Western Michigan is a rarity in today’s college football universe.The Mid-American Conference champions are chasing a second straight league crown with some familiar names: quarterback Broc Lowry, the 2025 MAC Offensive Player of the Year, running back Jalen Buckley, the championship game MVP, and cornerback Jarvarius Smith. In fact, reigning MAC coach of the Year Lance Taylor boasts he didn’t lose a single starter in the transfer portal.That’s not easy for any program, especially one like Western Michigan, and it’s the primary reason it is the preseason favorite.“We had a lot of guys who played really good for us last year, could have gone to bigger schools and made a lot more money than we could have paid them — and they turned down the money to come back,” Taylor said. “You know, winning is fun and I think they like winning, so they wanted to come back and do some more winning.”
But the Broncos understand that repeating as champs is about as uncommon as it is for a MAC team to keep its top players.Western Michigan was the sixth school to win the crown since 2020, and the last back-to-back champion was Northern Illinois in 2011 and 2012.The biggest challenge could come from Miami (Ohio), which followed its 2023 title run with two straight runner-up finishes. The RedHawks are picked to finish second again as they try to become the third team in conference history to reach four straight title games with a revamped roster.
