CSNbbs

Seems like every team's football fans are saying "wait 'til next year" and for nearly everyone, it is for good reason. The majority of the teams have the bulk of their team's players coming back and are excited about getting a more veteran team on the field. The MAC put a lot of very young teams on the field this year.

Obviously, not everyone will be the MAC Champ next season but it bodes well for the MAC as a whole. 2007 was nothing to talk about in OOC games, but I believe that trend is about to turn around soon.

Ball State, WMU, Toledo, BGSU, Temple, EMU,and certainly CMU fall into the category of "lots of talent returning". Did I miss anyone? If so, please add your opinion. Certainly the MAC East looks to be tough in 2008, and the West is going to be another dogfight. Hopefully the league office will get their act together and make all of the MAC games count. The format for this season was atrocious.

The Bobcats have most starters coming back next year. The only chink in that armor is that of the few seniors that are leaving, most will be missed bigtime (Kalvin, big line guys, and Braunstein)

Losing Kalvin is huge. It will be tough to just replace him.

very few seniors on the NIU team and none to speak of with the exception of PK Nendick. Both sides of the ball virtually return in tact. (hopefully they will be healthy next year)

The Bulls have 10 Offensive and 8 defensive starters returning next year, and Gill has proven he isn't afraid of starting freshmen. Anything short of a run for the MAC championship would be a disappointment.