one losing season since. The Falcons also have the MAC’s only bowl win over a BCS conf team this past decade in 2003 (Northwestern). Northern Illinois also had a nice decade with four bowl appearances and three division titles.

Here are the overall bowl records for MAC teams during the course of the decade. Keep in mind for UCF and Marshall, these bowl records are only from their seasons when they were in the MAC.

MAC Bowl Records ’00-’09

The MAC was just 11-20 overall in Bowl games this past decade due mostly to their 1-9 record against BCS conference teams. The conference teams that entered the bowl season ranked were 3-1. (2001 #25 Toledo W, 2003 #14 Miami, Oh W, 2008 #23 Ball St L 2009 #25 Central Michigan W). 

I will be back tomorrow with a look at the team of the decade in the WAC and if you have been following college football over the past 10 years it should come as no surprise.

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #22 Jacksonville St. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Only 65 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

Turnovers can have a huge impact on games and on a team’s season. They can also lead to many misleading final scores. During the season I list all of the previous week’s misleading final scores on PhilSteele.com in my Monday Daily Blog. By reading about them each week you can uncover some underrated and overrated teams throughout the season.

Here are a couple of examples from last year. Iowa St benefitted from +8 in TO’s vs Nebraska and pulled out a 9-7 win. Nebraska turned it over 4 times inside the 5 yard line and lost despite a 362-239 yard edge. The next 2 weeks Iowa St was overrated and they lost by a combined 69-18 vs Texas A&M and Oklahoma St despite only being slight underdogs in each.

Florida St appeared to pummel BYU 54-28 on the road but they only had a 512-475 yard edge as they benefitted from +5 in TO’s. The next week FSU entered the Top 25 but lost to USF at home as a 2 TD favorite 17-7 and BYU bounced back with a 42-23 whipping of Colorado St.

Turnovers can not only make a difference in a game but can make the difference between a winning and losing season.

Last year there was another GREAT example. In 2008, Buffalo won the MAC Title thanks mostly to being +19 in turnovers. They were actually outgained by an avg of 408-370 during the season! Last year they had 13 returning starters and this time outgained foes 405-343. That means they went from -38 ypg to +62 ypg (100 ypg better) but their record dropped to 5-7 as the TO’s were -7.

Teams that benefitted from double-digit turnovers the previous year rarely get a repeat of that good fortune. In the last 17 years, 252 teams have had double-digit plus turnovers. Of those 252, 162 have had weaker records the following year (64.3%). Only 58 teams (23.0%) have improved their record and the other 32 had the same record. Teams with a positive double-digit TO ratio had the same or weaker record 77.0% of the time since 1996. Listed below are last year’s most fortunate teams:

Last year 17 teams were in the “Going Down” box and only 4 managed to improve their record slightly including VTech which went from 10-4 to 10-3. The teams with the biggest dropoffs were Rice which went from 10-3 to 2-10 and Oklahoma (12-2 to 8-5).

As I previously stated, if a team received bad breaks the year before, they will usually be headed for better fortune the following year. In the past 17 years, there have been 208 teams that have finished the season minus double-digits in turnovers. Of those 208 teams, 143 (69%) have had better records the next year! Teams with a negative double-digit TO ratio had the same or stronger records 80% of the time since 1996. Which teams are headed for better fortunes and better seasons?

Last year a record high 17 teams made the “Going Up” box which meant they had suffered negative double digit turnovers in 2008 and were poised to receive better fortune. Of the 17 teams, 13 (or 76.5%!) had a better record than 2008, 1 had the same record and only 3 of the 17 (17.6%) had a weaker record. There were SIX teams on that list that went from a losing season to a bowl game! Those 6 teams were SMU, Idaho, Ohio U, Wyoming, Texas A&M and UCLA!!

Turnovers also have the same impact on the pro game. At first I figured that the NFL game would not show as much of a turnaround, but was actually surprised to see that the NFL game has had more turnarounds. First of all, the NFL season is 16 games long as opposed to 12 or 13 in college. With the extra NFL games, I upped the criteria from double-digit TO’s to plus or minus 12 turnovers or .75 per game. I then analyzed all the NFL teams since 1991 that have benefited from +12 turnovers or more. In that span of 19 years there have been a total of 65 teams that benefited from +12 turnovers or more. Of those 65, 47 or 72% had weaker records the next season including 13 of 14 (93%) over the last four seasons!! There were seven teams that had the same record. Only 11 of the 65 teams (17%) were able to improve their record the next season after benefiting from +12 turnovers or more.

