The transfer portal is closed for now and the players have all declared for the NFL draft. Over the next 10 days I will go over the all-conference teams from 2023 and note who is coming back and who is lost for each team. This is in preparation for the page 28 of the magazine which is the All-Conference points returning and lost.
Today I will look at the MAC. Many group of five head coaches I talk to say that with the advent of the transfer portal and NIL that they develop players only to have them leave before their senior seasons as they get plucked by Power Five teams. Yesterday the Sun Belt showed all 12 First Team Offensive players from 2023 have left their teams due to graduation or the portal. I will say that last year even after I talked to the coaches post spring some Group of Five teams lost key players to the portal so you can probably expect a few more names to be lost before August rolls around.
The MAC has just three first team all conference defensive players back but does at the moment have 7 back on offense. Of the first three teams of the MAC 44 players are returning and 43 are lost so it is fairly healthy and should be a solid league in 2024.
While these numbers may change by the time the magazine goes to the press in June, right now six of the 12 teams have a positive number on the chart. Two teams that were blown up last year after a coaching change and ranked at the bottom of the MAC in this statistic are now both at the top in Western Michigan at +34 and Kent St at +28.
Here is this year’s list and the players that are highlighted in yellow are the players returning and if they are not highlighted then they are gone.
Last year the VIP deal worked out tremendously. All VIP members had access to the magazine two days after we sent it to the press, and they had EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital magazine for two full weeks. The magazines were shipped priority mail to them as they rolled off the press and VIP members had the actual magazine in their hands about 3 weeks before it went on sale at Barnes and Noble. This year I have added a Super VIP in which you get two magazines, and I am giving away the full year of Phil Steele Plus access ($99 value) all for just $69 including shipping. Here is a link and we do send out the magazines on the FIFO method of First In (first ordered) First Out (first shipped). So right now if you order your magazine will be shipped on the first day but that window is closing fast. Also I may change my mind on giving away a full year of Phil Steele Plus with the Super VIP order but it is available at least thru February.
