CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference announced today the 2024 MAC Hall of Fame Induction Class as six new members are inducted in the MAC Hall of Fame.
 
The six inductees are Jordan Lynch (Northern Illinois – Football), Curt Miller (Bowling Green– Women’s Basketball Head Coach), Sarah Obras (Ball State – Volleyball), Nick Saban (Kent State – Football and Baseball, Toledo – Football), Jessica Simpson (Miami – Softball) and Frank Solich (Ohio – Football Head Coach). 

“We take pride in commemorating the outstanding contributions made by our past student-athletes, coaches, and administrators, particularly the distinguished accomplishments of these six individuals during their tenure in the Mid-American Conference," expressed Dr. Jon Steinbrecher, MAC Commissioner. "It's a privilege to extend our warmest welcome to this year's inductees into the MAC Hall of Fame."

“The Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame is a testament to the achievements of those that have competed and served in this great Conference,” added Steinbrecher.
 
The MAC Hall of Fame was approved by the MAC Council of Presidents in 1987.  The charter class was inducted in 1988 and subsequent classes were added in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994.  After six induction classes, the MAC Hall of Fame maintained 52 members until it was reinstated in May of 2012. This year’s class brings the number of MAC Hall of Fame inductees to 125 individuals from 18 classes.
 
The 2024 MAC Hall of Fame class will be inducted on Thursday, May 30 at the Marriott Key Tower. Ticket information for the 2024 MAC honors dinner and Hall of Fame celebration will be announced at later date. 

2024 MAC Hall of Fame Class
Jordan Lynch – Northern Illinois (Football) 
In two seasons as NIU’s starting quarterback, Lynch set five NCAA and 25 school records while guiding the Huskies to a 24-4 record that included the 2012 MAC Championship and historic Orange Bowl appearance, and Boneyard Wins over Iowa and Purdue en route to an undefeated regular season in 2013.  Lynch never lost a true road game (12-0) or a game at Huskie Stadium (11-0) as a starter. 
 
The consummate dual threat quarterback, he collected first team All-America honors from the Associated Press, Lindy’s and Phil Steele in 2013 as an all-purpose player, after making the AP and Phil Steele second teams as a junior. He won the MAC’s Vern Smith Leadership (MVP) Award and was named the league’s offensive player of the year in both 2012 and 2013 and his third-place finish in the 2013 Heisman Trophy voting is the best by a player from the Mid-American Conference. Lynch was also a finalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year, Manning Quarterback Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, Senior CLASS Award and AT&T All-America Player of the Year awards as a senior.
 
Lynch’s spectacular 2012 campaign included 12 100-yard rushing games and nine 200-yard passing games, capped by his performance versus Kent State in the Huskies’ double overtime win in the MAC Championship game (160 yards on 36 carries, 3 TDs; 212 passing yards, 1 TD), as NIU became the first league team to earn a berth in a Bowl Championship Series (precursor to the College Football Playoff) game. The Huskies were ranked as high as 16th in the national polls. In his first season as a starter, Lynch completed 60.2 percent of his passes (237-of-394) for 3,138 yards and 25 touchdowns while rushing for 1,185 yards on 294 carries with 19 touchdowns.
 
His 2012 performance and NIU’s run to the Orange Bowl vaulted the Huskies and Lynch into the national conversation that was amplified with the wins over Iowa and Purdue.  NIU earned a Top 25 ranking at the beginning of October while the “Lynch for 6” Heisman campaign kicked into high gear as Lynch recorded a pair of 300-yard rushing games, 10 200-yard and one 300-yard passing game while leading NIU to an undefeated regular season.  He accounted for 48 touchdowns as a senior in 2013, throwing for 2,892 yards and 24 touchdowns while rushing for 1,920 yards and 23 scores.
 
After leaving NIU, Lynch went on to a professional career in the Canadian Football League where he helped the Edmonton Eskimos win the 2015 Grey Cup by scoring the game-winning touchdown with 3:22 to play. Since 2018, Lynch has been head coach at his alma mater, Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, leading the Caravan to three state championships (2019, 2022, 2023).
 
