There may not be a more meritocratic conference in college football than the MAC.
The best team in the conference earns the trophy by outlasting similar programs with similar budgets, facing similar problems, and playing in a similar area of the country (outside of newcomer Sacramento State, which is ineligible for the postseason this year). It’s a level playing field.
Here’s where things stand going into 2026.
Last year’s winner, Western Michigan, is a +375 co-favorite with Miami (Ohio), the team the Broncos defeated in the title game. Toledo, which was the clear frontrunner before last season, is right behind them at +425.
There hasn’t been a repeat MAC champion since Northern Illinois (who departed the conference this year for the Mountain West) in 2012.
As always, it’s best to prepare for chaos in the MAC, so we’ll go a little further down the board for our best bets.
Best bet: Bowling Green (16/1, bet365)
Eddie George’s first year in charge of the Falcons may look like it was disappointing on paper. Bowling Green went 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the MAC, but there was a lot more to this team than meets the eye.
Bowling Green scored a couple of impressive wins in 2025. The Falcons came back from a 21-point deficit to upset Toledo, and they also pulled the rug out from under Liberty.
Unfortunately, Bowling Green didn’t build off those early-season victories and went 1-5 down the stretch.
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However, three of those losses were by six points or less, and George’s group rode into the offseason on a high note with a 31-point blowout over UMass.
The point is, George and the Falcons were better than their record in 2025, and that was just Year 1 of his tenure.
There are plenty of reasons to believe Year 2 will be better.
Having a head coach with George’s legacy certainly helped Bowling Green in the portal, as the Falcons were able to recruit some standout contributors from the FCS level, as well as former Oregon quarterback Austin Novosad.
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Novosad and the offense will need to improve on last year’s output if Bowling Green is going to challenge for a spot in the conference championship, but the gains don’t need to be prolific thanks to a defense that graded out quite well by MAC standards in 2025 and should get better in 2026.
If things do click with the ball, the gap between Bowling Green and the favorites will be negligible, making the 16/1 price on George’s Falcons pretty appealing.
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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
