The 2022 Mid-American Conference football season was the 77th season for the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

(MAC), as part of the

2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 153rd season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ...

. The season began on September 1 and concluded with its conference championship game on Saturday, December 3 at

Ford Field Ford Field is a domed American football stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It primarily serves as the home of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), the Michigan Panthers of the United Football League (UFL), the Mid-Americ ...

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

won the East Division with a conference record of 7–1 and

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Or ...

won the West Division with a 5–3 conference record. Toledo won the championship over Ohio by a final score of 17–7.

Previous season

During the 2021 conference season,

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Ashtabula, Burton, East Liverpool, Jackson Township, New Philadelphia, ...

won the East Division, while

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois, with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by ...

won the West Division, both with 6–2 conference records. In the

2021 MAC Championship Game The 2021 MAC Championship Game was a college football game played on December 4, 2021, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. It was the 25th edition of the MAC Football Championship Game and determined the champion of the Mid-American Conference ( ...

, Northern Illinois defeated Kent State by a final score of 41–23. Northern Illinois advanced to the

Cure Bowl The Cure Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played in December of each year since 2015 in Orlando, Florida. It is currently held at Camping World Stadium, and in the past has been held at FBC Mortgage Stadium and ...

, where they lost to Coastal Carolina, 41–47.

Preseason

Preseason polls

Media Poll

On July 26 the MAC announced the preseason media poll. Defending MAC champion Northern Illinois was named the preseason favorite.

Coaches Poll

On August 29 the MAC released the coaches poll. Defending champion Northern Illinois was favored to win the west while Kent State was selected as a slight favorite to win the East. Northern Illinois received 4 of the 12 MAC championship votes.

Individual Award Preseason Watchlists

Head Coaches

*On November 4, 2021,

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

fired head coach

Tom Arth Thomas Edward Arth (born May 11, 1981) is an American football coach and former player who is the quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). Arth previously served as the head football coach at John Carr ...

after posting a 3–24 record during his tenure with the school. The school hired

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

offensive coordinator

Joe Moorhead Joe Moorhead (born November 2, 1973) is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach for the University of Akron, a position he has held since 2022. Moorhead served as the head football coach at Fordham Univ ...

as the new head coach for the 2022 season.

Post-season changes

*On November 28, Western Michigan announced that they had fired head coach Tim Lester. Lester posted a record of 37–32 over six years at the school. On December 8, Western Michigan announced that they had hired Louisville offensive coordinator Lance Taylor to be the new head coach. *On December 5, Kent State head coach Sean Lewis was announced as the new offensive coordinator at Colorado in the Pac-12 conference. On December 14, Kent State announced Kenni Burns as the new head coach for the 2023 season.

Rankings

Schedule

The schedule for the 2022 MAC football season was released on February 25, 2022. All times Eastern time.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

MAC Conference Championship Game

Postseason

Bowl Games

The MAC finished with a 4–2 bowl record which was good enough to win the Bowl Challenge Cup

Selection of teams

*Bowl eligible (6): Bowling Green, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Miami (OH), Ohio, Toledo *Bowl ineligible (6): Akron, Ball State, Central Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan

MAC records vs. other conferences

2022–2023 records against non-conference foes: Regular season Postseason

Mid-American vs Power 5 matchups

This is a list of games the MAC has scheduled versus power conference teams ( ACC,

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

, BYU, Notre Dame and SEC). All rankings are from the current AP Poll at the time of the game.

Mid-American vs Group of Five matchups

The following games include MAC teams competing against teams from the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

C-USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern United States, Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Associ ...

Mountain West The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Janu ...

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered stretching across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the Parallel 36°30′ north. Several climates can be found in the re ...

Mid-American vs FBS independents matchups

The following games include MAC teams competing against

FBS Independents National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision independent schools are four-year institutions whose football programs are not part of an NCAA-affiliated conference. This means that FBS independents are not required to schedule ...

, which includes

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a Public university system, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution ...

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, or

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the public university system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, a medical school in Worcester and a law school in Dartmouth ...

Mid-American vs. FCS matchups

The following games include MAC teams competing against FCS schools.

Head to head matchups

''Updated with the results of all games through December 3, 2022.''

Awards and honors

Player of the week honors

East Division

West Division

MAC Individual Awards

The following individuals received postseason honors as voted by the Mid-American Conference football coaches at the end of the season.

All-Conference Teams

The following players were listed as part of the All-Conference teams.

NFL draft

The following list includes all MAC players who were drafted in the

2023 NFL draft The 2023 NFL draft was the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2023 NFL season, 2023 season. The NFL draft, draft was held outside of Kansas City Union Station, Union Station i ...

References

{{2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season navbox 2022 Mid-American Conference football season