Now that the dust has settled on another chaotic college football regular season, I think it is fair to say the biggest news coming out of the sport was not Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss to join LSU, but instead what went down in the Mid-American Conference to close the season.
The MAC was as entertaining as ever this year, with the last spot in the MAC title game in Detroit coming down to the last week of games and three final teams: Miami, Toledo and Ohio.
Going into the holiday weekend, Miami was the projected favorite to take that spot to face off against Western Michigan, and that favorite pulled through.
The RedHawks routed Ball State in Oxford for a 45-24 win to clinch their third straight MAC title game appearance, the first being a win over Toledo in 2023 and last year’s appearance being the famous 38-3 blowout against Ohio.
Miami has yet another shot at MAC glory, but there has been debate about whether or not that shot is deserved, with almost all of the debate coming from fans of Toledo and Ohio.
Both teams did their jobs this week. Ohio got a road win on Black Friday against Buffalo and Toledo got a road win against Central Michigan on Saturday.
Those two wins tied the schools at 6-2 overall in conference play with Miami. The RedHawks’ two losses in the MAC were to Ohio and Toledo, which is what is causing the mass confusion.
Fans expected the head-to-head matchups between Miami and Toledo and Miami and Ohio, both resulting in losses for the RedHawks, to spell doom for the season; however, because Miami defeated the 7-1 Western Michigan squad that has wins over Toledo and Ohio, Miami takes the tiebreaker.
The head-to-head games have to matter, and if both Toledo and Ohio have wins over another 6-2 team, those wins should take precedent. Miami beating Western Michigan is a big deal and should merit some favor in the tiebreaker system, but the head-to-head games between the schools have to matter in the end, and for both Toledo and Ohio, they didn’t.
Both of those squads are waiting on the bowl game announcement, which is the final game of the year, while Miami has secured two more games.
While I agree with fans that the MAC’s tiebreaker system is flawed and comes as a result of splitting up divisions, there is more context than that.
It is true that if divisions were in place this year, Ohio would be heading to Detroit. However, if divisions were in place last year, the Bobcats would not have the MAC championship banners donning the lightpoles outside of Peden Stadium, because Miami defeated Ohio in the regular season last year.
Beyond divisions, Ohio’s 8-4 finish overall and 6-2 finish in conference could have been avoided multiple times throughout the year; the first being the disaster of an afternoon in Muncie, Indiana, that saw Ohio fall to Ball State by a score of 20-14.
Ball State was inherently awful this season, but there is still no doubt Ohio should have beaten a team that went on to finish 4-8 overall and 3-5 in conference.
The Bobcats had a lead at halftime in that game, but a huge comeback from Ball State was aided by a mountain of mistakes from Ohio, including multiple bad snaps, a missed field goal and a safety that came as a result of a botched snap.
That day in Muncie ultimately cost Ohio a shot at becoming the first back-to-back MAC champions since Northern Illinois in 2011 and 2012.
This season was an overall success in the first year of the Brian Smith era, which featured signature wins against West Virginia and Miami and an overall record of 8-4 with a chance to make it 9-4 in the bowl game; however, the MAC’s tiebreakers and Ohio’s own shortcomings against Ball State will turn the 2025 season into one with untapped potential.
