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I bet you weren't expecting to see this today, where ya? The 2014 MAC football coaches preseason poll is out (yes, that's a MAC football poll voted on by MAC head coaches) and the coaches have Bowling Green and Northern Illinois meeting up in the MAC Championship.
This is in contrast to the preseason MAC Media Poll which had Bowling Green and Toledo in the MAC Championship. This time around. The 12 full-member head coaches (sorry, UMass, you don't get a vote) were in favor of NIU as MAC West champs 9-3, while they had BGSU over Akron out of the East 11-1 (hey there Terry Bowden).
| EAST | WEST | ||||
| RANK | TEAM | POINTS | RANK | TEAM | POINTS |
| 1 | BGSU (11) | 83 | 1 | NIU (9) | 68 |
| 2 | Akron (1) | 64 | 2 | Toledo (3) | 61 |
| 3 | Ohio | 63 | 3 | Ball State | 47 |
| 4 | Buffalo | 52 | 4 | CMU | 38 |
| 5 | Kent State | 34 | 5 | WMU | 23 |
| 6 | Miami | 25 | 6 | EMU | 15 |
| 7 | UMass | 15 | |||
Bowling Green is by far the coaches favorites to win the East. The had 19 more total points than Akron, and 20 more than Ohio. UMass was pegged to finish last in the division, behind Miami by 10 points.
Out West the coaches are predicting a much closer battle at the top with NIU holding a narrow seven point lead over Toledo. NIU hosts the Rockets at home in mid-November, which could be the edge the Huskies need. The coaches are also predicting EMU to finish last in the West, having received just 15 points total.
We're now just a few days away from the start of football season. The MACtion is in the air.