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2024 Mid-American Conference football season

The 2024 Mid-American Conference football season was the 79th season for the Mid-American Conference (MAC), as part of the 2024 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Non-conference play began on August 29. Conference play began on September 21 and concluded with the MAC championship game on December 7 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. For the first time since 1996, the MAC did not have divisions. The Championship game featured the two teams with the best conference records. This was the conference's last season with 12 members as in 2025. it will see its first change in membership since 2015 with the addition of UMass.

Miami and Ohio finished the season with 7-1 conference records and the Battle of the Bricks rivalry happened twice in the same season for the first time with a rematch in the Championship Game. Bowling Green's tight-end Harold Fannin Jr. was the Offensive Player of the Year and won the Vern Smith Leadership Award. Linebacker Shaun Dolac of Buffalo was Defensive Player of the Year. Tim Albin of Ohio won Coach of the Year.

Ohio avenged the regular season loss to Miami, winning 38–3, and won the MAC Championship for the first time since 1968. Parker Navarro won Offensive Player of the Game with 235 passing yards with 2 touchdowns and 73 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. Bradley Weaver was Defensive Player of the Game. Gianni Spetic hit a 51-yard field goal and won Special Teams Player of the Game.

Seven MAC teams qualified for bowls with a record of five wins and two losses.

Preseason

The MAC Football Kickoff was held on Friday, July 19, 2024 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio from 9:00 am EDT to 1:30 pm EDT. Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher spoke. Each team had their head coach and a student athlete from both the offense and the defense available to speak to the media.

Preseason polls

Coaches Poll

On July 19, the MAC announced the preseason coaches poll. Defending MAC champion Miami was named the preseason favorite to win the conference while defending West division champion Toledo was picked to finish second.

Individual Award Preseason Watchlists

Coaches

Coaching changes

The MAC enters the 2024 season with one coaching change from 2023.

  • Buffalo head coach Maurice Linguist resigned on January 16, 2024, after his team finished the 2023 season with a 3–9 record, to join Kalen DeBoer’s staff at Alabama. On January 21, 2024 Pete Lembo, who was the associate head coach and special teams coordinator at South Carolina and was previously a MAC head coach at Ball State, was hired as the new head coach.

Head coaching records

Source -

Mid-season changes

  • On November 16, Ball State announced that they had fired head coach Mike Neu. Neu had gone 40–63 with the school during his tenure. Offensive line coach Colin Johnson was named the interim head coach. On December 4, Ball State announced that Mike Uremovich would become the new head coach. Uremovich had previously been head coach at Butler.
  • On December 7, Ohio head coach Tim Albin was announced as the new head coach of Charlotte in the American Athletic Conference. Offensive coordinator Brian Smith was named the interim head coach for Ohio's bowl game.

Post-season changes

  • On November 20, 2024, Central Michigan head coach Jim McElwain announced that he would retire at the end of the season. On December 9, Central Michigan announced Matt Drinkall as the new head coach for the 2025 season. Drinkall had previously been the offensive line coach at Army.

Rankings

Source:

AP -

Coaches -

CFP -

Schedule

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

Week 14

MAC Conference Championship Game

Postseason

Bowl Games

MAC records vs. other conferences

2024–2025 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, Big 12, Pac-12, 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, Mountain West or Sun Belt.

Mid-American vs FBS independents matchups

The following games include MAC teams competing against FBS Independents, which includes UConn 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

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 NFL draft will be held at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The following list includes all MAC players in the draft.

List of selections

References