Taking inventory of the 2026 MAC football over-the-air games

The early-season TV announcements for Weeks 0-4 last week was once again one of the most anticipated events of the college football offseason. Perhaps no "Group" conference benefited more than the Mid-American Conference after the initial reveal of games. In all, the MAC received four spots on over-the-air (antenna) television in road games against Power Four schools– including at least three schools with the potential to be ranked highly in the preseason polls.

The CW will air two MAC-affiliated games, with Miami’s game against Pittsburgh to air September 5th and Central Michigan’s visit to defending national runner-up Miami on Sept. 26th. On more traditional networks, NBC will air Western Michigan’s visit to Michigan for its first “Big Ten Saturday Night” game of the season on Sept. 5th, while FOX has claimed Kent State's game against Ohio State on Sept. 19th for a "Big Noon Kickoff" window.

We take a deep dive into each program's history with national and regional broadcasts to set the table for what could be an intriguing non-conference slate:

Central Michigan Chippewas

All four schools are no strangers to over-the-air television– but Central Michigan has the most robust history with games caught by the rabbit ears.

Most Chippewa football historians know that ABC broadcast Central Michigan’s appearances in the Pioneer and Camellia Bowls en route to the 1974 Division II Championship, with the Camellia Bowl receiving a national broadcast.

However, many may not realize that Central Michigan received at least one ABC regional appearance each year from 1977 to 1981, including two in 1979, thanks to a 45-9-1 record in that span. The Chippewas would notch a 6-1-1 record in those ABC games, with Toledo causing the lone blemishes through a 7-7 tie in 1979 and a 17-3 loss in 1981. The full list of games is below:

• 1977 vs. Bowling Green
• 1978 @ Western Michigan
• 1979 vs. Miami
• 1979 @ Toledo
• 1980 vs. Bowling Green
• 1981 @ Toledo

Central Michigan was such a household name in the state that it was involved in a broadcast controversy that reached U.S. Senator Robert Griffin, when Detroit’s ABC station, WXYZ-TV, opted to air Purdue-Northwestern over the Chippewas’ 1977 game against Bowling Green. WXYZ acquiesced, but it shows the reputation the Chippewas had in that era.

The Chippewas would not appear on over-the-air television aside from local syndication for another 40 years. In 2021, COVID-19 aligned the stars for Central Michigan to go from playing Boise State in the Arizona Bowl to playing Washington State on CBS in the Sun Bowl. Notably, the Chippewas beat the Cougars to become the first MAC team to win a Sun Bowl since Cincinnati in 1950.

Full CMU broadcast history:

Miami RedHawks

Miami has nearly as proud a football tradition as Central Michigan, yet has not earned as many over-the-air appearances.

Miami plucked three regular-season regional broadcast selections in the 1970s and 1980s, with their first appearance on ABC in 1972 in front of a regional audience at home against Bowling Green. Seven years later, Miami visited Mount Pleasant to face Central Michigan in its next regional ABC appearance in 1979, losing a 19-18 heart-breaker. Miami's last selection of this era would be a conference game against Bowling Green in 1982, which received regional broadcast coverage from CBS.

(Miami’s 1974 Tangerine Bowl appearance was broadly syndicated to several independent stations across the country.)

The now-RedHawks returned to over-the-air television in 2004 and 2005. In 2004, Miami faced Michigan alongside Bowling Green-Oklahoma in an opening week noon ABC regional slate on the first Saturday of September. The following year, the RedHawks had the same ABC regional slot on Labor Day Saturday, this time against Ohio State alongside TCU-Oklahoma. Miami lost both games by a combined score of 77-24.

In 2023, Miami returned to ABC when it played in the Cure Bowl against Appalachian State, losing 14-7 in monsoon conditions.

Full Miami broadcast history:

Western Michigan Broncos

Western Michigan has arguably the most limited over-the-air history of the three schools mentioned. The Broncos made their over-the-air TV debut in 1978 when they hosted Central Michigan in an ABC regional broadcast. Their first-ever national broadcast was in 2000, when the Broncos played in the MAC Championship Game against the Marshall Thundering Herd before a national audience on ABC, losing 19-14.

The Broncos returned to over-the-air television in 2009 and began a three-year streak of broadcast television appearances. ABC aired Western Michigan’s season-opener against Michigan in 2009 regionally alongside Baylor-Wake Forest and Georgia-Oklahoma State. The following year, NBC aired the Broncos’ visit to Notre Dame.

Finally, in 2011, ABC gave Western Michigan's game against Michigan a regional TV slot, this time as a reverse-mirror game on ESPN2 with USC-Minnesota. (For more on that concept, read here or view the chart below.)

Full WMU broadcast history:

Kent State Golden Flashes

Finally, Kent State will become the first MAC program to play on Fox’s flagship time slot, Big Noon Kickoff when it travels to Ohio State on September 19th. (We covered the Golden Flashes’ over-the-air TV appearances last week when they announced their 2027 visit to Notre Dame, which you can read about here.)

The last time they were on network TV, the broadcast map below applied, with Boise State/UConn being the mirrored game:

Full Kent State broadcast history:

These upcoming appearances on over-the-air TV are a reminder of the MAC’s intriguing history on college football’s biggest regular season stages. The league may not have dominated the ABC and CBS airwaves, but it was a consistent player. Strong performances by this quartet could open the door to return to the conference's status on network TV– especially as the MAC nears shopping their media rights deal in the near future.