Mid-American Bandwagon Podcast, Ep. 46: Fitting the Pieces Into Place

Happy Friday folks! We hope you’ve all had a wonderful week, and we’re excited to

help you kick off your weekend. Zach has found his way back to the show this week,

and he and Sam are ready to break down the week that was in the MAC.

Kicking off the news segment this week, Ball State announced a 2025 non-

conference football game against Auburn, while Bowling Green announced that

their season opener this year at Tennessee will be played on Thursday, September

2nd. Exciting news for both programs! Will either be able to pull out a victory in SEC

country? Only time will tell.

Elsewhere in football, the boys give an update on the situation at Buffalo, where 13

Bulls remain in the transfer portal after the hiring of new head coach Maurice

Linguist. His ability to keep some of that talent around may have a significant

impact on the Bulls moving forward.

In some exciting football news, former Ohio QB and MAC legend Nathan Rourke

signed a three year deal with his hometown BC Lions of the Canadian Football

League. With the league set to begin their season on August 5th, we know a lot of

MAC fans will be paying attention to how Rourke’s initial season north of the border

plays out.

To close out the news, new NIU men’s basketball Rashon Burno coach officially

announced his first recruiting class. It’s an interesting class, both in terms of it’s

large size (seven players) and the mix of transfers and incoming freshman.

Moving onto this weeks’ spring sports segment, Zach and Sam first run down the

post season awards in women’s tennis, with Ball State’s Max Norris winning coach of

the year and Miami’s Laura Rico winning player of the year. Congrats to both, as

well as to the women that made first and second team all-MAC!

Moving on to golf, both the men’s and women’s squads from Kent State represented

the MAC in the NCAA tournament this past week. While the men started off strong,

they unfortunately faded down the stretch and were not able to advance. The

women, however, continued their incredible season by placing fifth in their regional,

thus qualifying them for the NCAA Championships this weekend. We’re all rooting

for the Golden Flashes to bring home a title on Sunday!

In baseball, Ball State and Central Michigan have really separated themselves over

the past few weeks, and they currently sit tied atop the conference. Central

Michigan did themselves no favors this weekend, dropping three of four from

Western, while Ball State split four games with Kent State. With only two weeks left

in the regular season, and no conference tournament this year, it will be interesting

to see who finishes at the top of the mountain.

In softball, the season has concluded. Miami enters the NCAA tournament this

weekend as the MAC champion, and they take on Notre Dame this Friday in

Lexington, Kentucky. After setting a program record with 46 wins this year, the

Redhawks would love to advance. We’ll see if Karli Spaid and company have the

firepower to pull it off!

As always, thanks for stopping by this week folks. If you’re not already, follow us on

Twitter at @MAC_Bandwagon for all of the latest MAC updates. Have a great

weekend everyone!