Miami Is the MAC Favorite Again. The League Knows Who Drives It.

Miami did not need another preseason prediction to prove that Travis Steele has built the Mid-American Conference’s standard, but it still received the strongest one available. The RedHawks were selected to finish first in the 2026-27 MAC preseason coaches poll, earning 130 points and nine of the 12 first-place votes.

Toledo finished second with 117 points and two first-place votes, followed by Akron at 110 and Kent State at 108. Miami also received a conference-high five votes to win the MAC Tournament. Those numbers establish the expectation, while the individual honors explain why the league believes Miami can meet it.

The MAC picked Miami’s backcourt, too

Evan Ipsaro and Luke Skaljac were both named to the Preseason All-MAC First Team. Miami was the only program to place two players on the five-man group, a distinction that matters more than the projected order of finish.

Miami returns 11 players from a team that completed a perfect regular season, won 32 games and earned an NCAA Tournament victory. It also must replace major production from the group that made that run possible. A preseason vote cannot answer every question about the new rotation, frontcourt depth or where the scoring will come from on a difficult night, but it tells us what opposing coaches trust most about the RedHawks.

They trust the guards, and it is easy to understand why. Ipsaro and Skaljac give Steele two experienced ball handlers who can initiate the offense, control tempo and play together. Ipsaro has already established himself as one of the MAC’s steadiest guards, while Skaljac proved last season that his role could expand without Miami losing its structure.

I spent most of last season telling my family and group chat that Skaljac was one of the most underrated players in the country and one of my favorite players to watch. He was consistently composed, consistently productive and consistently ready for whatever Miami needed from him. Now the rest of the conference is finally giving him the recognition he earned.

The coaches did not merely identify Skaljac as a useful returning piece. They placed him alongside Ipsaro among the five best players in the MAC before the season begins. That is not reputation carrying Miami’s ranking. It is a statement that the RedHawks still possess the league’s strongest foundation at its most important position.

Favorite does not mean finished

Being picked first is validation, not resolution. Steele still has to determine how the next five players fit behind a starting group that appears relatively settled.

Antwone Woolfolk and Almar Atlason give Miami experienced answers in the frontcourt, but the battles involving Preston Copeland, Rich Rolf, Kyle Waltz, Stevie Elam and the program’s younger players will shape how deep this team can become. The preseason poll does not settle those competitions. It simply raises the stakes surrounding them.

Miami is no longer the program trying to surprise the MAC. It is the program every other contender is trying to catch, and Toledo, Akron and Kent State received enough support to show that the conference race is not expected to be ceremonial.

Miami earned nine first-place votes, but only five coaches picked the RedHawks to win the tournament. The league sees a favorite, not an inevitability, which feels like the proper distinction for a roster still building its next identity.

Miami has work to do before it becomes the finished version of this team. With Ipsaro and Skaljac leading it, the coaches who will spend the winter trying to stop the RedHawks still believe the standard resides in Oxford.