MAC Football Recruiting Power Rankings: Beast in the East?

With summer rapidly approaching, the MAC has gotten busy on the recruiting trail before things really heat up in regards of the battle between teams for players. Without further ado, let’s look at where each of the teams stand as we head into the month of May.

T-7. Akron Zips

T-7. Buffalo Bulls

T-7. Bowling Green Falcons

T-7. Eastern Michigan Eagles

T-7. Kent State Golden Flashes

T-7. Ohio Bobcats

Neither of these teams have landed a recruit for 2019 =/. It’s interesting to note that five of these six teams all hail from the East Division, which doesn’t help the division’s reputation of being an inferior product compared to the West Division of the MAC. Look for teams to start separating themselves from the pack this summer as teams go on the recruiting trail and conduct camps. Kent State could emerge with a good class out of this group due to the energy around the program that comes with hiring a new coach.

6. Western Michigan Broncos

Despite landing a three-star OLB early in the process in Boone Bonnema, the Broncos have not landed another recruit since late February. That’s not to say that WMU hasn’t been busy as they currently have 133 offers out per 247Sports.com. The 2019 class could be a pivotal one for Tim Lester as Western Michigan attempts to return to the top as a perennial power in the West.

5. Ball State Cardinals

The Cardinals landed a pair of important recruits with defensive tackle John Harris and quarterback Mark Nondorf so far in the recruiting process. Mike Neu is apparently taking cues from his MAC West counterparts as BSU has a staggering 187 offers out. Ball State needs a good class to give it ability to challenge the top teams in the West once it gets out of the cellar.

4. Toledo Rockets

Toledo got off to a good start on the recruiting trail with four commitments, three of which are from three-star prospects. The Rockets are in reloading mode as they fend off WMU and NIU in the West, and they are building the team the right way with long frames on the line of scrimmage and a well-tested skill player from a football hotbed in Pittsburgh (though the number of elite prospects from Pennsylvania has been diminishing in recent years). We’ll have to wait and see how the rest of UT’s 2019 class to shake out.

3. Northern Illinois Huskies

The Huskies have landed five recruits so far for 2019, highlighted by three-star corner Romel Goston who is from the Chicago area. Four of the five commits are in-state prospects and all of them are skill players, which shows that Rod Carey and company are working hard to improve the team speed at NIU and they are going to do it with homegrown talent. However, Northern Illinois isn’t as aggressive as some teams in the league on the recruiting trail as it “only” has 92 offers out. We’ll see if NIU can be efficient with their offers and land a class that returns them to prominence in the MAC.

2. Central Michigan Chippewas

The Chips have given their fans reasons to be fired up about the 2019 recruiting class as they have picked up commitments a pair of three-stars on the offensive side of the ball as well as a quarterback in Dequan Finn who is a playmaker from Detroit. Four of their five commits are Michigan men, which points to John Bonomego’s philosophy of building a program with local kids over a 4-5 year period. It’ll be interesting to see if CMU can keep this pace on the recruiting trail with the other quality recruiters that the MAC has.

1. Miami-Ohio Redhawks

Speaking of quality recruiters, Chuck Martin and his staff are putting together another quality class as Miami has an incredible 15 recruits committed, including 11 three-stars. This crop of recruits, which is rated as the 21st-best class in the country per 247Sports.com, is highlighted by Brett Gabbert, who is the younger brother of former Mizzou star and NFL quarterback Blaine Gabbert. This is an important class for the ‘Hawks as they getting to the point in their program that they don’t have to play true freshmen at the start of the season and can spend time developing younger players. We shall see if MU can keep up the pace with Toledo and WMU having the recruiting pedigree that they do.