Reports: Toledo and Bowling Green considering non-conference matchups

The Mid-American Conference released their 2026 football schedule on Tuesday morning after weeks of delays, answering once and for all who would play when.

However, an interesting wrinkle for future consideration came to the surface on Wednesday afternoon, as Dave Briggs of the Toledo Blade reported the Toledo Rockets and Bowling Green Falcons have explored scheduling a non-conference contest to ensure a guaranteed weekend game.

"Toledo’s matchup against Bowling Green is the biggest sporting event in northwest Ohio, and it deserves to be seen on a Saturday stage,” Toledo deputy athletic director Connor Whelan said to Briggs. “Our campus and community deserve that opportunity, as well. A weeknight game will still draw a crowd — it always does — but we need to start thinking about this enterprise differently, and quickly. The days of taking the schedule as provided to us is no longer acceptable in today’s climate. If playing twice a year or exploring new formats guarantees this game gets the spotlight it deserves, then we need to look at every option."

The two teams have also recently discussed doing the same concept for their men's basketball teams, per Briggs, with a third game at a neutral site.

Under the conference's current football rights deal with ESPN, which pays $1M per school until 2027, most of the MAC's schedule in November is confined to the weeknights, with a handful of non-marquee games played on Saturday.

ESPN's treatment of the heart of the conference schedule is a recurring topic of discussion within the conference.

The convention of signing the 13-year deal back in 2014 was the conference would essentially trade their November ticket gates in exchange for a guaranteed chance at national exposure on cable television networks– as opposed to limited regional or paywalled streaming coverage.

Over the years, ESPN has assigned as many rivalry games as possible on the weeknights to attract television viewers on their subsidiary cable channels such as ESPN2 and ESPNU, with a rare selection to ESPN proper. ESPN has also recently introduced a paywall for certain games with their proprietary ESPN+ streaming network.

The rivalry scheduling issue, which multiple schools took issue with, was addressed prior to last season's schedule release, with ESPN agreeing to give special dispensation to four rivalries: Toledo vs. BGSU (Battle of I-75), Akron vs. Kent State (Wagon Wheel), Miami vs. Ohio (Battle of the Bricks), and Central Michigan vs. Western Michigan (Victory Cannon). However, the dispensation is still conditional, with the four rivalries committed to a rotation between Saturdays before November and November weeknights every two years.

The college football paradigm is under constant struggle to maintain shape; this development is the latest part of the conversation.

Looking towards the future, Toledo currently only has two announced opponents for the 2027 campaign, with away games against Kentucky and Utah State. Bowling Green, meanwhile, has three non-conference games scheduled for 2027, with a home contest against Iowa State and trips to Ohio State and Marshall.

As of now, Toledo and Bowling Green are still scheduled to play each other in conference play under the weeknight lights on Wednesday, November 18th, 2026.