2024 Mid-American Conference football season

The 2024 Mid-American Conference football season is the 79th season for the Mid-American Conference (MAC), as part of the 2024 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Non-conference play will begin on August 29. Conference will begin on September 21 and will conclude with the MAC championship game on December 7 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. For the first time since 1996 the MAC will not have divisions. The Championship game will feature the teams with the best conference records. This will be the conference's last season with 12 members as it will see its first change in membership since 2015 with the addition of UMass

Previous season
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. Miami won their first MAC Championship since 2019 with a 23–14 upset victory in the MAC Championship Game.

Preseason
The MAC Football Kickoff will be held on Friday, July 19, 2024 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio from 9:00 am EDT to 1:30 pm EDT. Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher will speak. Each team will have their head coach and a student athlete from both the offense and the defense to speak to the media.


 * Akron – Head Coach Joe Moorhead, Bryan McCoy, Jr., LB, Bennett Adler, Sr., DL
 * Ball State – Head Coach Mike Neu, Tanner Koziol, Jr., TE, Keionte Newson, Sr., LB
 * Bowling Green – Head Coach Scot Loeffler, Connor Bazelak, Sr., QB, Jordan Oladokun, Sr., CB
 * Buffalo – Head Coach Pete Lembo, Shaun Dolac, Grad., LB, Red Murdock, R-So., LB
 * Central Michigan – Head Coach Jim McElwain, Donte Kent, Sr., DB, Brayden Swartout, Sr., OL
 * Eastern Michigan – Head Coach Chris Creighton, Justin Jefferson, Sr., DL, Jere Getzinger, Sr., TE
 * Kent State – Head Coach Kenni Burns, Chrishon McCray, R-So., WR, Oliver Billotte, Jr., DE
 * Miami – Head Coach Chuck Martin, Brett Gabbert, 6th-Sr., QB, Matt Salopek, 6th-Sr., LB
 * Northern Illinois – Head Coach Thomas Hammock, J.J. Lippe, R-Sr., OL, Jashon Prophete, Sr., S
 * Ohio – Head Coach Tim Albin, Parker Navarro, Grad., QB, Jeremiah Wood, Grad., S
 * Toledo – Head Coach Jason Candle, Jerjuan Newton, Sr., WR, Maxen Hook, Sr., S
 * Western Michigan – Head Coach Lance Taylor, Hayden Wolff, R-Sr., QB, Damari Roberson, R-Sr., LB

Coaches Poll
On July 19 the MAC announced the preseason coaches poll. Defending MAC champion Miami was named the preseason favorite to win the conference while defending West division champion Toledo was picked to finish second.

Coaching changes
The MAC enters the 2024 season with one coaching change from 2023.


 * Buffalo head coach Maurice Linguist resigned on January 16, 2024, after his team finished the 2023 season with a 3–9 record to join Kalen DeBoer’s staff at Alabama. On January 21, 2024 Pete Lembo, who was the associate head coach and special teams coordinator at South Carolina and was previously a MAC head coach at Ball State, was hired as the new head coach.

Head coaching records
Source -

Schedule
All times Eastern time.

MAC records vs. other conferences
2024–2025 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.