CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For the first time since 2003, the MAC has two teams ranked in the final Associated Press Top 25 Football Poll. Ball State is ranked No. 23, while Buffalo comes in at No. 25. It marks the first time in program history for both schools to have a team finish the season ranked within the Top 25. In 2003, Miami (No. 10) and Bowling Green (No. 23) finished the season in the AP Top 25. 

Ball State finished the season with back-to-back wins over ranked opponents, defeating the Bulls when they were No. 23 and then knocking off No. 19 San Jose State in the Offerpad Arizona Bowl on New Year's Eve. SJSU is No. 24 in the final poll. Coach Mike Neu's Cardinals finished 7-1 overall, winning their first-ever bowl game, their first MAC championship since 1996 and their first MAC West Division title since 2008. BSU's seven-game winning streak at season's end is tied for the fourth-longest active streak in the FBS.

Buffalo went 6-1 on the season, won the MAC East Division and won a bowl game for the second straight season. The Bulls defeated Marshall, 17-10, in the 2020 Camellia Bowl. The Bulls were ranked as high as 23 by the AP this year. Buffalo finished the 2020 season ranked fifth in the nation in scoring offense (43.4) and second in the nation in rushing offense (287.4).