2023 Early Schedule Preview 

    I want to start by saying that predicting the MAC is IMPOSSIBLE. It is why the MAC is my favorite conference, the parity is insane. NIU won the MAC and then went 3-9. Ohio went 3-9 and then won the MAC East. BG even went 2-6 in MAC play and then 5-3. It is truly so difficult to predict especially with transfers now being a major part of G5 football. 

    Onto the schedule, it kind of stinks BG only has 5 home games and the toledo game is on a weeknight again which is terrible. The 5 home games is just a product of having to play 2 money games and then our G5 non-con is sometimes home and sometimes away. My win range is the same as last year, 5-7 wins is what I could see. BG was 5-2 in one score games last year and that is a tough thing to repeat. There are also once again questions about the offensive line, there's a new QB, a few stars are transferring out as well as losing Karl Brooks to the draft. 

1. at Liberty: Loss

2. Eastern Illinois: Win

3. at Michigan: Loss

4. Ohio: Loss

5. at Georgia Tech: Loss

6. at Miami OH: Win

7. at Buffalo: Loss

8. Akron: Win

9. Ball State: Win

10. at Kent State: Win

11, Toledo: Loss

12. at Western Michigan: Win

    So obviously the non-con schedule is brutal. Liberty just hired Jamey Chadwell, the former Coastal Carolina Coach who is FANTASTIC at what he does. Coastal became a juggernaut under his watch and he went to Liberty because they have the most money in Conference USA and they are a Christian school. That game should be tough and is likely a loss. Michigan and GTech should both be losses and hopefully we win our FCS game this year. 

    Again, the MAC schedule is impossible to predict. I think while Akron will be improved, we will still beat them. Ball State has really not been getting better after they awesome 2020 season and Miami is trending down since they won the MAC in 2019 so I see two more wins there. We beat Western Michigan last year and they have a new coach coming in as well as Kent State who not only has a new coach but lost ALL of their good players to the transfer portal. Hopefully Coach Loeffler can get his first ever win over Kent and we can go back to dominating the Anniversary Award. As for the losses, Toledo is obviously tough every year, Buffalo should be solid again while Ohio with Kurtis Rourke back should be MAC East favorites this year.  

    This is year 5 in the Scot Loeffler era. I went into detail about this year in my last blog discussing Coach's contract, this is a big year. I think going to a bowl game for two straight years after ending the MAC's longest bowl drought would be a huge success. Especially because given how the schedule is set up, this team could start the year 1-4 and need to finish strong to get to 6 wins. This is the year to establish that BG is back to being near the top dawgs of the MAC East, as given the past 20 years of football Bowling Green usually is in the top 3 MAC East teams by far.