Western Michigan selected as favorites in 2026 MAC Coaches Preseason Poll
The Broncos seek to defend their belt coming off an electric 10-4 season.
The air is finally starting to smell like football.
The 2026 edition of Mid-American Conference Media Day in Detroit, Michigan began on Wednesday morning with the unveiling of the Coaches Preseason Poll, which revealed defending MAC champion Western Michigan as the favorite to win it all once again.
The Broncos are coming off a historic 10-4 (7-1 MAC) campaign which saw them win the conference for the first time in nearly a decade and get the MAC's Player of the Year in defensive end Nadame Tucker.
WMU is also the favorite to win the MAC Championship Game in December, earning nine votes.
The Miami RedHawks were the only other program to receive votes to win the conference, with four first-place votes and four MAC Championship votes.
WMU and Miami played one another last season in the MAC Football Championship in Detroit, taking a dominant 23-13 victory to complete a storybook season which saw them go from 1-4 to a team receiving votes in the Associated Press Top 25 at season's end.
| School | First Place Votes | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Western Michigan | 9 | 138 |
| Miami | 4 | 134 |
| Toledo | 115 | |
| Ohio | 107 | |
| Central Michigan | 101 | |
| Buffalo | 81 | |
| Eastern Michigan | 76 | |
| Kent State | 64 | |
| Bowling Green | 59 | |
| Akron | 52 | |
| Ball State | 34 | |
| Sacramento State | 28 | |
| UMass | 25 |
Other teams of interest include Toledo, who will be taking the field under a head coach not named Jason Candle for the first time in a decade.
The Rockets were tabbed third by the coaches, an endorsement both of the team's remaining roster talent and the team's new head coach Mike Jacobs, who arrives from FCS Mercer after building the Bears into a perennial Playoff team.
Ohio also got high marks despite undergoing their third head coaching change in three years, finishing fourth on the list. John Hauser steps up after an interim stint to lead the Bobcats; previously Ohio's defensive coordinator, Hauser has also seen time with the Miami RedHawks and Northern Illinois Huskies in the MAC.
Newcomers Sacramento State present intrigue as they jump up from the FCS level after a shocking bid to join the MAC. The Hornets, who are a football-only member, will start their debut season as the 12th-favorite, above UMass.
The MAC football season starts in full on Saturday, Aug. 29th, 2026.
