At its core, bowl season embodies many of America’s truest tenets: midweek football (often in the middle of the day), crude corporate sponsorship and regionalistic jingoism, all under the auspices of higher education. It’s a flawed, beautiful, month-long melting pot, but in the end, there can only be one true champion.
No, we’re not talking about Georgia here. We’re talking about the MAC.
The conference known for dominating the Tuesday and Wednesday night time slots added another notch to its belt last year, finishing with the top bowl-winning percentage (.667) among FBS leagues. That earned the MAC the prestigious honor of claiming the 2022–23 Progressive Bowl Challenge Cup.
Behold the prize, in all its glory:
The MAC earned its hardware by winning four of the six bowl games it appeared in. Those wins were as follows: Eastern Michigan over San Jose State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl; Toledo over Liberty in the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl; Buffalo over Georgia Southern in the Camellia Bowl; and Ohio over Wyoming in the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl.
The conference’s only two defeats came by a combined nine points. The MAC beat out the SEC, which put up a 7–5 record in bowl games (.583).
Among the Group of Five leagues, the MAC is certainly among the most revered. But given its newfound supremacy across all conferences, perhaps even more respect is heading toward the Midwest in 2023.
