The MAC is headquartered in the Public Square district in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, and has two members in the nearby Akron area. The conference ranks highest among all ten NCAA Division I FBS conferences for graduation rates.[1]
The membership was steady for the next two decades except for the addition of Marshall University in 1954 and the departure of Western Reserve in 1955.[3] Marshall was expelled from the conference in 1969 due to NCAA violations.[4] The first major expansion since the 1950s took place in the mid-1970s with the addition of Central Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University in 1972 and Ball State University and Northern Illinois University in 1973. NIU left after the 1985–86 season. The University of Akron joined the conference in 1992. The conference became the largest in Division I-A with the re-admittance of Marshall and NIU in 1997 and addition of the Bulls from the University at Buffalo in 1998. The University of Central Florida, a non-football all-sports member in the Atlantic Sun Conference at the time, joined for football only in 2002, becoming the first football-only member in conference history. Marshall and Central Florida left after the 2004–05 academic year, both joining Conference USA in all sports.
In May 2005, the Temple Owls in Philadelphia signed a six-year contract with the MAC as a football-only school and began play in the East Division in 2007.[5]
The Louisville Cardinals were a MAC affiliate for field hockey for a number of years when Louisville was a member of the Metro Conference and Conference USA, winning two MAC tourney titles in 2003 and 2004.[6]
The UMass Minutemen joined the MAC as a football-only member in July 2012; the university announced that the team would leave the MAC at the end of the 2015 season due to contractual issues.[11][12] Meanwhile, Temple ended its affiliation with the MAC in football and joined the Big East for football in July 2012. Following the split of the Big East into football-sponsoring and non-football conferences in July 2013, Temple became a full member of the football-sponsoring portion, the American Athletic Conference, ending its membership in the Atlantic 10 at that time.[13][14] The Chicago State Cougars were an affiliate for men's tennis until joining the Western Athletic Conference, which sponsors that sport, in July 2013.
The conference unveiled the addition of women's lacrosse to its sport sponsorship in November 2019.[15] Lacrosse began competing under the MAC banner with six teams in the 2021 season with MAC members Akron, Central Michigan and Kent State joined by associate members Detroit Mercy, Robert Morris, and Youngstown State. Eastern Michigan became the seventh women's lacrosse member when it added the sport in the 2022 season.[16]
At the end of the 2022 season, the MAC discontinued men's soccer as a sponsored sport. While the conference realignment of the early 2020s did not affect the MAC's core membership up to that time, it significantly impacted the amount of men's soccer sponsoring programs within the conference, and ultimately led to the conference lacking enough teams to maintain its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.[17] Of the four full MAC members that sponsored men's soccer in the 2022 season, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, and Western Michigan moved the sport to the Missouri Valley Conference,[18] and Akron moved it to the Big East Conference.[19]
The MAC eliminated its East and West divisions for football in January 2024. The divisions had already been eliminated for other sports in 2020.[20][21] Later that year, in late February, it was announced that the UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen will join the conference as a full member beginning in 2025, returning UMass football to the MAC.[22][23] In July, the conference announced that it would begin sponsoring women's rowing for the 2025–26 season; full members Eastern Michigan, Toledo, and UMass would be joined by affiliate members Delaware, High Point, and Temple.[24]
On January 3, 2025, it was reported that Northern Illinois had accepted an invitation from the Mountain West Conference to join as an affiliate member for football in 2026.[25] This move was made official on January 7, after approval by NIU's governing board.[26] As current MAC bylaws stipulate that all members must play football within the conference, it is likely that Northern Illinois will leave the MAC in all sports for the 2026–27 athletic season; as of January 2025, they have not announced a future primary conference.
Member universities
Current full members
There are twelve public universities with full membership:
^Northern Illinois announced it will leave MAC after the 2025-26 school year to join the Mountain West Conference in football and a to be announced conference for other sports.
^Northern Illinois left the MAC after the 1985–86 school year; before rejoining in the 1997–98 school year.