Lynch joins former running back Michael Turner (inducted in 2018) as the only NIU student-athletes selected to the MAC Hall of Fame. Former NIU director of athletics Cary Groth (2022), athletics administrator and softball coach Dee Abrahamson (2019) and football coaches Joe Novak (2014) and Bill Mallory (2013) have also been inducted over the last 10 years. 

Curt Miller – Bowling Green (Women’s Basketball Head Coach)
Miller, a native of Girard, Pa. and the current coach of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, was the architect of the BGSU women’s basketball program from 2001-12. He went 258-92 with a MAC record of 135-41 in his 11 seasons at the helm.
 
In 11 years at the BGSU helm, Miller had an overall record of 258-92 and a Mid-American Conference record of 135-41.  The Falcons won an unprecedented eight-straight MAC divisional titles over his final eight seasons, with seven outright league regular-season crowns during that span.  BGSU made national postseason appearances in each of those eight seasons, many years, with trips to the NCAA Championships in three consecutive years from 2005-07 and back-to-back appearances in 2010 and 2011.  The 2007 season saw the Falcons win two games to make the first trip to the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ in MAC women’s basketball history. BGSU participated in the WNIT in 2008, 2009 and 2012.
 
Miller was named MAC Coach of the Year a league-record six times, including a MAC-record five years in a row, and he also earned Russell Athletic/WBCA Region 4 Coach-of-the-Year accolades on four occasions.
 
Miller was the fastest MAC coach to reach both 200 and 250 overall wins, and the second-fastest coach in league annals to reach 100 MAC wins.
 
His 2006-07 team was perhaps the greatest in program history, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen as the No. 7 seed, defeating No. 10 seeded Oklahoma State and No. 2 seeded Vanderbilt.
 
Miller, as mentioned, was named MAC Coach of the Year a league-record six times and earned Russell Athletic/WBCA Region 4 Coach of the Year accolades on four occasions. He left BGSU as the third-winningest coach in MAC women’s basketball history in league games, ranking second in MAC annals in overall victories. His players earned six MAC Tournament MVP awards, four MAC Player of the Year honors and were named All-MAC 23 times.
 
In has 11 years as head coach, every student-athlete who played four years at BGSU under Miller graduated, won a MAC regular season title and played in an NCAA Tournament. His teams earned WBCA Academic Honor Roll (top 25 in the nation) accolades in each of his last five years, including fifth in the nation in 2008-09 and sixth in 2009-10.
 
Miller left BGSU to become the head coach at Indiana University, spent a year as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA and was named head coach of the Connecticut Sun in Dec. of 2015. He then added the role of general manager in Sept. of 2016 and was named the 2017 WNBA Coach of the Year. Miller was again named WNBA Coach of the Year in 2021 with the Sun. He was named head coach of the Sparks in October of 2022.
 
In August of 2023, Miller won his 150th game as a WNBA head coach. He became just the third head coach (joining Lin Dunn and Van Chancellor) to have won at least 275 collegiate games and 150 WNBA games. Additionally, he was the fifth-fastest coach to reach the 150-win mark in the WNBA.
 
Miller was inducted into the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.

Sarah Obras (Steele) – Ball State (Volleyball)
Sarah (Obras) Steele completed her four-year playing career at Ball State as the Mid-American Conference’s all-time leader in career kills (1,975) and attempts (5,699). The first player in MAC history to reach 1,500 career kills before the end of her junior season, she is also its first to register both 1,500 career kills and 1,500 career digs.

The MAC Freshman of the Year in 2002, Obras helped guide Ball State to MAC regular season and tournament championships as well as a berth in the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament. In 2003, she smashed a Ball State and then-MAC single-season record 695 kills as a sophomore. She was a first-team All-MAC selection in each of her first three college seasons and earned honorable mention honors as a senior after battling back from injury.

Inducted into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018, Obras was also a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. She still holds program records for career matches with double-figure kills (101) and 20-or-more kills (37), while five of Ball State’s top ten single-match kill totals still bear her name.

In addition to her current job in finance and business operations, she is an assistant coach at Hamilton Southeastern High School in Fishers, Indiana, where the Royals won back-to-back IHSAA state volleyball titles in 2022 and 2023.

