The Mid-American Conference is known by most as a college football entity that is always on its own time. The games played in nearly empty stadiums in 30-degree weather on windy Tuesday nights in November have become the flagship product the MAC produces, bringing in fans to watch some of the wildest and sloppiest football played at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.
This year, that wildness is on full display. To make it even better, the MAC play has very real implications on the line for many teams in the conference, Ohio being one of them.
At the time of writing, there are still five teams in the race to Detroit to play for the MAC title: Western Michigan, Miami, Toledo, Central Michigan and Ohio.
Not all teams can make it, and with the Broncos sitting at 6-1, they are a near lock, leaving four teams in realistic contention for a spot in Detroit.
It is worth noting the MAC has been absolutely radio silent on what is actually going on with the scenarios each team needs in order to make it to the championship game. There has not been one post on X or a press release clearing up what has been an extremely confusing process for fans of these teams. This is especially unbelievable when considering the list of tiebreakers the MAC introduced last year with the elimination of divisions.
This has left fans and journalists alike to do their own digging and calculations to find out what the path is for each team left. For Ohio’s sake, it needs to win against Buffalo on Black Friday and receive a lot of help around the conference to have a chance to defend its title.
The help Ohio needs is complicated, and it will all be meaningless if the Bobcats are not able to beat Buffalo this week, but here is a rundown of what needs to happen.
It starts on Black Friday in Dekalb, Illinois, where Northern Illinois needs to beat Kent State on the same day Ohio needs to beat Buffalo to have a chance going into Saturday.
If those two things happen, Ohio needs Ball State to pull off a huge upset against Miami in Oxford, and Central Michigan needs to beat Toledo at home.
If those four results happen, Ohio heads back to Detroit against, presumably, Western Michigan. If not, the Bobcats look ahead to the bowl game for their final game of the season.
It is quite poetic that the least-likely result Ohio needs next week is Ball State toppling Miami, with the Cardinals being the real team that played spoiler to Ohio's season all the way back in early October.
That game was a disaster of a loss when it happened, but with Ohio being so close, and yet so far, from a spot in Detroit now, it is an absolutely crushing loss against a team that hasn’t looked great outside of the upset against Ohio.
From my lens, the most likely matchup in the title game is Western Michigan against Miami, a matchup that would be a real shame considering Miami has not beaten Ohio or Toledo this year, meaning the RedHawks would be getting in on a tiebreaker between the three schools.
The Bobcats need an all-time MAC-miracle to get back to Ford Field, but time can tell if the MAC delivers more chaos.
