The 2022 MAC Championship Game was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

conference championship game played December 3, 2022, at

Ford Field Ford Field is a domed American football stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It primarily serves as the home of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), as well as the annual Quick Lane Bowl college football bowl game, state champ ...

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

. It was the 26th edition of the MAC Football Championship Game and determined the champion of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

(MAC) for the 2022 season. The game began at 12:00 p.m. EST and aired on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. The game featured the Western Division champion Toledo Rockets against the Eastern Division champion

Ohio Bobcats The Ohio Bobcats are the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio University, located in Athens, Ohio, United States. Ohio University is a charter member (1946) of the Mid-Amer ...

. For sponsorship reasons, the game is officially known as the Rocket Mortgage MAC Championship. Toledo won their fourth championship game with a 17-7 win over the Bobcats.

Venue

The 2022 MAC title game was held at Ford Field for the 19th consecutive season. The venue, located in downtown

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

at 2000 Brush St., is the home of the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) and has a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

for football of 65,000.

Previous season

The

2021 MAC Championship Game The 2021 MAC Championship Game was a college football game played on December 4, 2021, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. It was the 25th edition of the MAC Football Championship Game and determined the champion of the Mid-American Conference (M ...

featured

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in Ash ...

against Northern Illinois. In the championship game, Northern Illinois was victorious by a score of 41–23. It was the Huskies' fifth win of the championship game and first since

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Teams

The game featured the

, champions of the East Division, and the Toledo Rockets, champions of the West Division, of the Mid-American Conference.

Toledo

Toledo clinched a berth in the championship game with two weeks remaining in the schedule following their win over

Ball State Ball State University (Ball State, State or BSU) is a public research university in Muncie, Indiana. It has two satellite facilities in Fishers and Indianapolis. On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, industrialists and founders of the Ball C ...

and a loss by Western Michigan the following night. This is Toledo's seventh appearance in the championship game. They are 3–3 in prior attempts having won in their last appearance in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

The Rockets were 2–2 out of conference with wins over FCS

LIU / ( or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'kill', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic text ...

and

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

and losses at

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

and

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

. They opened conference play with 3 consecutive wins over Central Michigan, Northern Illinois,

. Quarterback Dequan Finn was injured in a loss at Buffalo. Tucker Gleason led the Rockets to a win over Eastern Michigan and Finn retuned for a win

which wrapped up the division but sat out a loss to Bowling Green. Toledo ended their regular season with a loss to Western Michigan in which Finn played sparingly

Ohio

Ohio clinched a berth in the championship game during the final week of the season with a 38–14 win over Bowling Green. They entered the game 9–3 with a 7–1 record in the MAC and on a seven-game winning streak. This is Ohio's fifth appearance in the game and first since

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. They are 0–4 in their previous attempts and have not won a conference championship since

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

. The Bobcats were 2–2 out of conference with wins over

Florida Atlantic Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-cam ...

and FCS Fordham and losses at

power conference The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA D ...

foes

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

and

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

. They opened conference play with an overtime loss to

and a win over last place Akron. Through six games Ohio was surrendering 40.6 points, 561 yards, and 387 passing yards per game but were 3–3 on the season with a prolific offense led by the passing of MAC Player of the Year

Kurtis Rourke Kurtis Rourke (born October 25, 2000) is a Canadian American football quarterback who will play for the Indiana Hoosiers. He previously played for the Ohio Bobcats football team. College career Ohio Rourke was the starting quarterback for the Oh ...

. Ohio finished the regular season with consectutive wins over Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, Buffalo, Miami (OH),

, and Bowling Green during which Ohio surrendered an average of only 18 points per game. Rourke suffered a season ending torn ACL against Ball State and Ohio turned to third string quarterback CJ Harris.

Game summary

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2022 MAC Championship Game Championship MAC Championship Game American football competitions in Detroit MAC Championship MAC Championship Ohio Bobcats football games Toledo Rockets football games