Nick Saban – Kent State (Football and Baseball, Toledo Football Head Coach)
Nick Saban has won more college football national championships than any coach in the modern era and spent 28 years as a college head coach at Toledo (1990), Michigan State (1995-99), LSU (2000-04) and Alabama (2007-23). He won seven national titles in those 28 years, his first at LSU in 2003 before capturing six championships at Alabama (2009, 2011-12, 2015, 2017 and 2020). He also coached the Miami Dolphins for two seasons (2005-06).

Saban's teams won three national championships during the Bowl Championship Series era and three more after the start of the College Football Playoff. In 10 seasons of the CFP, Saban's Crimson Tide teams qualified eight times.

Saban compiled a 297-71-1 (.806) collegiate coaching record, including a 206-29 (.877) mark in Tuscaloosa. His teams won a combined 11 SEC titles, going 11-1 in SEC Championship Games, including nine at Alabama (9-1 record) and two at LSU (2-0 mark). He also won 15 games with the Dolphins in 2005-06.

In Saban's six national championship seasons at Alabama, his teams went 21-2 against top-10 opponents, and, since 2008, the Crimson Tide was 37-15 overall against top-10 teams. Alabama was also ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Poll for at least one week for 15 straight years (2008-22), which broke the record of seven established by Miami (1986-92).

Saban coached four Heisman Trophy winners, joining Notre Dame's Frank Leahy for the most in college football history. He is the only coach to ever coach Heisman Trophy winners at three different positions (RB, WR, QB). The Alabama program had just six individual national award winners when Saban arrived on campus, but Crimson Tide players have secured 60 national awards since 2008.

His players at Alabama have won 66 All-America honors by 58 different individuals over the past 16 seasons. Eight players have been named two-time All-Americans along with 46 consensus honors and 25 unanimous selections. Will Anderson Jr. became the first two-time unanimous All-American in Alabama history.

Saban's success has also translated to NFL success for his players with a record 49 players chosen in the first round of the draft (44 at Alabama). 

Alabama's success on the field over the past 17 seasons has coincided with the Tide's success in the classroom. Since Saban's arrival in 2007, Alabama football has seen a total of 656 degrees earned, including 103 master's degrees.

Saban's first head coaching position came at the University of Toledo in 1990, as he guided the Rockets to a record of 9-2 that year, finishing as co-champions of the Mid-American Conference. The Rockets ranked among the NCAA leaders in both total defense (12th at 284.8 ypg) and scoring defense (16th at 16.2 ppg) and missed posting an undefeated record by a mere five points.

A native of Fairmont, West Virginia, Saban graduated from Kent State with his bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1973 and earned his Master of Education degree in health and physical education in 1975. While at Kent State, he was a safety on the Golden Flashes football team and was a member of the 1972 squad that won the university’s first conference championship.

During his time at Kent State, Saban earned three letters in football and one in baseball from 1970 to 1972. In 1973, he was a graduate assistant coach and defensive assistant for the Flashes. He was inducted into the Kent State Varsity K Hall of Fame in 2015. 

Saban and his wife, the former Terry Constable, have two children, Nicholas and Kristen. They have been married for 44 years and are enjoying the company of their granddaughter, Amélie, a daughter-in-law Kelsé and son-in-law Adam Setas.

The Sabans Nick's Kids Foundation is a vibrant example of the family's continuing concern for disadvantaged children. Since Nick and Terry arrived in Tuscaloosa, over $12 million has been distributed to students, teachers and children's causes at over 150 charities through the Nick's Kids Foundation.

Jessica Simpson – Miami (Softball) 
Simpson, arguably the most decorated pitcher in MAC softball history, is the conference’s leader in pitching appearances (187), innings pitched (1,048.2), wins (102) and shutouts (46). She ranks second in MAC history in games started (142), complete games (117) and strikeouts (1,021).

The 2011 and 2012 MAC Pitcher of the Year, earned all-conference honors four-straight years, including first-team accolades as a junior and senior. She won 32 games in 2012, which sits atop the MAC record books (tied with Miami’s Brianna Pratt), as the RedHawks advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2009 and 2012.

