Monday MAC Musings: 2026 Week 11

No conference is better defined by the word "parity" than the Mid-American Conference.

The MAC has not seen a repeat champion since 2021 and 2022 Northern Illinois. The underdog won five of the last seven championship games.

So it's only fitting that we currently have four teams tied atop the conference standings with 5-1 records — Toledo, Western Michigan, Buffalo, and Ohio. That's a lot to sort out in two weeks. But before we look ahead, let's review Week 11.

Here is this week's Monday MAC Musings (which doesn't get published on a Monday during Midweek MACtion season), recapping all thoughts, takeaways, statistics, and more for every MAC game.

Western Michigan 42, Akron 14

• That was very metal of Broc Lowry. He broke his nose on the opening possession, missed the remainder of the first half, and returned to finish the game. And he finished 15-of-15 passing, becoming the first FBS quarterback to complete as many as 15 attempts in a game this season without an incompletion.
• Mason Reynolds played very well as Lowry's backup, leading three consecutive touchdown drives in the first half. He took great command of the offense, completing 7-of-8 passes with two touchdowns while rushing for 42 yards on five carries. I'd say Western Michigan has a great future at the position in Reynolds, but Lowry is still only a junior.
• That is the Western Michigan run game we've waited to see all year, producing 360 yards and three touchdowns. Jalen Buckley rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns, while Cole Cabana added 107 and one score. Cabana's last two outings featured his first two 100-yard performances. He had an 82-yard breakaway touchdown in both. Western Michigan needed a home-run hitting running back to step up, and Cabana has answered the bell.
• The streak is over. Akron had allowed EXACTLY three sacks in six-straight games (including all five MAC matchups) and seven of its first nine games this season. Western Michigan only produced two.
• Akron was trending in the right direction the past two seasons, but this year has been a drastic falloff for the 1-9 Zips. They must defeat UMass or Buffalo or else they'll wind up without an FBS win for the third time in the last eight years.

Bowling Green 33, Kent State 28

• What is there left to say about Myles Bradley? Bowling Green has an absolute star at defensive end. Bradley registered 5.0 sacks — the second-most in a game by an FBS player this season — and his second performance with at least 4.5 this season. He now ranks first in the FBS with 14.0 sacks, surpassing Texas' Colin Simmons and UAB's Marlin Dean. Bradley had a huge sack on Kent State's final drive, forcing the 3rd-and-13 where the Golden Flashes threw the game-deciding interception.
• It's not just Myles Bradley either. Eriq George added 1.5 sacks and pressured Dru DeShields on that critical interception in the final minute. Bowling Green may be 3-7, but that defensive end duo is dominant. They swing the outcome of games, and that's what happened in this one.
• There were a ton of impressive skill position performances in a matchup between two offenses that struggled for most of the season. Bowling Green running back Nakai Amachree stepped up for the injured Austyn Dendy with 110 rushing yards, 87 receiving yards, and two touchdowns, including the game-winner. Kent State had two 100-yard receivers — Wayne Harris with 143 yards on eight catches and Da'Realyst Clark with 104 on five.
• It took four years, but we finally saw Austin Novosad's first legitimate college action. Novosad backed up Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel, and Dante Moore at Oregon and made his first career start Tuesday. It went pretty well — 15-of-25 for 229 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Loved that dime to Blane Cleaver in the back of the end zone — very high-level throw.
• Section 231 at Oklahoma State started the "tarps off" trend, and it still persists well into 2026. It feels like 30 percent of any Midweek MACtion crowd is now shirtless by the fourth quarter of any game. Bowling Green's crowd fully embraced this Tuesday night.

Miami (OH) 34, Ohio 17

• Well this game drew national headlines for a bizarre circumstance. We wrote about it more in-depth here, but Miami's scoreboard operator was flagged for an unorthodox unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during the final seconds of the first half. During Ohio's missed 34-yard attempt, the scoreboard displayed several fake field goal posts. This distraction was deemed illegal, and Ohio got a retry. However, the Bobcats still came up emptyhanded. They drew up a perfect fake field goal but the pass was dropped in the end zone. So the viral penalty ended up costing Miami nothing — a critical sequence in the RedHawks' comeback.
• I researched the history of scoreboard operator distractions, which is in the link above. In 2020, Oklahoma State displayed a series of yellow lines against Texas. Texas made the field goal, but then-head coach Tom Herman escalated the situation to Big 12 offices, and the act was deemed impermissible. Indiana got away with displaying fake field goal posts in Week 1 against North Texas. And the New England Patriots tried a different form of deception for years. They showed a live feed of the actual uprights on the videoboard, slightly offset behind the actual goalposts to create an illusion for visiting kickers. However, this is the first time I've seen a penalty assessed for the infraction, which is covered by Rule 9-2-1-b-5.
• Anyway, the game. Incredible comeback by Miami in a massive rivalry. RedHawks trailed 17-0 and scored 34 unanswered for a seamless victory. However, Miami didn't even secure its first lead until hitting a go-ahead field goal with 3:55 remaining to go up 20-17. The RedHawks scored 17 points in the last four minutes thanks to a barrage of Ohio turnovers.
• Miami is now 24-6 in conference games under Chuck Martin since 2023. Hopes of a fourth-straight MAC Championship Game are still alive, although the RedHawks will need help. They are bowl eligible for the ninth-straight season. What's most impressive about that 24-6 stretch is how often Miami has needed to rely on backup quarterbacks over the years. The RedHawks are now on their FOURTH quarterback. Thomas Gotkowski suffered a season-ending injury in fall camp, David McComb suffered a season-ending injury in Week 4, and then Caleb Heavner left this game with an injury. Drew Bellisari had a pretty strong performance for a true freshman fourth-stringer, leading a comeback in the Battle of the Bricks.
• I really enjoyed watching the linebacker play in this one. Ohio's Michael Molnar and Miami's Malcolm McCain were delivering some excellent hits. McCain forced and recovered that critical fumble in the final minutes when he made that hit on Nick Poulos, causing him to helicopter Sage Rosenfels style.
• Did you really think anybody was going to finish undefeated in conference play? This is the MAC we're talking about here. Since 2017, the only team to finish 8-0 in conference play was 2023 Toledo, and it lost the MAC Championship Game. The conference of parity, indeed.

