Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a college sports conference whose full members are located in the Great Lakes region of the United States. It sponsors 9 men's sports and 14 women's sports at the NCAA Division I level. In football, the MAC is one of 10 conferences that play in the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
The MAC was founded in 1946 by five schools in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, but only one of the founding members, Ohio University, is still in the conference. All but three of its current full members are in those three states.
Sports sponsored
[change | change source]- Baseball (men only)
- Basketball (both men and women)
- Cross country (both men and women)
- Field hockey (women only)
- Football (men only)
- Golf (both men and women)
- Gymnastics (women only)
- Lacrosse (women only)[1]
- Rowing (women only)
- Soccer (both men and women)
- Softball (women only)
- Swimming and diving (women only)
- Tennis (women only)
- Track and field, indoor (both men and women)
- Track and field, outdoor (both men and women)
- Volleyball (women only)
- Wrestling (men only)
Members
[change | change source]Full members
[change | change source]Currently, the MAC has 13 full members, all public schools, each of which competes in at least 15 MAC sports. Every member of the conference competes in football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, and the following women's sports: cross country, soccer, softball, and indoor and outdoor track and field. For many years the conference was split into East and West Divisions in many sports, but the only sport now using divisions is women's tennis. The sport that most recently eliminated divisions is football, which started using a single league table in 2024.
Departing member Northern Illinois is highlighted in pink.
| School | Location | Founded | Type | Nickname | Joined MAC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Akron | Akron, Ohio | 1870 | Public | Zips | 1992 |
| Ball State University | Muncie, Indiana | 1918 | Public | Cardinals | 1973 |
| Bowling Green State University | Bowling Green, Ohio | 1910 | Public | Falcons | 1952 |
| University at Buffalo | Buffalo, New York | 1846 | Public | Bulls | 1998 |
| Central Michigan University | Mount Pleasant, Michigan | 1892 | Public | Chippewas | 1971 |
| Eastern Michigan University | Ypsilanti, Michigan | 1892 | Public | Eagles | 1971 |
| Kent State University | Kent, Ohio | 1910 | Public | Golden Flashes | 1981 |
| Miami University[a 1] | Oxford, Ohio | 1809 | Public | RedHawks | 1977 |
| Northern Illinois University | DeKalb, Illinois | 1895 | Public | Huskies | 1975, 1997[a 2] |
| Ohio University | Athens, Ohio | 1804 | Public | Bobcats | 1948 |
| University of Toledo | Toledo, Ohio | 1872 | Public | Rockets | 1950 |
| University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) | Amherst, Massachusetts | 1863 | Public | Minutemen & Minutewomen | 2025 |
| Western Michigan University | Kalamazoo, Michigan | 1903 | Public | Broncos | 1947 |
- ↑ This school is often called "Miami (Ohio)" to distinguish it from the University of Miami in Florida.
- ↑ Northern Illinois left the MAC in 1986 and returned in 1997. It will leave again in 2026 to join the Mountain West Conference for football and the Horizon League for most other sports.
Associate members
[change | change source]The MAC has 18 "associate members" that play one or two sports in the conference.
A major recent change in associate membership happened in 2019 when the MAC absorbed the Eastern Wrestling League, a single-sport conference that had existed since 1975. All seven of the EWL's final members thus became MAC associates.[2]
A more recent change to associate membership took place on July 1, 2020 when the MAC added three members in the new conference sport of women's lacrosse,[1][3] along with one former wrestling member dropping the sport.[4]
SIU Edwardsville (SIUE), in full Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, left the MAC men's soccer league in 2021 to return to its former soccer home of the Missouri Valley Conference. It remains a MAC member in wrestling.[5]
Another change in associate membership was announced in June 2020. Bellarmine University, which started a transition from NCAA Division II to Division I that July, joined the MAC field hockey league in July 2021.[6]
At the same time Bellarmine joined in field hockey and SIUE left in wrestling, Georgia Southern University and Georgia State University joined MAC men's soccer,[7] and Missouri wrestling left to become a single-sport member of its former all-sports home of the Big 12 Conference.[8]
The next changes in associate membership took place in July 2022. First, West Virginia University men's soccer left the MAC. WVU planned to move the sport to Conference USA,[9] but changed its plans amid the larger conference realignment of the early 2020s. WVU instead moved men's soccer to the Sun Belt Conference.[10] The MAC replaced WVU with Chicago State University, which was leaving the Western Athletic Conference at that time.[11] However, the MAC would shut down its men's soccer league after the 2023 season. Also in 2022, the MAC added the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) as a men's swimming & diving member.[12] In 2023, UIC added men's tennis to its MAC membership.[13]
More changes to associate membership came in July 2024. First, James Madison University joined the MAC for field hockey.[14] Second, the Missouri Valley Conference, which had been the main home to five of the MAC's seven men's swimming & diving schools, announced it would start sponsoring the sport. The MAC merged its men's swimming & diving league into the new MVC league.[15]
When UMass became a full member in July 2025, the MAC added women's rowing as a sponsored sport. Full members Eastern Michigan, Toledo, and UMass were joined by new associates Delaware, High Point, and Temple.[16] Also, Cleveland State dropped men's wrestling after the 2024–25 season.
- Current associate members
- ↑ Founded in 1743, but did not award college degrees until 1831.
- ↑ Delaware is officially chartered as a "privately governed, state-assisted" institution.
- ↑ As a member of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education, Temple is privately governed but is financially supported by the state of Pennsylvania.
References
[change | change source]
- "Mid-American Conference". getsomemaction.com. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
- 1 2 "Women's Lacrosse Coming in 2020-21; Detroit Mercy & Youngstown State As Affiliates" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. November 6, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
- ↑ "MAC Announces Historic Wrestling Expansion" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. March 5, 2019. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
- ↑ "Robert Morris to Join MAC as Affiliate Member in Women's Lacrosse" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. June 23, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ↑ "ODU Discontinues Wrestling Program" (Press release). Old Dominion University Athletics. April 2, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
- ↑ "MVC Adds SIUE as Men's Soccer Affiliate" (Press release). Missouri Valley Conference. June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
- ↑ "Bellarmine to Join MAC as Affiliate Member in Field Hockey" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. June 9, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
- ↑ "Georgia Southern, Georgia State Added As Affiliate Members in Men's Soccer" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
- ↑ "Big 12 Adds Missouri as Affiliate Member in Wrestling" (Press release). Big 12 Conference. April 22, 2021. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
- ↑ "MSOC: West Virginia Added as C-USA Soccer Member for 2022" (Press release). Conference USA. June 14, 2021. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
- ↑ "Sun Belt Conference Announces Return of Men's Soccer This Fall" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. April 6, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
- ↑ "Chicago State Men's Soccer Joins Mid-American Conference as an Affiliate Member". gocsucougars.com. May 27, 2022. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
- ↑ "UIC to Join MAC As Affiliate Member in Men's Swimming & Diving" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. August 30, 2022. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
- ↑ "University of Illinois Chicago to Join MAC As Affiliate Member in Men's Tennis" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. June 5, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
- ↑ "James Madison To Join MAC As Affiliate Member in Field Hockey" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. April 26, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
- ↑ "MVC To Sponsor Men's Swimming & Diving in 2024-25" (Press release). Missouri Valley Conference. April 11, 2024. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
- ↑ "Mid-American Conference to add Women's Rowing in 2025-26" (Press release). Mid-American Conference. July 19, 2024. Retrieved July 19, 2024.