Oh shoot it's never to early to start aggregating predictions for the FB season. Bill C at ESPN has the MAC West article out already:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/in...ll-preview

relevant EMU info:
He projects us with 7 wins - second in the division

Is this where EMU's title drought ends? If Toledo indeed stumbles, it feels like EMU is the most likely beneficiary. Lord knows Chris Creighton deserves a ring for the job he's done in Ypsilanti. When he came aboard in 2014, EMU was in the middle of a nearly 30-year bowl drought. The Eagles had won more than four games in a season just once since 1995, and the one time they had done so -- they went 6-6 in 2011, albeit with a pair of FCS wins -- they proceeded to lose 20 of their next 24.

Historically, this has been one of the hardest jobs in FBS, but Creighton, a conference title winner at NAIA's Ottawa, Division III's Wabash and FCS' Drake, had the Eagles bowling by year three. He's produced good offenses (49th in offensive SP+ in 2020) and good defenses (back-to-back top 50s in 2017-18), and his Eagles have had one of the more reliably awesome special teams units in college football for the last three years. They've beaten Rutgers, Purdue, Illinois and, in 2022, Arizona State.

Preseason SP+ rankings for all 133 FBS teams
52dBill Connelly
The job remains hard -- after jumping to 7-6 in 2016, EMU went just 27-30 over the next five seasons. But the Eagles remain competitive in a competitive conference, and they broke another barrier in 2022. They won nine games for just the second time in 48 years as an FBS team, and in their fifth try under Creighton they finally won a bowl game, manhandling San Jose State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. They now have two all-time bowl wins, both, somehow, against SJSU.

To be sure, they benefited from the fact that most of the rest of the West -- NIU, CMU, WMU and Ball State -- took backward steps in 2022. And unlike Toledo, they must replace their starting quarterback (Taylor Powell), plus three-fifths of an excellent offensive line. The defense brings back 11 of the 15 players with 250-plus snaps last season and could benefit from the fact that last year's aggressive, young secondary is now aggressive and experienced. (If not for Toledo's Quinyon Mitchell, I'd be building up corner Kempton Shine as maybe the best in the MAC.) But an ultra-efficient offense was the primary reason for last year's breakthrough, and players like quarterback Austin Smith, wideout Tanner Knue and burly running back Samson Evans will have to raise their respective games to keep EMU in the West's top two.

He also lists his 10 favorite players in the MAC :

RT Brian Dooley, EMU. The Eagles have three strong linemen to replace, but at least they still have the 6-foot-7, 302-pound senior tackle, who allowed just two sacks on his way to second-team all-conference honors last year.

CB Kempton Shine, EMU. This division is loaded with high-upside corners, and Shine is among the best. He picked off one pass, broke up nine more and allowed a paltry 14.8 QBR as primary coverage guy in 2022.

Anniversaries:

In 1983, 40 years ago, Jim Harkema took over at EMU. After a decade of success at Grand Valley State, Harkema took on a program that had gone just 7-44-2 over its previous five seasons. After seven wins in three years, Harkema led EMU to a 6-5 record in 1986, then peaked with a 10-2 run and California Bowl victory -- their only bowl win until 2022 -- in 1987. He is the only EMU coach who's won more games than Chris Creighton during EMU's FBS tenure.