A year removed from occupying the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio, the location of the Mid-American Conference Media Day changed once again for 2023, taking place at the historic Fox Theater in Detroit, Michigan. But the more things change, the more they stay the same, as commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher took to the podium Thursday morning to address the media.
Steinbrecher hit on a number of both conference and national topics in the speech, one which was notably shorter than last year’s.
Steinbrecher started off the speech by welcoming the two new football coaches (Kent State’s Kenni Burns and Western Michigan’s Lance Taylor), as well as the two new athletic directors (Bowling Green’s Derek van der Merwe and Ball State’s Jeff Mitchell), before eulogizing former commissioner Jim Lessig, who is credited with the integration of women’s sports into the MAC and negotiating the conference’s first regional television deals.