Last year Miami (+17) made my “Going Down Box” and the Dolphins went from 11-5 in ’08 to just 7-9 last year. Tennessee was +14 in 2008 and finished the season 13-3. Last year the Titans did not catch the same breaks and they dropped to 8-8. Baltimore went 11-5 in ’08 and made an appearance in the AFC Champ game thanks in large part to being +13 in TO’s. Last year the Ravens did not have the same fortune and fell to 9-7.

Here are the teams that were +12 or more last year and could be heading to a disappointing season….Green Bay +23, New Orleans +18 and Philadelphia +12

As I previously stated, if a teams received bad breaks the year before, they will usually be headed for better fortune the following year. Once again I was very surprised the NFL game yielded even higher percentages. Since 1991, 63 NFL teams suffered from -12 turnovers or more. Of those 63 teams, an amazing 44 or 70% had a stonger record the next season and 7 had the same record the next year. Of the 63 teams with -12 turnovers or more, only 12 or 19% did not improve their record the next season!!

Here are some teams that could be heading to better finishes this year. Detroit (-18), St Louis (-13), Oakland (-13) and Cleveland (-12).

If you like this type of information, you will love the News and Notes section which is updated weekly at PhilSteele.com. I review such information as “Misleading Final Scores” and much, much more. Keep tabs on all of these teams this year and watch how turnovers WILL EQUAL turnaround in 2010!

The magazine is out everywhere right now so make sure you pick up your copy this week. My magazine is unlike other preseason magazines….which you buy, do a quick read thru and they sit on a shelf the rest of the year. If you buy Phil Steele’s College Football Preview it will be on your coffee table or desk ALL year because much of the statistics and analysis  are useful all the way into December.

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my Top 30 Countdown, which posted #4 TCU yesterday. Through June 16th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 30 and you can get an early look at my breakdown of your favorite team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download. Today, defending national champ Alabama comes in at #3.

Only 80 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE FIRST COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME!!!

2009 was a memorable year for many of the teams and players in the Mid-American Conference. The ’09 season saw the conference send five of its teams to bowl games for a 2nd straight year and league champ Central Michigan ended the conference’s 14 game bowl losing streak by defeating Troy 44-41 in 2OT in the GMAC Bowl. The Chippewas also finished in the final AP Top 25 at #23.

Temple had one of its best seasons in school history by winning 9 straight games and made their 1st bowl appearance since 1979! Temple HC Al Golden was named MAC coach of the year as the Owls have improved their win total in each of his 4 seasons as coach. With Temple breaking their bowl drought, 11 MAC teams have now been to a bowl game since 2004! 

I was very pleased with the way the East Division played out in ‘09 as my magazine was the only magazine in the country to have Ohio winning the division. Every other magazine had the Bobcats projected 4th or lower! Frank Solich has done a great job here as the Bobcats were just 11-35 in the 4 years prior to his arrival. Since 2006, Ohio is 28-24 including 2 appearances in the MAC Title game!

2009 was also a banner year for several MAC players including Bowling Green WR Freddie Barnes who was a Biletnikoff award finalist. Barnes had a dream season in ‘09 by smashing the all-time NCAA single season reception mark with 155 (11.4) and 19 TDs!

Central Michigan QB Dan LeFevour set the all-time NCAA total TD mark (rushing, passing, receiving) with 150 and also finished 2nd all-time in total yards with 15,853. 

Finally Toledo DB Barry Church became one of only 3 players in MAC history to be named 1st Team All-MAC four times!

This year figures to be just as exciting for the MAC as they announced their 2010 football schedules on Monday, which is nearly a month earlier than usual.

The schedule will feature at least 19 regular season games on the ESPN networks and the regular season will conclude with the 13th MAC Championship game on Friday, December 3 at Ford Field in Detroit on ESPN2.  This will be the 7th year the game will be played at Ford Field.

