There are other players who will certainly be candidates for first and second team All-MAC when the season ends, but POY is a different animal. The player usually has to have a dominent season on a team that has at least some measure of success. Or if the team is not successful, that player must be so overwhleming and unstoppable as to be an easy pick as the best player in the league.
That said, I think there is usually more emphasis placed on the individual stats: e.g. last year's POY, K. McL from BG. I have no disagreement with his selection. He had a spectacular season and was the key to BG's fine season. I don't think he was the best player in the league in the sense that Ball State wouldn't have traded T Smith for him. Or would I have traded Trevor Huffman for him. There were more talented players in the larger sense, but none had the season he had in MAC play in terms, especially, of scoring.
That's what makes this a tough pick: it's easier to recognize talent than it is to predict who is going to play to the peak of that talent more often in MAC games.
I think all of these 10 at least have an outside shot at POY, though realistically it's probably only about 5 of them that really have a shot, barring an unexpectedly great season by someone else. I thought I could probably have narrowed this list to 6-7 players, but I throw in 10 because I can. I left out some good players, but none I think can realisitically win POY. I think the list already has a few who probably can not win. My guess is you need to have SOME pre-season hype, a little like the Heisman, to put you on the radar.

Gates is unstoppable...and what a touch from the outside. He can do it all.
thank goodness he is a SR!