2023 Mid-American Conference football season

The 2023 Mid-American Conference football season was the 78th season for the Mid-American Conference (MAC), as part of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Non-conference play began with one game on August 26. Conference play began on September 23 and concluded with the MAC championship game on Saturday, December 2 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. Miami won the East division with a 7-1 conference record with their only loss coming against Toledo. Toledo won the West with a perfect conference record. Their quarterback Dequan Finn won Player of the Year and coach Jason Candle won coach of the year. On October 21, during the regular season game between the division winners, Miami quarterback Brett Gabbert suffered a season ending leg injury. In spite of that, Miami won their first MAC Championship since 2019 with a 23–14 upset victory in the MAC Championship Game.

Previous season
During the 2022 conference season, Ohio won the East Division with a record of 7–1 and Toledo won the West Division with a 5–3 conference record. In the 2022 MAC Championship Game, Toledo defeated Ohio by a final score of 17–7. The MAC finished with a 4–2 bowl record which was good enough to win the Bowl Challenge Cup

Preseason
The MAC Football Kickoff was held on July 20, 2023 at Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan from 9:00 am EDT to 1:30 pm EDT. Each team had their head coach and a student athlete from both the offense and the defense to speak to the media.


 * Akron – Head Coach Joe Moorhead, Daniel George, R-Sr., WR, KJ Martin, R-So., DB
 * Ball State – Head Coach Mike Neu, Brady Hunt, R-So., TE, Clayton Coll, Sr., LB
 * Bowling Green – Head Coach Scot Loeffler, Darren Anders, Sr., ILB, Odieu Hiliare, Sr., WR
 * Buffalo – Head Coach Maurice Linguist, Marcus Fuqua, 5th-Yr., S, Cole Snyder, 5th-Yr., QB
 * Central Michigan – Head Coach Jim McElwain, Deiyantei Powell Woods, Sr., OL, Trey Jones, Jr., DB
 * Eastern Michigan – Head Coach Chris Creighton, Samson Evans, Grad., RB, Chase Kline, Senior, LB
 * Kent State – Head Coach Kenni Burns, CJ West, Sr., DL, Khalib Johns, Gr., LB
 * Miami – Head Coach Chuck Martin, Brett Gabbert, R-Jr., QB, Matthew Salopek, R-Jr., LB
 * Northern Illinois – Head Coach Thomas Hammock, Nolan Potter, R-Sr., OL, James Ester, Sr., DT
 * Ohio – Head Coach Tim Albin, Kurtis Rourke, R-Sr., QB, Bryce Houston, Grad., LB
 * Toledo – Head Coach Jason Candle, Quinyon Mitchell, Jr., CB, Dequan Finn, Jr., QB
 * Western Michigan – Head Coach Lance Taylor, Jacob Gideon, Jr., OL, Marshawn Kneeland, R-Jr., DL

Coaches Poll
On July 20 the MAC announced the preseason coaches poll. Defending MAC champion Toledo was named the preseason favorite to win the conference while Ohio was picked to win the Eastern Division.

Coaching changes
The MAC enters the 2023 season with two new head football coaches:


 * Western Michigan fired Tim Lester on November 28, 2022, after his team finished the 2022 season with a 5–7. On December 7, 2022 Lance Taylor, who was the offensive coordinator for Louisville in 2022, was introduced as the new head coach.
 * On December 4, 2022 Sean Lewis stepped down as Kent State head coach to become the offensive coordinator at Colorado under new head coach Deion Sanders. On December 13, 2022, Kent State hired former Minnesota associate head coach Kenni Burns as their new head coach.

Head coaching records
Source -

Rankings
Source: AP -

Coaches -

CFP -

Schedule
All times Eastern time.

MAC records vs. other conferences
2023–2024 records against non-conference foes:

Regular season

Postseason

Mid-American vs Power 5 matchups
This is a list of games the MAC has scheduled versus power conference teams (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, Notre Dame and SEC). All rankings are from the current AP Poll at the time of the game.

Mid-American vs Group of Five matchups
The following games include MAC teams competing against teams from the American, C-USA, Mountain West or Sun Belt.

Mid-American vs FBS independents matchups
The following games include MAC teams competing against FBS Independents, which includes Army, UConn, or UMass.

Mid-American vs. FCS matchups
The following games include MAC teams competing against FCS schools.

Head to head matchups
Updated through end of regular season

MAC Individual Awards
The following individuals received postseason honors as voted by the Mid-American Conference football coaches at the end of the season.

All-Conference Teams
The following players were listed as part of the All-Conference teams.

National Awards

 * Lou Groza Award: Graham Nicholson, Miami

All-Americans
Currently, the NCAA compiles consensus all-America teams in the sports of Division I-FBS football and Division I men's basketball using a point system computed from All-America teams named by coaches associations or media sources. The system consists of three points for a first-team honor, two points for second-team honor, and one point for third-team honor. Honorable mention and fourth team or lower recognitions are not accorded any points. College Football All-American consensus teams are compiled by position and the player accumulating the most points at each position is named first team consensus all-American. Currently, the NCAA recognizes All-Americans selected by the AP, AFCA, FWAA, TSN, and the WCFF to determine Consensus and Unanimous All-Americans. Any player named to the First Team by all five of the NCAA-recognized selectors is deemed a Unanimous All-American.

NFL draft
The NFL draft will be held at Campus Martius Park in Detroit. The Following list includes all MAC Players in the draft.