Carifio: 5 things we learned at MAC media day

With less than two weeks until the NIU football team begins its fall workouts, the Huskies and the rest of the Mid-American Conference descended upon the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, for the league’s media day Friday.

The event kicked off with an address by commissioner Jon Steinbrecher and featured interviews with all head coaches, including NIU’s Thomas Hammock.

Here are five things we learned.

NIU picked 3rd in coaches poll

Miami had 119 points. Toledo was second with 109. Then came Bowling Green and the Huskies tied with 92 points each.

The RedHawks received nine of the 12 first-place votes, and Toledo received the others. The Huskies finished last year 7-6, beating Arkansas State in the Camellia Bowl for their first bowl win since the 2011 season.

“We are anxious to get the season started,” Hammock said in a statement. “We’ve had a good summer, but we know preseason is for talk. We’re going to let our play speak for us. The MAC is an extremely competitive league with great players and great coaches. Everyone is starting from the same spot, and every week you have to go out and prove yourself.”

Coaches could not vote for their team.

This is the year with a new conference schedule format, which eliminates the MAC East and West Divisions. Which brings us to the next thing.

The schedule format will change again

This was kind of a given seeing how UMass is joining the league in 2025, meaning the current, symmetrical 12-team system will only last a year.

Steinbrecher said he really liked the new system and is confident it can be adapted into a 13-team format. He said a big benefit of the new system is each team in the conference playing the other 11 every three years.

With the extra time, it might be every four years now before getting around the conference, but he said that’s not a huge change as the league examines other tweaks.

“We figured out a way to protect rivalries, protect some level of the geography, keep strength of schedule relatively the same and facilitate a way for the teams to see each other more often,” Steinbrecher said. “It makes a world of sense, and that’s why we went down that path. We’ve got UMass coming in in a year, and it gets us to the nice, round number of 13. So we’re working through the schedule permutations. And they’ll work out.”

The effects of a mature Huskies ballclub

For years, even when the Huskies won the 2021 MAC title, it seemed like the team has been very young.

There was a shift away from that last year. But this year the transition to experienced club is complete. And Hammock said it shows.

“Guys understand the standards and commitments, so there’s not much yelling, right?” Hammock said. “They police themselves. That maturation process has been fun to see. Guys you had to kick in the butt when they first got here now they kind of run themselves.”

Senior offensive lineman JJ Lippe, who came to the team in Hammock’s first year in 2019, said it’s been fun seeing the evolution up close.

“Especially with the O-line and D-line, we’ve been going at it for five years straight,” Lippe said. “Pretty much everybody has stayed the same upfront. I think that’s pretty exciting to see how much ... veteran leadership upfront we’ve got.”

Antario Brown is peaking at the right time

That’s how Hammock described the fourth-year running back who figures to be at the center of the NIU offense. He ran for 1,296 yards last year with 10 touchdowns.

With Rocky Lombardi graduated, there’s no starter named at quarterback. But for the first time, Hammock confirmed that Ethan Hampton, Jalen Macon and Josh Holst are in the competition for the spot.

Regardless of the quarterback, Brown is going to be a weapon carrying the ball for the Huskies.

“It’s taken us four years to get to the point where he understands what it takes to be great,” Hammock said. “Sometimes you can have great abilities and don’t put it all together. But what I’ve seen from January until now is a young man that understands what it takes, how to do it every single day and leading from the front. And he hasn’t done that in his career.

“I’m very excited about what he’s going to do this season as long as he stays healthy.”

Steinbrecher is very against paying players

In his address, Steinbrecher came out very strongly against paying players. He said the current system works.

He did mention situations like Jimbo FIsher’s reported $76 million buyout or Troy Dannen going from athletic director at Tulane to Washington to Nebraska in six months. He said it’s not hard to understand why many believe athletes should be able to share in the financial success of the enterprise.

But he also stressed the common point that education needs to be the priority and said that economic factors have overtaken education outcomes as the main focus.

He then also brought up a fairly new argument, at least to me: that paying college athletes could bring about the end of the U.S. Olympic team. Well, kind of.

He said the number of sports sponsored and the level of sports could be in jeopardy. He was quick to add the MAC has not had discussions on this, but pointed out Power Five athletic directors have mentioned this.

“It’s ironic that here were are, a week away from the start of the Olympic games, in which the vast majority of American participants, approximately 75% ... are developed and trained through our universities,” Steinbrecher said. “The United States is one of the only if not the only country that does not provide funding in support of its Olympic program, instead relying on colleges and universities to underwrite the training and development of our Olympic teams and athletes. That may need to change depending on how the next few years play out.”