She is a two-time Miami Female Athlete of the Year (2011, 2012) that also earned Academic All-MAC honors in her final two years with the Red and White.  Simpson is Miami’s all-time record holder in wins, appearances, games started, complete games, innings pitched, shutouts, strikeouts.

Frank Solich, Ohio (Football Head Coach) 
The winningest coach in Mid-American Conference history with 115 overall wins, Solich led the Bobcats to four MAC East titles (2006, 2009, 2011, 2016), and his 77 conference wins rank second only behind College Football Hall of Fame coach Herb Deromedi, who posted 90 victories during his career at Central Michigan. He and Deromedi are tied at 16 years for longest tenured coach in MAC history. His 115 wins also rank second in Bobcat program history, only behind Don Peden who had 121 victories from 1924-46. 

Solich notched an overall record of 173-101 for a 63.1 winning percentage during his 22 years as a head coach, including 115-82 (58.4%) during his 16 years at Ohio and 58-19 (75.3%) during his six-year run with the Cornhuskers.
 
Prior to Solich's arrival in Athens, the Bobcats had enjoyed only two winning seasons in the previous 22 years, and they had not appeared in a bowl game since 1968 and only two postseason appearances in program history. Solich quickly filled the void during his second season with a berth in the 2006 GMAC Bowl, and Solich's teams would go on to appear in 11 bowl games during his tenure. Solich's teams can also claim the first five bowl victories in Bobcat history, with back-to-back wins in the 2011 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and 2012 Independence Bowl and three consecutive victories in the 2017 Bahamas Bowl, 2018 DXL Frisco Bowl and 2020 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
 
He guided Ohio to 12-straight non-losing seasons, with six years of at least nine wins, including a 10-win campaign in 2011. He won the Battle of the Bricks, the rivalry game between Ohio and Miami (OH), 11 out of 15 seasons, and he coached the Bobcats to a major upset, beating Penn State, 24-14, in Happy Valley during the season opener in 2012.
 
Solich coached Nebraska to a Big 12 title (1999) and three Big 12 North Division titles (1999, 2000, 2001). The Cornhuskers posted at least nine wins in 5 of his 6 seasons as head coach, including a 12-1 record and No. 3 final ranking in 1999. He later led the Huskers to an 11-2 record and an appearance against Miami (FL) in the BCS National Championship Game at the 2002 Rose Bowl. He coached Nebraska to three top 10 finishes (No. 3 in 1999, No. 8 in 2000, No. 8 in 2001) and victories over Tennessee in the 2000 Fiesta Bowl and Northwestern in the 2000 Alamo Bowl.
 
He coached 13 total First Team All-Americans, including College Football Hall of Fame inductee Eric Crouch at Nebraska, who won the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp National Player of the Year award and Davey O'Brien Award, and he coached seven Academic All-Americans, including 2000 NFF Campbell Trophy recipient Kyle Vanden Bosch. He coached 28 First Team All-Conference players at Nebraska and 31 at Ohio.
 
He was named Home Depot Coach of the Year in 1999 and a finalist for the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award in 2001. He was also the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2001 and MAC Coach of the Year in 2006.
 
Solich served as an assistant at Nebraska from 1979-97, coaching the running backs, before becoming the head coach. As an assistant to Hall of Fame coach Tom Osborne, Solich was part of the coaching staff on three national championship teams (1994, 1995, 1997), and he recruited and coached Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Famer Mike Rozier.
 
Solich was also a three-year letterman at Nebraska (1963-65), playing fullback and serving as team captain for the 1965 season. He delivered the first 200-yard rushing game in Nebraska history in 1965. He played on three Big Eight Championship teams (1963, 1964, 1965), and he was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame inductee as a player in 1992 and as a coach in 2012. He began his coaching career as a high school head coach in Nebraska for more than a decade.
 
Solich participated yearly with the Ohio football team in Turn It Gold, a nonprofit focused on fighting against childhood cancer. He was named the president of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) in 2019 and received the Tom Osborne Legacy Award the same year. He currently serves as Special Assistant to the Athletics Director at Ohio.