WMU Maybe Catches A Break As MAC Announces 2020 Football Schedule

The Western Michigan Broncos will begin a shortened 2020 football season on the road on November 4th. But a quick glance at the schedule says the Broncos may have caught a break. More on that later.

The Mid-American Conference has announced its football schedule for the 2020 season. Subject to state, county and local guidelines, the six-game conference-only schedule will begin on Wednesday, Nov. 4 with a full slate of games. The regular season will conclude with the East Division & West Division Champions playing in the MAC Championship Game on Friday, Dec. 18 at Ford Field in Detroit. - Mid-American Conference release

Essentially, this schedule is a television production. Sports TV networks, like ESPN and other rights holders are starving for programming, so this helps them out. For the conference, this is a check, because the conference has decided to have no fans in the stands, and not to allow any tailgating outside their stadiums. Meanwhile player COVID testing will have a price tag. So TV money is doing the under

Here's the Broncos schedule:

Wednesday, Nov. 4: at Akron
Wednesday, Nov. 11: vs. Toledo
Wednesday, Nov. 18: at Central Michigan
Saturday, Nov. 28: vs. Northern Illinois
Saturday, Dec. 5: vs. Eastern Michigan
Saturday, Dec. 12: at Ball State

Here's why the Broncos may have caught a break from the schedule maker: Western plays all but one game inside their West Division. Except for Central, all the teams last year had worse records that the Broncos. And the season opener is against Akron. Akron was 0-12 in 2019.

Should the Broncos will all or most of these games, the MAC Football Championship Game is Friday December, 18th, at Ford Field.

The Miami Red Hawks going into this season as the defending champions, having defeated much despised Central Michigan in the conference championship game. WMU finished second in the MAC West.

Playing this truncated schedule does help out some of the pro prospects on team rosters. The league says there are currently 69 MAC alumni on NFL rosters.