Location of MAC members: current member, future member, departing member
Current affiliate members
Sixteen schools have MAC affiliate membership status as of 2024. On July 1, 2012, Temple joined the Big East Conference for football only (the school's other sports would join the Big East/American for 2013–14), and Massachusetts replaced Temple as a football-only member in the MAC East Division. On September 19, 2012, the MAC announced Missouri, Northern Iowa and Old Dominion would join as wrestling affiliates; as the Southeastern and Missouri Valley Conferences do not sponsor wrestling. Missouri and Northern Iowa participated only in the conference tournament in the 2012–13 school year, and began full conference play in 2013–14. Old Dominion did not begin MAC competition until 2013–14, when it left the Colonial Athletic Association (which had sponsored wrestling, but no longer does so) for Conference USA (which has never sponsored the sport).[29][30] Old Dominion discontinued wrestling in April 2020.[31]
On July 1, 2013, Florida Atlantic's men's soccer program moved with the rest of its athletic program to Conference USA, and Chicago State's men's tennis team followed the rest of its sports to the Western Athletic Conference.
The 2014–15 school year saw one affiliate member leave for another conference and two new affiliates join. The Hartwick men's soccer team left the MAC for the Sun Belt Conference, which had announced in February 2014 that it would reinstate men's soccer, a sport that it last sponsored in 1995, for the 2014 season.[32] The new affiliates for 2014–15 were Binghamton in men's tennis and Longwood in field hockey.[33]
On July 1, 2017, one associate member left the MAC, another associate member dropped one of its two MAC sports, and two new schools became associate members. Northern Iowa wrestling moved from the MAC to the Big 12 Conference.[34]Missouri State dropped field hockey,[35] but remained a MAC member in men's swimming & diving. Appalachian State joined MAC field hockey,[36] and SIU Edwardsville (SIUE) joined in men's soccer.[37] SIUE was initially announced as joining in both men's soccer and wrestling in 2018, but less than a week after the initial announcement, the conference indicated that SIUE men's soccer would immediately join.[37][38] SIUE wrestling joined on its originally announced schedule.
On March 5, 2019, the conference announced that it would be adding the seven former members of the Eastern Wrestling League as affiliate members in wrestling, making the MAC the second-largest wrestling conference for academic year 2019–20.[39]
With the addition of women's lacrosse, the MAC added affiliate members Detroit Mercy, Robert Morris, and Youngstown State in the 2020–21 academic year. UDM and YSU, all-sports members of the Horizon League, were announced as incoming associates at the same time the MAC announced the addition of lacrosse.[16] RMU was announced as an incoming associate in late June 2020, shortly after the school announced it would join the Horizon League in July 2020.[40]
In June 2020, SIUE announced that it would leave the MAC men's soccer league in 2021 to rejoin its previous men's soccer home of the Missouri Valley Conference.[41] It remains in MAC wrestling to this day.
Also in 2021, Missouri left MAC wrestling and returned to its former home of the Big 12 Conference as a wrestling-only member.[42] At the same time, four schools became single-sport MAC members—Bellarmine in field hockey,[43]Georgia Southern and Georgia State in men's soccer,[44] and Valparaiso in men's swimming (the school does not include diving in its men's aquatics program).[45]
In 2022, West Virginia men's soccer was scheduled to leave the MAC for single-sport membership in Conference USA (CUSA).[46] However, due to the tenuous future of CUSA at that time, West Virginia opted instead to join the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) in 2022 as that league reinstated men's soccer. Georgia Southern and Georgia State, both full SBC members, also returned men's soccer to their home conference in 2022.[47] In response, the MAC announced that Chicago State would join as a men's soccer affiliate as of the 2022–23 season, as the Cougars prepared to depart the Western Athletic Conference in all sports, including soccer.[48] Also in 2022, the MAC gained another affiliate when another Chicago institution, UIC, joined for men's swimming & diving.[49] Ultimately, Chicago State's tenure as a MAC affiliate lasted only for the 2022 season, as the conference dropped men's soccer at season's end.[17] 2023 saw UIC adding men's tennis to its affiliate membership, as well as the announcement that James Madison would be joining as an affiliate for field hockey in 2024.[50][51]
In 2024, the Missouri Valley Conference announced it would begin sponsoring men's swimming & diving for the 2024–25 season. At the time, the MAC men's swimming programs consisted of 2 MAC schools and 5 affiliates from the MVC; correspondingly, all of these programs would move to the MVC for the following season, with the 2 MAC schools (Ball State and Miami) joining the MVC as affiliates for that sport.[52] However, shortly after dropping men's swimming, the MAC announced it would begin sponsoring a new sport, women's rowing, in 2025–26. Accordingly, it brought on 3 new affiliates for that sport: Delaware, High Point, and former football affiliate Temple.[24]
^ abClarion and Edinboro, previously separate institutions in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education formally named "Location University of Pennsylvania", became campuses of the new Pennsylvania Western University (PennWest) on July 1, 2022. Both continue to have their own athletic programs, branded solely with their location (as was the case before the PennWest merger).
