2026 College Football Preview Part XVII- MAC

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Welcome Back!

Today I continue my conference previews. These previews will attempt to predict how each conference finishes, but realize that doing so is extremely difficult, especially since no conference has a balanced schedule. Also, whatever the conferences come up with in the form of tiebreakers will make a huge difference, as all but the Sun Belt have done away with divisions. In addition, these predictions aren't my personal opinion; they are the result of the formula/model/statistical analysis/whatever. I will sometimes mention my thoughts in the narratives below the predictions. Also, the formula for my predictions here is different than for my Power Rankings. In other words, for a particular conference, one team may appear higher than another team here, but be ranked behind that same team in the PR.

The list of records for 3-years, 6-years, and 10 years are conference records only, and do not include any results for the conference championship games. You will notice that the teams haven't all played the same number of games, especially when considering they should have. This is because that teams played a varied number of games in 2020, and that sometimes games get cancelled (see Virginia in 2022, for example). In the case of teams switching conferences, I counted the record from their previous conference. Independent teams joining a conference were counted with their full record (UMass last year), but FCS teams moving up enter with 0-0 records.

In case you are interested, I get all of my information from various sources. I use the 4 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, Athlon, and Sporting News), but I also use many different websites, including (but not limited to): Google, Winsipedia, sports-reference.com, ESPN.com, TeamRankings.com, NCAA.com, and, of course, individual school websites.

I don't have a staff- it's just me- so all of the research is my own from these various sources (it doesn't help when they contradict each other...), so any mistakes are mine. I also don't have an editor/proofreader, so you are likely to find several (many? I hope not) typos, such as commas where periods should be (or vice versa), a misspelled or missing word, doubled words ("the the" in the middle of a sentence, for example), etc. 

Finally, feel free to leave a comment. Interacting is much of the fun! Of course, if you know me personally, feel free to just text. I'll get that a lot quicker.

So, on with the previews!


MAC


3-Year History


Miami 20-4/.833/1st

Ohio 19-5/.792/2nd

Toledo 18-6/.750/3rd

WMU 15-9/.625/4th

BGSU 13-11/.542/5th

Buffalo 13-11/.542/5th

CMU 10-14/.417/7th

EMU 9-15/.375/8th

Ball State 8-16/.333/9th

Akron 8-16/.333/9th

Kent State 4-20/.167/11th

UMass 5-27/.156/12th

Sac St N/A


6-Year History


Miami 31-12/.721/1st

Ohio 31-12/.721/1st

Toledo 32-14/.696/3rd

WMU 27-19/.587/4th

Buffalo 25-20/.556/5th

CMU 22-24/.478/6th

BGSU 20-25/.444/7th

Ball State 20-26/.435/8th

EMU 20-26/.435/8th

Kent State 17-27/.386/10th

Akron 11-35/.239/11th

UMass 7-53/.117/12th

Sac St N/A


10-Year History


Ohio 53-22/.707/1st

Miami 53-22/.707/1st

Toledo 53-25/.679/3rd

WMU 49-29/.628/4th

Buffalo 42-35/.545/5th

CMU 37-41/.474/6th

EMU 35-43/.449/7th

BGSU 29-48/.377/8th

Ball State 28-50/.359/9th

Kent State 26-50/.342/10th

Akron 22-56/.282/11th

UMass 18-90/.167/12th

Sac St N/A


Predicted Finish:


  1. Western Michigan

  2. Miami

  3. Toledo

  4. Ohio

  5. Central Michigan

  6. Buffalo

  7. Eastern Michigan

  8. Bowling Green

  9. Akron

  10. Kent State

  11. Sacramento State

  12. Ball State

  13. UMass


Conference Champion: Western Michigan


Chances to make the playoff: Slim to none. Any team would have to go undefeated, but the teams expected to win the conference have almost no chance to go undefeated. WMU plays at Michigan and hosts Boise State; Miami plays at Pitt and Cincy in Cincinnati; Toledo plays at Michigan State and hosts Temple and SDSU; and Ohio plays at Nebraska and South Alabama, and hosts Jax State. All of the teams have at least 2 nearly guaranteed losses on their schedule, which will keep any of them from reaching the CFP.


Don’t be surprised if… the MAC wins 2 or more games against P4 teams this year.


I’m not convinced… Bowling Green will finish as low as 8th in the conference. I expect them to take a significant leap this year and finish in the top half of the MAC.



Make sure you come back tomorrow as I continue my previews!


Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed! 

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