Top 5 Early MAC Favorites for 2024
Neither Toledo nor Miami have been hit too hard by the transfer portal. Who's going to win the MAC in 2024?
MIAMI
The Miami RedHawks ought to be front-of-mind for everybody making their way-too-early lists of conference favorites next year now that the 2023 season is officially over. This team, again, returns so many key ingredients for a good team at this level, and you’d be almost crazy to go against the conventional wisdom here. Chuck Martin, QB Brett Gabbert, MAC Defensive MVP Matt Salopek, K Graham Nicholson — all of them are coming back next season [knock on wood].
By my count, Miami’s had the fewest players transfer out after its MAC Championship-winning year. Sure, Gage Larvadain, Rashad Amos, and Cade Woullard are huge losses, but I’m really impressed with how much of this roster is still held together.
TOLEDO
Of course the Rockets have to be included in this conversation. It doesn’t matter if Toledo’s played in a recent MAC championship game or not (which it did), Toledo’s a well-resourced MAC program that sometimes lends itself to having the league’s most talented roster.
Yes, Toledo loses some big names to graduation (CB Quinyon Mitchell, DT Judge Culpepper) and transfer (QB Dequan Finn, RB Peny Boone), but not enough for me to think that Toledo isn’t able to replace its talent with more talent.
BOWLING GREEN
Bowling Green has really made me look stupid by not giving this unit any real amount of respect before the season. BG’s improved under Scot Loeffler over these last couple of years, and with all of the returning talent BG will have coming back to its roster — especially RB Terion Stewart — I think BG is certainly strong enough to win some big MAC games next year. But how many favorable breaks will BG manage to get when the MAC’s new pods-based schedules are released?
To refresh, the MAC’s going to have these locked pods moving forward:
Pod #1: Akron, Buffalo Kent State
Pod #2: Ball State, Miami, Ohio
Pod #3: Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Toledo
Pod #4: Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan
WESTERN MICHIGAN
I was all-in on Western Michigan’s chances in 2024 at some point in October, but what the heck happened down the stretch? It looked like this was a team that was bound to go bowling even after a 2-6 start to the year, then it bottomed out hard. A lot can improve between now and September, and WMU at least has shown some strong flashes in Lance Taylor’s first season as head coach.
OHIO
I don’t think Tim Albin and Ohio’s incapable of replacing important starters on its roster, but these Bobcats lost some horses this year. QB Kurtis Rourke, the biggest chess piece in all of this, is off to Indiana, as is WR Miles Cross, RB Sieh Bangura went to Minnesota, TEs Tyler Foster and Will Kacmarket are at Oklahoma State and Ohio State, respectively, and OL Kurt Danneker is now at Baylor. That was just one side of the ball.
Still, Ohio at least keeps the head coach who has been with the program since the beginning of the Frank Solich era. Albin, who was once a head coach at the NAIA level (Northwestern Oklahoma State), has an all-time coaching record of 48-24 (23-16 at Ohio, 16-8 MAC), including 2-0 in bowl games. Each of the last two years, he’s had 10-win seasons. I’d like to think that Ohio’s in good hands at this point.
DARK HORSE?
AKRON — So far the Joe Moorhead experience hasn’t been super wonderful on the field. He gets a lot of verbal respect for his offensive prowess as a coach, but SP+ tells a different story: Akron’s offense is currently ranked #132 in the country.
BALL STATE — Ball State went through a whole makeover last year when it had to break away from the 21-personnel base offense it wanted to run with this year. Even when the season got hairy early and the season’s goals became more out of reach for them, this team still managed to go 3-2 over its final five games, which doesn’t include the 13-6 loss to Toledo that was so dangerously close from turning into an overtime nightmare for the Rockets.
BUFFALO — Buffalo wasn’t an explosive team in 2023, and the offense regressed hard after it lost three talented receivers from 2022. Buffalo rightfully changed faces at offensive coordinator for 2024 (out goes DJ Mangas; in comes Dave Patenaude), but that doesn’t mean their problems on offense are yet fixed.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN — Central Michigan had a weird 2024, and now Jase Bauer is out to play QB for Sam Houston. Other than being gritty about their business, I don’t really know what the identity of this team’s supposed to be right now. Is there ever going to be a good passing element to this offense so long as Jim McElwain is CMU’s head coach?
EASTERN MICHIGAN — Feel free to mentally throw the 2023 season in the toilet. As noteworthy as the feats have been for EMU to even get into 3-straight bowl games, there’s not going to be much experience on the field when the team goes to UMass to open the season.
KENT STATE — You really have got to sell me on the transfers coming into Kent State to sell me on their odds of being even bowl-eligible in 2024. I’m rooting for the turnaround, but SP+ hates Kent State’s chances (#133 overall).
NORTHERN ILLINOIS — Things have seemed off with this team, pretty much over the last two seasons. Injuries help explain 2022’s issues, but the 2023 season, even with three-straight wins to close out the year over WMU, Kent State, and Arkansas State in a bowl, there’s a lot that needs to be addressed by this NIU program before the 2024 season begins. If not, NIU could be primed for another 1-4 start to the season.
Looks like pods 2&3 have an early advantage over pods 1&4.