This continues our series of daily articles previewing each men's and women's college conference. All the conference previews can be found here. And don't forget to check out our Conference Top 20 College Players To Watch.

Mid American Conference

It’s all about Akron in the MAC. The 2009 national runners-up are the biggest of fishes in a relatively small pond. Caleb Porter’s Zips have a ton of talent both returning and coming in and will be looking to run the table in the conference play this season.

Start with the especially strong back line including Kofi Sarkodie, Zarek Valentin, Chad Barson, Chris Korb and newcomer Perry Kitchen, plus goalkeeper David Meves and the Zips will be very hard to score against. Then you look up front and see the likes of Darlington Nagbe, and Jamaican youth internationals Darren Mattocks and McKauly Tulloch, plus midfield standouts Michael Nanchoff, Anthony Ampapitakwong, incoming transfer Michael Balogun, Costa Rican youth international Reinaldo Brenes, Scott Caldwell and Ben Speas, and it’s easy to see that this team is an exceptional collection of talent.

Mike Unvin brings his goalscoring exploits back to Buffalo(m), while Western Michigan returns Kai Mendes and Yilson Asani. Brad Horton and goalkeeper Jordan Godsey will be key for Northern Illinois.

Michael Cunningham and Dan Summers are among a strong returning crew at Hartwick, while Darnel King and Karol Chorak will be instrumental at Florida Atlantic. Tanner Fink is one of the more experienced returnees at Bowling Green.

Missouri Valley Conference

Bob Warming has left Creighton for Penn State but the cupboard is not empty for new coach Jamie Clark. Leading scorer Ethan Finlay is back as is speedy winger Dion Acoff, defender Kyle Deremer plus youth international newcomer Tyler Polak.

Preseason coaches’ favorites Evansville return a strong contingent of starters for coach Mike Jacobs including Robby Lynch, Tad Kreamalmeyer, Mike Luttrull, Tom Irvin and Phil Boerger.

At Drake, a run into the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals last year has the Bulldogs well-positioned in the preseason rankings, but it will be a tough job to repeat that kind of success. Garrett Webb and a number of other team leaders are gone, but key returnees include Matt Kuhn, Kenan Malicevic, Nick Foster, Evan Harrison and Jordan Kadlec.

Missouri State also qualified for NCAA play last season, with Paul Paradise and Alex Riggs back from that squad. Alex Harrison is back at Eastern Illinois.

Kevin Kalish’s SIU-Edwardsville(m) Eagles returns 9 starters including goalkeeper Scott Meyer and Jose Tamayo. Central Arkansas returns Joseph Cervantes and Andrew O’Briend while Bryan Gaul and Christian Meza are among returnees for Bradley, with Keegan Balle among a large group of freshmen.