The MAC is no stranger to BCS busters – after all, Northern Illinois crashed the party in 2012 – but the hottest program in the league, and the one that could be on its way to an extended period of success is Western Michigan.
Yep, Western Michigan.
NIU, Bowling Green, Miami (Ohio), Central Michigan, Buffalo, Akron and Toledo have all won MAC titles since 2004 and Ohio, Kent State, and Ball State have all made it to the MAC Championship Game in that span. In other words, parity has ruled the MAC. But if there is one program that is building a foundation for dominance in the league that we haven’t seen since Marshall was a member, it’s the Broncos.
One of the biggest hurdles to teams in the MAC becoming a consistent threat to the Boise States of college football, or even emerging as the premiere program in the conference for an extended period of time, is recruiting. Miami (Ohio) had Ben Roethlisberger, Northern Illinois had Jordan Lynch, Ball State had Nate Davis, and there have been several top players that have gone on to be drafted (like No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick Eric Fisher from CMU), but the overall talent level in the league doesn’t match up with top teams in the Mountain West or the American.
But that may be changing – at least in Kalamazoo.
With 14 players currently committed to the 2016 recruiting class – 12 of them three-star recruits – Western Michigan currently has the nation’s 17th ranked recruiting class in the nation according to 247Sports. 17th! They won’t stay that high all the way to National Signing Day, but Broncos head coach P.J. Fleck has already proven he can recruit talented players to the MAC and to Western Michigan.
In 2015, Fleck brought in the MAC’s top rated class with 27 players, 13 of which were rated as three-star talents. The Broncos also had the league’s highest rated class in 2014 with 15 of the 28 members rated as three-star players – after the team went 1-11 in Fleck’s first season.
The influx in talent helped Fleck turn Western Michigan from a one-win team in 2013 to an 8-5 squad worthy of a bowl game last year, which was the biggest turnaround in MAC history. Plus, he did it with a team that consisted primarily of freshmen and sophomores (first or second-year players played more than 80% of the team’s snaps), so the squad is likely to be the favorites to win the conference title in 2015.
Just 34 years old, Fleck is already the MAC’s highest paid coach ($800,000 annually). He is one of college football’s rising stars and is sure to be considered for bigger jobs if the Broncos become a consistent winner. However, as a former player at Northern Illinois, he’s a MAC guy and may only leave for the perfect position – similar to former Boise head coach Chris Peterson, who stayed at Boise State longer than most thought he would.
If Fleck stays around and continues to recruit, he could build the Broncos into a monster mid-major program – especially if they take advantage of opportunities to play heavyweight programs like Michigan State and Ohio State in 2015 and other high-profile Big Ten teams Northwestern and Illinois in 2016.
Interestingly enough, we’ll get to see two teams on this list play one another in 2015 and 2016 as Georgia Southern and Western Michigan play a home-and-home series. The Eagles will host the Broncos at Paulson Stadium in 2015 and will make the trip north to Kalamazoo in 2016.
Next: Georgia Southern