Bowling Green rolls into Oxford still auditioning quarterbacks, and Miami (OH) is doing the same thing for the first time in years — just without the guy who made it look easy.
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Best BetMiami (OH)
Miami's the more proven program here, with back-to-back MAC title game trips under a coach entering year 12. But betting the RedHawks isn't just paying for continuity — it's a bet that Miami finds a workable answer at quarterback fast, since Brett Gabbert isn't walking through that door again. Still, until Bowling Green's overhauled QB room produces a real, tested starter, take Miami to win outright.
Bowling Green
+Added Power 4 transfer QB Austin Novosad from Oregon
+Year 2 under Eddie George, hoping to build on Y1
−Finished 4-8 overall, 2-6 in MAC in 2025
−QB room almost entirely new and unproven
Miami (OH)
+Reached MAC title game each of the last 2 seasons
+Chuck Martin enters year 12, program stability
−Lost star QB Brett Gabbert (2,737 yards, All-MAC) to the NFL
−Must replace its most productive passer in years
Eddie George is entering year 2 in Bowling Green, and the biggest story in the building is still the quarterback room. Hunter Najm is the only returning arm, and the staff went out and grabbed Austin Novosad, a transfer from Oregon, to try to jolt an offense that sputtered for most of 2025. Across the state, Miami (OH) has the opposite problem — the guy who WAS the answer, Brett Gabbert, is gone. He signed with the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent, leaving one of the MAC's most reliable veteran passers off Chuck Martin's roster for the first time in years.
Martin doesn't have forever to sort out who replaces Gabbert, and how that competition shakes out will shape whether Miami's back-to-back trips to the MAC Championship Game turn into a third. Bowling Green, meanwhile, is hoping simply adding a body under center with real Power 4 reps changes the math on an offense that finished 2-6 in conference play a year ago. Neither staff is walking into the fall with a settled depth chart at the sport's most important position.
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BGSU Bowling Green
M-OH Miami (OH)
This is also just the latest chapter in one of the MAC's longest-running series. Miami leads the all-time meetings by a wide margin and has won 4 of the last 6 against BG. Bowling Green will lean on running back Austyn Dendy, closing out his redshirt freshman season, to keep the offense honest while the new quarterback situation sorts itself out on the road.
Records tell most of the story of where these two programs are right now. Miami finished 6-5 last season and has reached the MAC title game each of the past two years, most recently falling to Western Michigan. Bowling Green finished 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the MAC, a rough follow-up to George's first year on the job.
Bowling Green Falcons
Sep 25?vs South Florida—
Sep 19?@ Iowa State—
Sep 12?@ Nebraska—
Sep 5?vs Tarleton State—
Miami (OH) RedHawks
Sep 25?vs UConn—
Sep 19?@ Cincinnati—
Sep 12?vs Holy Cross—
Sep 5?@ Pittsburgh—
Recent form.
None of that guarantees anything once Friday, October 2 actually arrives — new quarterbacks have a way of making preseason résumés look irrelevant fast. But until Bowling Green proves its rebuilt QB room can move the ball against a MAC defense, Miami's continuity edge is the safer thing to trust.
