Briggs: Mark my (famous last) words — Toledo and BG are headed for a historic first this year

There may be no ‘I’ in team , but there is one in championship , especially when it comes to the path there this season.

I-75 is college football’s glory road.

In the national race, a team in the big new playoff could type “title game” into its GPS and — in theory — take the interstate all the way there, playing a quarterfinal at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta (Exit 249D), a semifinal at the Orange Bowl in Miami (3A), and the final back in the ATL.

And in the Mid-American Conference …

Buckle up.

That’s because the Battle of I-75 is movin’ on up … I-75.

Toledo (Exit 203A) and Bowling Green (181) are going to Detroit (50).

Yep, you heard it here first.

Their showdown Oct. 26 at the Glass Bowl will prove but a delicious appetizer to the first-of-its-kind main course — a rematch in the MAC championship game.

I can see it already.

The caravan of cars on the way to the largest off-site gathering of northwest Ohioans this side of Fort Myers, Fla. The electrified split stadium, blue and gold on one side of Ford Field, orange and brown on the other. The biggest EVENT in the century-old history of the league’s best rivalry.

Mark the date (Dec. 7) and mark my words.

Sure, chances are they’ll prove my famous last ones.

But as we look forward to Thursday night’s season kickoff — with Toledo hosting Duquesne, BG welcoming in Fordham — who needs another boring prediction?

Truth is, we have no idea, and that’s what makes the MAC in 2024 so compelling.

Defending champion Miami is the rightful preseason favorite. The RedHawks return a dozen starters, including star passer Brett Gabbert, who is back for his sixth year — all as a starter — after snapping his leg last October.

But …

Worth remembering: No one repeats in the MAC — Northern Illinois is the last school to go back to back in 2011 and ’12 — and Miami has to travel to Toledo and Bowling Green. Further, that game at Toledo on Oct. 5? The Rockets — unlike Miami — are off the week before.

For my money, our local teams have as good a chance as anyone. (Thrown Northern in the conversation, too.)

Start with the Rockets.

They lost a ton from from the team last season that rattled off 11 straight wins and cracked the AP poll, including the league MVP (QB Dequan Finn), their workhorse running back (Peny Boone), and a first-round NFL draft pick (cornerback Quinyon Mitchell), not to mention the entire offensive line.

But no program in the MAC keeps the cupboard better stocked.

Toledo still has more answers than questions, from a league-best fleet of receivers to a defensive line — led by the conference’s best one-two punch (tackle Darius Alexander and end D’Andre Ragin) — that would not be out of place in the Big Ten. (In fact, Phil Steele ranks its D-line 40th nationally, which would be ninth in the 18-team Big Ten.) Also, a not-so-bold prediction: Quarterback Tucker Gleason will be just fine.

The biggest reservation is the offensive line, which, almost impossibly, features no one who has started an FBS game. (For context, Akron has the next-most inexperienced line in the MAC. Its linemen have 35 career starts.) But, privately, Toledo is not expecting the unit — reinforced by a pair of transfers, including Ohio State’s Jakob James — to take a step back.

We’ll see.

“We have a good defensive front, and they're blocked some really good players every day in practice and done well,” coach Jason Candle said Friday. “I know there’s an element of toughness there. There’s a want-to and desire there. It may not be perfect all the time, but I’m encouraged where we are.”

Meantime, so is Bowling Green … about everything.

Its rebuild took a long minute, but the house finally appears move-in ready.

A year after the Falcons (7-6) rolled to five wins in their final six league games (average margin of victory: 18.8 points), the band is back together. Bowling Green returns 14 starters, including QB Connor Bazelak, who has 40 career starts between his time at Missouri, Indiana, and BGSU.

Sixth-year coach Scot Loeffler has his best team, and, more important, his deepest one, especially up front. Steele ranks BG’s defensive line (51) just behind Toledo’s while the Falcons’ O-line returns 84 career starts.

“We honestly believed that both fronts would have looked like this going into our fifth year, and COVID totally destroyed that,” Loeffler said. “This is what we envisioned with the fronts on both sides. We've got depth, finally … We’re pretty good up front.”

Add it all up, and, well, spread the word through the grapevine.

Get ready for the Season of I-75.

This year, Toledo and Bowling Green are going platinum in Motown.