I will have to admit, it is really hard to say what was learned from the non-conference games that Eastern Michigan has played. I sort of figured that Eastern Michigan was punching below their weight when they played Saint Francis, and much above their weight when they played Wisconsin.
UMass and Texas State, on the other hand, are enigmas to me. Since UMass was in the MAC were about equivalent to EMU in that time, I expected them to be roughly equal to Eastern Michigan. Eastern Michigan rolled over them, instead.
Since Texas State plays in the Sun Belt and I consider the Sun Belt at least equal to the MAC, I expected them to be roughly equal.