Buffalo 28, Ball State 7

• Messiah Burch. He might be the leading candidate for MAC Offensive Player of the Year. Burch has six 100-yard performances in his last seven games, and he has eclipsed 170 in three of his last four. He attained a career-high 209 yards in the win over Ball State, becoming Buffalo's first 200-yard rusher since 2020 Jaret Patterson. Also, he surpassed 1,000 yards on the season in the victory, becoming the 12th player in program history to accomplish the feat. He has six 40+ yard runs this year, and only 10 FBS teams have more.
• Here's your update on the Chance Morrow stat that has been a staple of Monday MAC Musings: Morrow now has a MAC-best nine touchdown receptions this year. All nine were caught in the end zone with zero YAC. The jump ball specialist caught one 14-yard touchdown Wednesday night to open Buffalo's scoring effort.
• That's two weeks in a row Buffalo's opponent scored on a blocked punt. Ball State registered its only touchdown in the first quarter on a blocked punt (which wasn't really blocked, Buffalo just booted it off the upman's back). But the Bulls' special teams later made up for the gaffe by recovering their own pooch kick in the fourth quarter.
• Thanks to the pooch kick recovery, Buffalo did something that is nearly impossible: scoring two rushing touchdowns exactly six seconds apart. Now I don't know how I'd even research that stat (we'd probably have to delay Monday MAC Musings a month), but let's just say that hasn't happened in the past X years (X can be whatever number you want it to be).
• Ball State produced four sacks and Buffalo finished 5-of-14 passing. Buffalo didn't manage a single sack on Ball State's 39 passing attempts. Yet it was the Bulls' defense that was the defining unit in this game, and it didn't surrender a single point on the road in Muncie.
• Five of Buffalo's first six wins were by one score. This 21-point victory was the Bulls' most lopsided win of the season, even though it was 14-7 with under five minutes remaining. They were one of two teams that required seven wins for bowl eligibility, and they have qualified at 7-3.

Central Michigan 28, Sacramento State 7

• Unfortunately, Sacramento State didn't get the true Midweek MACtion experience of a 12-degree Wednesday night in Mount Pleasant where fans are building snowmen in the bleachers and ESPN has to superimpose the yard lines since they are invisible on the field. Sac State still experienced cold temperatures for its first midweek road game, but the Hornets won't be fully initiated into the conference until they trudge through a blizzard.
• "Run the dang ball" Central Michigan is the best version of Central Michigan. The Chippewas have played two-straight weeks of perfect Matt Drinkall football — pound the rock, control the clock, and the Chippewas dominated those two games by a combined score of 63-14. Central Michigan ran the ball 56 times for 319 yards and four touchdowns and controlled 39:48 of possession.
• What's especially interesting is Central Michigan's run game has taken off even after losing mobile starting quarterback Angel Flores for the season. Flores had four 100-yard performances and 618 rushing yards, yet the Chippewas can still play that brand of football. That running back room is deep. Three different backs scored Wednesday night, and Nick Woodford is starting to develop into one of the better tailbacks in the conference. Also, Woodford had a great block on a Vaughn Blue touchdown. I love when the Chippewas throw multiple backs onto the field simultaneously.

Toledo 24, UMass 0

• This stat was shocking to research, especially considering Toledo had the nation's No. 4 scoring defense last year: this was Toledo's first shutout against an FBS opponent since 2000. The 26-year drought has finally ended.
• On the flipside, UMass had not been shutout since Oct. 14, 2023 at Penn State. The Minutemen scored in every single game during its 0-12 campaign in 2025.
• UMass started 4-0 but is 1-5 since. In its last six games, the only win was a one-point overtime escape over Ball State. This is still the best Minutemen season of all-time, but in order to secure their first bowl berth, they must defeat both Akron and Bowling Green.
• Andrew Zock deserves an All-American nod. He finished with two sacks to move his season total to 11.5 (only trailing Bowling Green's Myles Bradley), but it's not just the sacks with Zock. It's the pressure he generates on nearly every play. Zock does so much that isn't reflected in a typical box score, and his backfield pressure forced a pick-six in the second quarter. In a graphic posted by Henry Davidson on Twitter, Zock leads the FBS with 62 pressures, and nobody else has more than 48.
• Toledo's backfield has done something incredibly rare. Three different running backs now have multiple 100-yard games this season. CJ Miller has three, Autavius Ison has two, and Connor Walendzak eclipsed the century mark for the second time this season with a 117-yard performance.
• Not sure what to make of Toledo's offense the past two weeks. The Rockets scored 34+ six times in a seven-game span. Their last two outings: a 20-17 win over Sacramento State and a 24-0 win over UMass. Toledo didn't score in the second half against the Minutemen, turning it over on downs and punting four times. The Rockets still outgained UMass 436-188. And they didn't turn it over or miss a field goal.