^Western Reserve's teams were known as the Red Cats during their time in the MAC.[54] With the athletic merger, Case Western Reserve abandoned the nicknames of both former institutions and adopted Spartans.
^Central Florida (UCF), known as the Golden Knights during their MAC tenure, dropped "Golden" from the athletic nickname in 2007 as part of their rebrand to the UCF Knights.
^On November 11, 2022, the MAC announced that it was suspending men's soccer as a conference sport effective at the end of the 2022 season (2022–23 school year).[17]
^In early 2014, the MAC made the decision "... to move forward without multi-divisional institutions." The conference then informed Hartwick that their contract as an affiliate member would not be renewed.
^Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), known as the IPFW Mastodons during their affiliation with the MAC for men's soccer and men's tennis, rebranded their athletic program as the Fort Wayne Mastodons in 2016. Following IPFW's split into two separate institutions in July 2018, the Fort Wayne athletic program transferred to the larger of the two new institutions, Purdue University Fort Wayne, and the athletic program rebranded again as the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons. The school colors changed to the old gold and black used by the other members of the Purdue system, most notably the main campus.
The Mid-American Conference sponsors championship competition in 9 men's and 13 women's NCAA sanctioned sports, with women's lacrosse becoming the newest sport in 2020–21.[64] As of the 2024–25 school year, 16 schools are associate members for four sports.
As the MAC is an FBS conference, its full members are subject to the NCAA requirement that FBS members field teams in at least 16 NCAA-recognized sports. However, as of 2017, the MAC itself required sponsorship of only four sports: football, men's and women's basketball, and women's volleyball.[65] This may have since changed, as UMass was accepted as a new conference member effective in 2025 despite not sponsoring women's volleyball.
^Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. Akron fields a coed team.
^The MAC will begin sponsoring women's rowing in 2025.
^Synchronized skating is sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating, not by the NCAA. Most synchronized skating teams are clubs not affiliated with any college or university; Miami is one of about 15 schools that sponsor varsity or club teams.
On November 30, 2023, the MAC approved a new scheduling format for football effective for the 2024 season, eliminating its East and West Divisions for the first time since 1996 in favor of a pod-based protected rivalry system. Under the new system, teams will be divided into 4 pods of 3 teams each, and each team will be guaranteed to face the other 2 teams in its pod every season. Additionally, every team in the MAC will be guaranteed to face every other team in the MAC at least once every three years. The MAC Football Championship Game, which previously matched the winner of the East Division against the winner of the West Division, will instead put the two teams in the MAC with the highest conference winning percentage. The pods are as follows:[67][68]
- Buffalo invited to Tangerine Bowl in 1958 / Declined due to Florida's segregation laws at the time which would not have allowed Buffalo's two black players to participate.
The MAC champion (if not invited to the College Football Playoff or its associated bowls) is not contractually obligated to any specific bowl. The conference and the universities select which teams will play in which of the league's affiliated bowls.
College Football Playoff
The MAC champion, like the other "Group of 5" conferences receives an automatic berth in one of the so-called New Year's Six bowl games associated with the College Football Playoff under either of the following circumstances:
Selected as one of the top four teams overall by the CFP selection committee, in which case the team will play in a CFP national semifinal.
Ranked by the committee as the top champion among the five conferences (American, C-USA, MAC, MW, Sun Belt) given access to one of the CFP bowls, in which case the team will play in the so-called "Access Bowl" as an at-large selection.
The first "Access Bowl" berth in 2014 went to Boise State (MW); the 2015 berth went to Houston (American). The MAC got its first berth in 2016 with Western Michigan, who had an undefeated regular season that year and finished ranked at No. 15 in the AP Poll.
During the era of the now-defunct Bowl Championship Series (BCS), one MAC team appeared in a BCS bowl game. In 2012, NIU qualified by being ranked in the top 16 (15th) in the season's final BCS standings, and also higher than at least one champion of a conference that received an automatic berth in a BCS game. In the 2012 season, two such conference champions were ranked below NIU: Big East champion Louisville, who was ranked 22nd, and Big Ten champion Wisconsin, who was unranked. NIU lost to Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
In addition, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan compete for the Michigan MAC Trophy, which is awarded to the team with the best head-to-head record each year. Since the inception of the trophy in 2005, Western Michigan has won 7 times, Central Michigan has won 5 times, and Eastern Michigan has won the trophy 4 times. Western Michigan has won the trophy three straight years (2018–2020) as well as six of seven years from 2014 to 2020 (2014–2016, 2018–2020).
