The 2023 Mid-American Conference football season was the 78th 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

2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 154th 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). ...

. Non-conference play began with one game on August 26. Conference play began on September 23 and concluded with the

MAC championship game The MAC Football Championship Game is an annual postseason college football game played to determine the champion of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). History The game has been played since 1997, when the conference was first divided into div ...

on Saturday, December 2 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 ...

. Miami won the East division with a 7-1 conference record with their only loss coming against Toledo. Toledo won the West with a perfect conference record. Their quarterback Dequan Finn won Player of the Year and coach Jason Candle won coach of the year. On October 21, during the regular season game between the division winners, Miami quarterback Brett Gabbert suffered a season ending leg injury. In spite of that, Miami won their first MAC Championship since 2019 with a 23–14 upset victory in the

MAC Championship Game The MAC Football Championship Game is an annual postseason college football game played to determine the champion of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). History The game has been played since 1997, when the conference was first divided into div ...

Previous season

During the 2022 conference season,

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 record of 7–1 and Toledo won the West Division with a 5–3 conference record. In the 2022 MAC Championship Game, Toledo defeated Ohio by a final score of 17–7. The MAC finished with a 4–2 bowl record which was good enough to win the Bowl Challenge Cup

Preseason

The MAC Football Kickoff was held on July 20, 2023 at Fox Theatre in

from 9:00 am EDT to 1:30 pm EDT. Each team had their head coach and a student athlete from both the offense and the defense to speak to the media. *Akron – Head Coach Joe Moorhead, Daniel George, R-Sr., WR, KJ Martin, R-So., DB *Ball State – Head Coach

Mike Neu Michael David Neu (born December 29, 1970) is an American football coach and former quarterback who serves as a senior offensive assistant for Illinois. He recently served as the head football coach at Ball State. He played college football at ...

, Brady Hunt, R-So., TE, Clayton Coll, Sr., LB *Bowling Green – Head Coach

Scot Loeffler Scot Loeffler (born November 1, 1974) is an American college football coach and former player who is currently the quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Bowling Gre ...

, Darren Anders, Sr., ILB, Odieu Hiliare, Sr., WR *Buffalo – Head Coach Maurice Linguist, Marcus Fuqua, 5th-Yr., S, Cole Snyder, 5th-Yr., QB *Central Michigan – Head Coach Jim McElwain, Deiyantei Powell Woods, Sr., OL, Trey Jones, Jr., DB *Eastern Michigan – Head Coach Chris Creighton, Samson Evans, Grad., RB, Chase Kline, Senior, LB *Kent State – Head Coach Kenni Burns, CJ West, Sr., DL, Khalib Johns, Gr., LB *Miami – Head Coach Chuck Martin, Brett Gabbert, R-Jr., QB, Matthew Salopek, R-Jr., LB *Northern Illinois – Head Coach Thomas Hammock, Nolan Potter, R-Sr., OL, James Ester, Sr., DT *Ohio – Head Coach

Tim Albin Tim Albin (born September 13, 1965) is an American college football coach and former player who is the head football coach at Charlotte. He previously served as the head football coach at Ohio University from 2021 to 2024, where he led them to a ...

Kurtis Rourke Kurtis Rourke (born October 25, 2000) is a Canadian professional football quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio Bobcats and the Indiana Hoosiers. Rourke was selecte ...

, R-Sr., QB, Bryce Houston, Grad., LB *Toledo – Head Coach Jason Candle, Quinyon Mitchell, Jr., CB, Dequan Finn, Jr., QB *Western Michigan – Head Coach Lance Taylor, Jacob Gideon, Jr., OL, Marshawn Kneeland, R-Jr., DL

Preseason polls

Coaches Poll

On July 20 the MAC announced the preseason coaches poll. Defending MAC champion Toledo was named the preseason favorite to win the conference while Ohio was picked to win the Eastern Division.

Individual Award Preseason Watchlists

Coaches

Coaching changes

The MAC enters the 2023 season with two new head football coaches: *

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for a region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Generally, it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Peninsula's Lake ...

fired Tim Lester on November 28, 2022, after his team finished the 2022 season with a 5–7. On December 7, 2022 Lance Taylor, who was the offensive coordinator for

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, was introduced as the new head coach. * On December 4, 2022 Sean Lewis stepped down as Kent State head coach to become the offensive coordinator at

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

under new head coach

Deion Sanders Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. (born August 9, 1967) is an American American football, football coach with the Colorado Buffaloes football, Colorado Buffaloes. Sanders is also a former professional football and baseball player, having played in the N ...

. On December 13, 2022, Kent State hired former

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

associate head coach Kenni Burns as their new head coach.

Head coaching records

Source -

Rankings

Source: AP - Coaches - CFP -

Schedule

All times Eastern time.

Week 0

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

MAC records vs. other conferences

2023–2024 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 ...

, 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,

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 or

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 ...

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.

Mid-American vs. FCS matchups

The following games include MAC teams competing against FCS schools.

Head to head matchups

Updated through end of regular season

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.

National Awards

Lou Groza Award The Lou Groza Award is presented annually to the top college football placekicker in the United States by the Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County Sports Commission. The award is named after former Ohio State Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns ...

: Graham Nicholson, Miami

All-Americans

Currently, the NCAA compiles consensus all-America teams in the sports of Division I-FBS football and Division I men's basketball using a point system computed from All-America teams named by coaches associations or media sources. The system consists of three points for a first-team honor, two points for second-team honor, and one point for third-team honor. Honorable mention and fourth team or lower recognitions are not accorded any points.

College Football All-American The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best college football players in the United States at their respective positions. The original use of the term ''All-America'' seems to have been to the 1889 College Football ...

consensus teams are compiled by position and the player accumulating the most points at each position is named first team consensus all-American. Currently, the NCAA recognizes All-Americans selected by the AP, AFCA, FWAA, ''TSN'', and the WCFF to determine Consensus and Unanimous All-Americans. Any player named to the First Team by all five of the NCAA-recognized selectors is deemed a Unanimous All-American.

NFL draft

The

NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

will be held at

Campus Martius Park Campus Martius Park ( ') is a re-established park in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. After the Great Fire of 1805, Campus Martius (from the Latin for ''Field of Mars'', where Roman heroes walked) was the focal point of Judge Augustus Woodward's ...

Detroit 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 ...

. The Following list includes all MAC Players in the draft.

List of selections

References

{{2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season navbox 2023 Mid-American Conference football season