PRESEASON · POWER 141 MTU 77.92 JCU 77.33 WAL 76.54 WAB 75.35 DEP 74.16 MAL 72.77 ONU 72.68 BW 72.59 MAR 71.010 HEI 70.511 MUS 70.512 OTT 68.813 WIT 67.114 WOO 66.0DYNASTY YEAR ONE
CFBN — College Football Network

Preseason · The Power 14

Mount Union opens at No. 1 — and the gap is real

The Purple Raiders bring the league’s best roster (77.9 overall), its highest-rated player, and a Kehres-school spread that nobody in the MRC has an answer for yet.

CFBN Football Staff

The first CFBN Power 14 starts where every conversation about this league starts: Alliance, Ohio. Mount Union’s two-deep grades out at 77.9, with Gunner Albright (86 overall) headlining a receiver room that has no peer in the conference. Fifty Purple Raiders rate 70 or better. Nobody else has more than 49.

The chase group is a two-team argument. John Carroll (77.3) is built the opposite way — a pro-style offense in front of the league’s best defensive player, middle linebacker Kyler Trapp (86). Walsh (76.5) will throw it around the yard in a spread RPO and dares you to keep up. All three contenders carry 3½-star prestige; after them the ladder steps down through Wabash’s trenches to a middle class that is genuinely hard to seed.

At the bottom, Wittenberg and Wooster open the year as half-star programs with veteran senior cores and not much else. Circle their Wagon Wheel meeting anyway — basement rivalry games have a way of being the best watch of the week.

John Carroll

The league’s best defense runs through one man

Kyler Trapp is the only 86-rated defender in the MRC, and the Blue Streaks’ 4-3 is drawn up to let him hunt. The question in Cleveland is whether a methodical offense can hold serve with the two spread teams above and below them in the poll.

The Basement

In Springfield and Wooster, the plan is patience

The league’s two half-star programs open a combined 27 points of team rating behind Mount Union. Both lean on senior leaders — and both know the first Wagon Wheel is winnable.