In August 2010, Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher and the Cleveland Cavaliers announced that the Mid-American Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments would remain in Cleveland at the venue then known as Quicken Loans Arena and now as Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse through 2017.[70] Both tournaments have flourished since moving to Cleveland in 2000, with the men's semi-finals and championship regularly drawing large crowds at Quicken Loans Arena.[71] In 2007, the MAC also announced a format change for both tournaments, bringing all twelve men's and women's teams to Cleveland. The MAC also co-hosted the 2007 Women's Final Four at Quicken Loans Arena after successfully hosting the 2006 NCAA Women's Basketball Regional at the same facility.
On May 12, 2020, Steinbrecher announced a suite of major changes to the conference's competitive format across multiple sports in response to fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Specific to men's and women's basketball, the following changes took effect in 2020–21 and will continue through at least 2023–24:[21]
The conference adopted a single league table, eliminating the divisional standings.
The conference schedule increased from 18 to 20 games.
Only the top eight men's and women's teams advance to their respective conference tournaments.
The following are the most recent conference champions of each MAC sport. Champions from the previous academic year are indicated with the calendar year of their title.
In sports in which regular-season and tournament champions are recognized, "RS" indicates regular-season champion and "T" indicates tournament champion.
Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights and licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, concessions, and novelties.
Total expenses includes coach and staff salaries, scholarships, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities and rental fees, recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues, and insurance.
The following table shows institutional reporting to the U.S. Department of Education as shown on the DOE Equity in Athletics website for the 2021–22 academic year.[73]
The Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame was the first Division I conference Hall of Fame.[74] It was established in 1987 and classes have been inducted in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 2012 and 2013.[75][76]
In order to be eligible, a person must have participated during the time the university was in the MAC and five years must have passed from the time the individual participated in athletics or worked in the athletic department.[74]
The following is a list of the members of the MAC Hall of Fame, along with school affiliation, sport(s) for which they were inducted, and year of induction.
A number of MAC sports, including football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, soccer, wrestling and volleyball, are telecast on Spectrum Sports, replacing SportsTime Ohio and Fox Sports Ohio as the MAC TV partner.[77] Along with Spectrum Sports, ESPN, as well as the American Sports Network, retain the "local and regional" syndication telecast rights to the MAC for football and basketball.
In 2000 ESPN began broadcasting MAC football games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The conference agreed to the unusual schedule to increase television ratings by not competing against other football. Fans nicknamed the midweek games MACtion. In 2014 the conference and ESPN agreed to a new contract for 13 years. Each school receives more than $800,000 annually, and plays most November games on weekday nights; 16 of 18 games in 2016 were not on Saturdays, for example. While MACtion decreases stadium attendance, games appear on an ESPN channel to a nationwide audience instead of a less-popular channel or streaming media.[78] While noting the smaller attendance, coaches say that midweek games are good for the conference, and give players a break on Saturdays.[79]
NIU has multiple football and basketball games telecast by Comcast SportsNet Chicago. In addition, most NIU football and basketball games can be heard on WSCR-AM 670 "The Score"—Chicago's powerful 50,000-watt, top-rated all-sports station, which reaches 38 states and Canada.
MAC Properties
MAC Properties (a division of ISP Sports) is the sponsorship arm of the Mid-American Conference, and handles all forms of sponsorship and advertising for the MAC which includes managing and growing its stable of official corporate partners. As of 2010, the MAC has five official corporate partners: FirstEnergy, Marathon, PNC Bank, AutoTrader.com and Cleveland Clinic Sports Health. There are approximately 20 other companies engaged as sponsors of the conference at the non-official level. MAC Properties also assists with the management of the conference's television and radio contracts, including those with ESPN Regional, FOX Sports Ohio and ESPN 850 WKNR among others.
^"MAC Tournament History". 2008-09 Men's Basketball Media Guide. Mid-American Conference. 2008. pp. 62–63. Archived from the original(PDF) on July 16, 2009. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
^"Scheumann Stadium". Ball State University. Retrieved June 26, 2016. The most recent renovation transformed the stadium into a major community asset, while increased its capacity to 22,500 and added permanent lighting for night games.
