By Woodrow Carroll
Northern Illinois University, 1-3, will play host to Ball State,1-3, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) football opener for the each team. The game will give Northern Illinois opportunities to get back on track after losses to three Power Five teams, Utah, Nebraska, and Vanderbilt.
Ball State has lost to Indiana, Florida Atlantic, and North Carolina State. Ball State’s lone victory was over Fordham.
Northern Illinois certainly will not look past Ball State, and, the visiting Cardinals are sure to have their sights on the Huskies! Both teams are in the MAC’s West Division. The Huskies have a 10-game winning streak.
Not one team from the MAC has drawn any interest from the pollsters for good reason!
Not one team in the MAC East Division has an overall winning record. In the West, Toledo, 3-1, Eastern Michigan, 3-1, and Western Michigan, 3-2, are above .500.
• The Big Ten played six Conference games last weekend. Three of those games were decided by single digits, the other three were routs by 40-point or more.
Penn State beat Maryland, 59-0, Michigan routed Rutgers, 52-0. Ohio State defeated Nebraska, 48-7.
More entertaining were Wisconsin’s 24-15 victory over Northwestern, Michigan State’s 40-31 conquest of Indiana, and Minnesota’s 38-31 victory at Purdue.
Iowa, in non-conference, beat Middle Tennessee, 48-3, and Illinois had the week off in preparation for its game at Minnesota Saturday.
With victories already over Northern Illinois and Illinois, Nebraska will try to complete the Illinois hat trick Saturday at 3 p.m. in Lincoln, Neb. when the Huskers play Northwestern. Both teams are in the Big Ten West Division and coming off conference losses.
Northwestern, 1-3, is not that pretty, either. The Wildcats have lost to Michigan State and Wisconsin in Conference games.
Illinois, 2-2 and 0-1 in the Big 10, will be at undefeated Minnesota, 4-0 and 1-0, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The Gophers may be undefeated, but, victories over South Dakota State, Fresno State, and Georgia Southern to go with the victory over struggling Purdue has not caught the public’s fancy. Illinois easily could be 4-0 with close losses to Eastern Michigan and Nebraska. The Gophers merit being the favorite over Illinois, however, Minnesota was the pick last season and host Illinois trounced the Gophers, 55-31.
• What is so hot about graduate transfer quarterbacks? Illinois, 2-2, has Brandon Peters who couldn’t make it at Michigan, Northern Illinois is using Ross Bowers who went nowhere at California in a three-year span, and Marcus Childers, who guided the Huskies to the MAC championship last season, sits on the Northern Illinois bench. Look at Northwestern with Clemson transfer Hunter Johnson under center. Although not a graduate transfer, Johnson bailed on Clemson when it became obvious two years ago that Trevor Lawrence would get the starting job.