Recruiting is the lifeblood of college football, and it's time to break down who is winning the battles off the field in addition to the ones on television each weekend. This one will feature MAC recruiting, with the Conference USA and American Athletic Conference (AAC) having already been published (linked below). The Mountain West Conference and Sun Belt are next, and then we will finish with the final September national rankings for the Group of Five.
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There are 12 football programs in the decades-old Mid-American Conference (MAC). Some programs that have some of the top individuals have smaller recruiting classes, and some with larger classes don't have a top MAC commitment — but it's still early. We worked in conjunction with our partners at Rivals.com to rank the teams and individuals — though our ranking method is a bit different from the recruiting network's criteria.
The Top MAC Program Rankings
Western Michigan recruit Joshua Lloyd from south Florida is the No. 2 recruit in the MAC (GRAPHIC COURTESY: Joshua Lloyd)
No. 1 - Toledo: The Rockets not only are at the top of the MAC in terms of what they do on the field, but they also get high-quality recruits (see top 20 list below). These were players who had Power Five options but know that Toledo is a top-flight program and they can win there, too. Toledo's class is smaller right now than some of its MAC competitors, but the quality of the 13 or so commitments is far above many other Group of Five schools.
One of those top commitment is Toledo's Tysen Smith, an unofficial ambassador of the Rockets' class of 2024 who spoke to FanBuzz about what a recruit sees with the Rockets.
"The coaches and players have a great culture and chemistry," Smith told FanBuzz. "Toledo wants me to play tight end and the Power Five schools wanted me as an outside linebacker/edge. I just liked the path Toledo has for me playing tight end. It has what I believe is the best program in the Group of Five and is also better than a lot of P5 programs. I have made friends with a lot of the commits and current players and like the feel of the university. I will be an early-enrollee heading to Toledo in January."
No. 2 - Northern Illinois: The Huskies have a very nice class, quantity-wise, and also have some quality commitments at the top of the order. Rivals reports 22 commitments are already planning to sign with Northern Illinois, by far the largest group on board so far of any MAC schools. That's a big group for September. Keep an eye on their defensive backs group — it's special.
No. 3 - Western Michigan: Four of our Top 20 MAC commitments are planning to sign with Western Michigan. While the recruiting services have the Broncos buried in the team rankings, FanBuzz sees this group of 12 recruits as one of the top classes in the MAC.
No. 4 — Miami-Ohio: The recruiting services love this class because the RedHawks have high numbers on board (19) and there is quality to the group, too.
Rest of the Country - G5 Recruiting
American (AAC) | Conference USA (C-USA) | Mid-American (MAC) | Mountain West (MWC) | Sun Belt (SWC)
National Top 15 Programs | National Top 100 Commitments
The Top 30 in MAC Recruiting
FanBuzz conference rankings are placed in order in conjunction with our professional partners at Rivals.com. However, they vary some.
| 1 | Tony Mathis Jr. | S | Ohio U. |
| 2 | Joshua Lloyd | DE | Western Michigan |
| 3 | Tashi Braceful | WR | Toledo |
| 4 | Kalieb Osborne | QB | Toledo |
| 5 | David Coffey | S | No. Illinois |
| 6 | Tysen Smith | ATH | Toledo |
| 7 | Dakota Taylor | WR | Kent State |
| 8 | Zachary Rogers | CB | Toledo |
| 9 | Alessio Milivojevic | QB | Ball State |
| 10 | Bryce Rowe | DB | Central Michigan |
| 11 | Sean Patrick | RB | Akron |
| 12 | Kobi Blackwell | ATH | Buffalo |
| 13 | Braylon Isom | LB | Miami-Ohio |
| 14 | Ibraheem Kamara | DB | Toledo |
| 15 | Adrian Thomas | WR | No. Illinois |
| 16 | Taylor Powell | S | No. Illinois |
| 17 | Zac Clarke | OL | Western Michigan |
| 18 | Jaire Rawlison | DB | Kent State |
| 19 | Charles Miles | DB | Western Michigan |
| 20 | Tysen Campbell | DB | Central Michigan |
| 21 | Sean Martin | ATH | Toledo |
| 22 | Huston Eubank | LB | Western Michigan |
| 23 | Dominic Dorwart | WR | Ohio U. |
| 24 | Hyajah Miller | CB | Toledo |
| 25 | Markel Porter | RB | Bowling Green |
| 26 | Edward Louis | WR | Toledo |
| 27 | Braylon Littlejohn | ATH | Miami-Ohio |
| 28 | Caleb Turner | S | East. Michigan |
| 29 | Darrion Gilliam | WR | Kent State |
| 30 | Troy Martin | QB | Kent State |
