Welcome back, college football fans as we celebrate not only our 23rd most challenged conference in 2026, but also the GCR’s 650th official post! We also have to thank our readers for sharing our space with others, which is evident based on the tremendous growth in readership over the last 12 months.
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Previously, we talked about the Pioneer League (25th spot with a Score of 3.341) and the SWAC (24th spot with 3.396) as our countdown is in full swing. As a reminder, the GCR algorithm for the Preseason Strength of Schedule (PS-SOS) uses 2025’s our Score metric, which is a combination of a performance and strength of schedule calculations. We have to use last year’s information because, as of this moment, all 266 teams from Indiana (last year’s champions) to Chicago St (about to play football for the first time ever) are all tied for first (or last, if you lean pessimistic) at a Score of 0.00 (performance of 0.00 and SOS of 0.00). The GCR does not rate teams before they play. Logically, that means we are “predicting” the PS-SOS assuming every team has an identical rating as last season, which cannot happen. Even if every team repeated their respective records (probably not 100% of them could), their opponents change year-over-year so the SOS would be slightly (to more than slightly) different.
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So, our starting point is a given team’s 2026 schedule applying the GCR’s 2025 Score metric to that schedule with some adjustments for playing on the road or a neutral site. Non-Division I (D1) teams are assigned a base value adjusted for winning percentage. Then we take the arithmetic mean of that team’s opponents to calculate the PS-SOS. Then we rank and sort by conference. The PS-SOS can be viewed as what the team’s opponent’s average win total “is”, assuming a Core 4 schedule with all neutral site games. The teams with the most challenging schedules hover around 10.000 while the weakest schedules are below 3.000.
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In 23rd place with a mean conference PS-SOS of 3.563 and a mean position rank of 220.5 (out of 266), is the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference or the MEAC. Like the SWAC that we talked about last time, the MEAC is the other Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) conference. With only 6 teams, they don’t play conference games until late October in a round robin, with the winner heading to the Celebration Bowl (the only FCS bowl game) against the SWAC champion. The conference does not participate in the FCS 24-team playoff. In the table below, (4) indicates a game against a Core 4 team, (G) indicates a battle against a Group of 6 squad, (F) indicates a non-MEAC FCS opponent, (D) indicates a non-D1team, and (N) indicates a neutral site game. With no further ado, we are proud to present the 2026 MEAC:
| Team | Home Field | 2025 Record (Rank) | 2026 PS SOS (Rank) | Home Games | Away/ Neutral Games | Hardest | Easiest |
| Howard Bison (1) | Washington, DC | 5-7 (216) | 4.50 (147) | Richmond (F), Morehouse (D), SC St, Delaware St | Alabama A&M (F), Indiana (4), Rutgers (4), Hampton (NF), Penn (F), Morgan St, NC Central, Norfolk St | at Indiana (15.18) | Morehouse (0.07) |
| Norfolk St Spartans (2) | Norfolk, VA | 1-11 (256) | 3.82 (204) | Winston Salem (D), Hampton (F), Lynchburg (D), Delaware St, NC Central, Howard | Old Dominion (G), Virginia (4), Chicago St (F), Robert Morris (F), SC St, Morgan St | at Virginia (12.19) | at Chicago St (0.00) |
| Morgan St Bears (3) | Baltimore, MD | 4-8 (233) | 3.68 (220) | Lynchburg (D), Robert Morris (F), Howard, Norfolk St | NC A&T (F), Arizona St (4), Towson (F), Villanova (F), TN St (F), Delaware St, NC Central | at Arizona St (10.84) | Lynchburg (0.07) |
| Delaware St Hornets (4) | Dover, DE | 8-4 (176) | 3.38 (242) | Stony Brook (F), Bowie St (D), Towson (F), Franklin Pierce (D), NC Central, Morgan St | William & Mary (F), South Florida (G), Albany (F), Norfolk St, Howard, SC St | at South Florida (10.61) | Bowie St (0.07) |
| NC Central Eagles (5) | Durham, NC | 8-4 (165) | 3.37 (246) | Elizabeth City (D), NC A&T (F), Campbell (F), William & Mary (F), Howard, Morgan St | TX Southern (F), Gardner Webb (F), East Carolina (G), Delaware St, Norfolk St, SC St | at East Carolina (9.96) | Elizabeth City (0.08) |
| SC St Bulldogs (6) | Orangeburg, SC | 10-3 (179) | 2.63 (264) | Savannah St (D), VA St (D), Citadel (F), Norfolk St, NC Central, Delaware St | Florida A&M (NF), Furman (F), Bethune (F), Chrls So (F), Morgan St, Howard | NC Central (4.71) | Savannah St (0.08) |
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That’s it for today. Tune in next time for our review of the 22nd most challenged conference as we countdown to the beginning of the season. Thank you for reading (it’s why we post), providing comments or suggestions (it’s how we improve), and, especially, for sharing with others (it’s how we grow). See you next time, JoJo and G
