As Western Michigan reigns in MAC, the next goal is College Football Playoff contention

When it comes to the 2026 season, the braintrust atop Western Michigan’s football program is thinking big. 

“The goal is always to win a MAC championship,” athletic director Dan Bartholomae said in a recent interview with Mitten Football. “But, part of when you're in the conversation for winning MAC championships, the next natural goal should be ‘Let's get in the College Football Playoff conversation.’”

Entering Year 4 for head coach Lance Taylor, coming off a MAC title and 10 wins, Western Michigan wants to continue elevating the standard of the football program. And that means butting into the race for the 12-team College Football Playoff. It’s something Bartholomae and Taylor have been conscious of building towards, knowing the optimistic three-year outlook, way back when Taylor got hired prior to the 2023 season, was to be competing in the MAC by now. With that box checked at Ford Field last December, the goal is an order of magnitude bigger — and hopes of winning the MAC again haven’t been eschewed, either. 

And with years of behind the scenes work by both Bartholomae and Taylor to build up the Broncos and that being parlayed, in part, into WMU retaining the bulk of its returning starters from 2025, plus some strategic scheduling mean Western Michigan should have as good a shot as any Group of 6 team to winnow itself into the CFP debate. 

“From our standpoint here, I felt this way even before I took the job and even more so having been in the seat now, going into Year 4, I think we are well-suited to succeed in this landscape,” Taylor said in an interview with Mitten Football. “I think the support we have here is — it's next level. And it really is. And I'm very appreciative of that.”

Western Michigan’s case to be a team that can contend for the CFP starts with the fact the Broncos should be damn good on the field again.