The schedule will also feature a non-conference slate of opponents from all 6 BCS conferences including 11 games against the Big Ten, 4 games vs the Big East, 3 games vs the SEC, Big 12 and ACC and 1 game vs the Pac-10.

The season kicks off on Thursday, September 2nd with 5 MAC teams in action highlighted by Northern Illinois traveling to Iowa St in a matchup between two bowl teams in ‘09. On Friday, September 3rd Toledo hosts Arizona in what arguably will be the MAC’s biggest non-conference home game in 2010. The Rockets (5-7 in ’09) will look to improve in HC Tim Beckman’s 2nd year while the Wildcats are fresh off their best season since ’98.  The game will be televised on ESPN at 8 pm EST.

The 1st Saturday of the college football season will see the MAC playing 3 games against BCS conference teams with Akron hosting Syracuse, Western Michigan playing at in-state foe Michigan St and Miami traveling down to Gainesville to take on Florida.

September 11th features 3 conference games highlighted by defending MAC champ Central Michigan traveling to Temple. On September 25th there will be 8 games involving teams from the MAC and Big Ten highlighted by Bowling Green at Michigan, Temple at Penn St, and Eastern Michigan at Ohio St as the two conferences continue their longstanding relationship.

October 9th will see two MAC schools taking on non-conference marquee teams as Toledo will travel to Boise St and Central Michigan will visit Virginia Tech. On October 16th, in what possibly is the biggest non-conference game of the year for the MAC sees Western Michigan traveling to Notre Dame. While MAC teams are 0-4 all-time vs Notre Dame, all of the games were played prior to 1921 and this game will mark the 1st time since it was founded in 1946 that a MAC school will play against the Irish!

The month of November will see the MAC play 10 mid-week league games televised by the ESPN networks highlighted by Bowling Green at Toledo on Wednesday, November 17. The regular season action concludes on Friday, November 26 featuring 5 conference games including Central Michigan at Toledo and Ohio at Kent St.

To get complete schedules on all 13 MAC schools click here and make sure to select any game to get all the matchups played between the two teams in the last 13 years with complete statistics including first downs, rushing, passing, sacks, TO’s and much more.

Also don’t forget to check out our Spring Central section to get all the conference schedules, coaching changes, who’s back/who’s not and all the NFL Draft early entrants.

Finally within the next week we will start our coverage of the 2010 NFL Draft with bios on all the top players at each position complete with stats, strengths, weaknesses and projections on what round they will be drafted only at PhilSteele.com!

I hope that everyone had a nice, relaxing holiday yesterday because Saturday is shaping up to be a busy day with three bowls. Make sure to check out the  Bowl Matchup Section to get the latest and greatest information on all the upcoming bowl games including, game by game stats, 2009 recaps, and checklists for every position and intangible. Let’s get to the forecasts for today:

Conference Bowl Standings

The MWC is off to a great start with a 3-0 record already thanks to Wyoming’s upset over Fresno St in the New Mexico Bowl and two wins over the Pac-10 with BYU destroying Oregon St and Utah upsetting Cal. The Cougars and Utes victories also make the MWC the only conference with a win over a team from a BCS conference. The Big East and Sun Belt have picked up early wins while the Pac-10 and WAC have suffered some disappointing losses. CUSA got their first win of the season with SMU’s upset of Nevada.

The Bowl Confidence Contest

Make sure to check the daily blog every day as we will be posting the standings here after every bowl game is played.

There will be two Top 50 leaderboards. The first one will be points won. Sometimes the early leaders are the ones that risked the most on the early bowls and they fall by the wayside as the contest goes on so that is why I will also keep track of those that have the best win percentage of their points.

Out of more than 1200 entries Bob Knight currently leads in the Points Won category but William J. Meleski and Joel Blank are right behind him. Although tied with 110 points each, William J. Meleski has a significant edge in win % coming in at 67% while Joel Blank comes in at 30%.

Thanks again to all that have entered. If you have any problems with your points or do not see your name please email brandon@philsteele.com. Here are the current leaderboards.

Top 50 in Points Won

The Top 50 in Win %