Here’s to Year 2 of Mitten Football

Mitten Football turned a year old about a week ago and it’s worth taking stock and providing a bit of a look under the hood — both in reflection and looking forward — after a year of making this exist. 

With fall camp starting, or already underway in Eastern Michigan’s case, this won’t be belabored with nitty-gritty details but more a summary report of where things are at, what went well in Year 1, what can be better, and what the rough plan is for the 2026 season. In general: Excited!

Also insofar as this is a passion project because it is something I have created and labor to maintain, Mitten Football is something that I sincerely hope grows to be sustainable and durable beyond me. (That is, of course, a very long-term goal.) Somewhat in that guise, reader feedback will be solicited in the future, likely starting in the coming offseason via some sort of survey — I want readers to have a say but I also didn’t want to solicit feedback I didn’t have the capacity to act on in Year 1, basically. 

So, let’s dig in. 

A look back at Year 1

Starting with what went well, the natural beginning is coverage of the three Michigan MAC teams. 

While Michigan and Michigan State get plenty of coverage from numerous in-state and bigger outlets, Mitten Football produces consistent coverage of Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan football at a level that didn’t exist a year ago. And though this one-man operation cannot make it to every media availability and open practice, Mitten Football has carved out a reliable presence in Kalamazoo, Mt. Pleasant and Ypsilanti to provide informed coverage, from writing off games and weekly pressers to deeper feature reporting.

Establishing some baseline of covering MSU and UM is another positive mark from Year 1. And as the balance of the coverage works out over time, there are still plenty of plans around covering Michigan and Michigan State in creative and insightful ways, though it will probably involve less in-person game coverage than 2025 — though that’s a result of schedules as much as anything. We still very much plan to be in Ann Arbor when Michigan State visits and the schedule still works out for a handful of other games to write about for the Spartans and Wolverine, both very compelling teams this year. 

Lastly in the good column, getting to work with and publish Rachel Leggett’s photography has been a treat and I’m excited to do it further this season!

As for the shortcomings — aside from the various, perpetual self-critiques around writing and reporting and other day-to-day editorial decisions — it boils down to one big thing and one important ancillary thing.

The big thing: Audience building in Year 1 got thrown by the wayside, sacrificed at the altar of making Mitten Football a thing over the last 12 months. Those visible and behind-the-scenes efforts will pick up in pace over the next year, for reasons that should be evident with respect to building revenues.  

An unfortunate reality of that is the paywall needs to be deployed more. The plan is still for immediate game coverage to be free and to provide at least one midweek story that’s free, but more things are going to be behind a paywall to, ideally, begin to increase paid subscriptions. 

And the smaller thing is offering up some other offerings that can 1) help with the audience building and 2) were loosely promised, namely a podcast — things are percolating there — and a better social media presence. The latter is definitely a point of focus through camp and into the season where there will be ample tidbits of reporting and insight to share in ways that don’t quite require a full story. Stay tuned there. 

So, Year 2

This part is going to be relatively brief. 

The plan, as things stands, is to be full-steam ahead with Michigan MAC coverage while continuing to find the strike zone with Michigan and Michigan State reporting and features. And to keep providing the best and broadest coverage we can, Mitten Football is excited to be collaborating with By The Belt and tinkering with various ways to crossover coverage to offer both readerships top-notch coverage of the Michigan MAC teams and the MAC at large. 

Already, an abbreviated version of Friday’s report from Eastern Michigan camp published on Saturday in By The Belt. Check it out here!  

More collaborative stuff is on the horizon, as are efforts to continue and better sell Mitten Football. On the latter point, it’s $8 a month (or $87 for a year, a 10% discount) for a paid subscription to help keep Mitten Football on the road and this coverage coming.  

All of this, at the end of the day, is to keep the main goal in sight and provide broad coverage of all five FBS teams in the state of Michigan. 

And above all, here’s to a successful year to come as fall camp kicks off this week across the state.