Welcome to the 2012 Mid-American Conference Football Preview. Over the next couple weeks we will be going team-by-team looking at the strengths and weaknesses of each MAC team. We start out with three West Division teams, Ball State, Eastern Michigan, and Central Michigan. The second installment will cover the “Best in the West”, the third covers three East Division teams BGSU, Buffalo, and UMass. The fourth installment covers the top two teams in the East, Ohio and Miami. And we wrap up our preview with the two area schools, archrivals Akron and Kent State.
Traditionally the Mid-American Conference has been called the “Cradle of Coaches” in football, with coaching legends like Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Nick Saban, and Urban Meyer getting their start here. And that’s just football coaches. But is the climate of MAC coaching changing?
The Mid-American Conference is going to be on the tube 56 times this season, with games being shown live on several national and regional networks. This doesn't include the Conference Championsip Game, at least three bowl games, the MAC Preview Show, a mini-series, and a weekly TV show featuring the Akron Zips. I am going to need a bigger DVR...
The MAC East Division takes on a different look in 2012 with the addition of the University of Massachusetts. The school moves up to Division I FBS after a successful run in FCS play, and replaces Temple (whose expulsion from the Big East seems to be done).
Kent State's season ended with their first wins in the SuperRegionals, their first trip to the College World Series, and an upset win over top seed Florida. And that is not all, as senior shortstop Jimmy Rider was named by Baseball America to their First Team All American team.