Mid-American Conference: A History of Growth and Change
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate athletic conference primarily located in the Great Lakes region, stretching from Massachusetts to Illinois. As a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, the MAC's members compete at the highest level of college sports. In football, the conference participates in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), allowing its teams to compete in bowl games. Headquartered in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, the MAC has been a significant player in college athletics for decades.
Early Years and Founding Members
The MAC was founded on February 24, 1946, in Columbus, Ohio, with five charter members: Ohio University, Butler University, the University of Cincinnati, Wayne University (now Wayne State University), and Western Reserve University (a predecessor to today's Case Western Reserve University). Men's basketball was the first competitive sport in the MAC in 1946. Wayne University left after the first year, and Butler University also departed. Miami University and Western Michigan University joined for the 1948 season, replacing those charter members. The University of Toledo (1950), Kent State University (1951), and Bowling Green State University (1952) were later additions.
Membership Evolution
The University of Cincinnati resigned its membership on February 18, 1953, effective June 1, 1953. The membership remained stable for the following two decades, except for the addition of Marshall University in 1954 and the departure of Western Reserve in 1955, which chose to de-emphasize intercollegiate athletics. Marshall was expelled from the conference in 1969 due to NCAA violations.
The first major expansion since the 1950s occurred in the mid-1970s with the addition of Central Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University in 1972, followed by 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 the addition of the University at Buffalo in 1998. The University of Central Florida joined for football only in 2002, becoming the first football-only member in conference history.
Read also: Historical Look at NCAA Tournament Bids
Affiliate Members and Sport Sponsorship
Over the years, the MAC has included several affiliate members who participate in specific sports. The Missouri State Bears, Evansville Purple Aces, and Southern Illinois Salukis participate in the MAC for men's swimming and diving. In 2012, the West Virginia Mountaineers joined the Florida Atlantic Owls and Hartwick College Hawks as men's soccer affiliates. Florida Atlantic departed upon joining Conference USA in 2013, and Hartwick's contract was not renewed in 2015.
Nine schools are currently wrestling affiliates; most became affiliates when the MAC absorbed the former Eastern Wrestling League in 2019. Appalachian State University and Longwood University are associates in field hockey. Missouri State was also a member in that sport from 2005 until dropping field hockey after the 2016 season. Binghamton University is an affiliate in men's tennis.
The UMass Minutemen joined the MAC as a football-only member in July 2012 but left at the end of the 2015 season due to contractual issues. Temple ended its affiliation with the MAC in football and joined the Big East for football in July 2012. As of 2025, eighteen schools have MAC affiliate membership status.
In November 2019, the conference unveiled the addition of women's lacrosse, which began competing under the MAC banner with six teams in the 2021 season. MAC members Akron, Central Michigan, and Kent State were joined by associate members Detroit Mercy, Robert Morris, and Youngstown State. At the end of the 2022 season, the MAC discontinued men's soccer as a sponsored sport. However, shortly after dropping men's swimming, the MAC announced it would begin sponsoring a new sport, women's rowing, in 2025-26.
Recent Developments and Future Changes
The MAC eliminated its East and West divisions for football in January 2024. 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. This move was made official on January 7, after approval by NIU's governing board. Current MAC bylaws stipulate that all members must play football within the conference. Multiple media reports in February 2025 indicated that NIU was set to rejoin the Horizon League, a non-football conference in which it had been a member from 1994 to 1997, in 2026. This move was also made official on February 27, after approval by NIU's governing board. NIU applied to maintain MAC affiliate membership in women's gymnastics and men's wrestling, neither of which the Horizon sponsors. However, this did not come to pass, and NIU instead joined the Mountain West and the Pac-12 Conference as an affiliate for those respective sports.
Read also: The History of Southland Conference Football
Football Scheduling and Championship
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 are divided into 4 pods of 3 teams each, and each team is guaranteed to face the other 2 teams in its pod every season. Additionally, every team in the MAC is 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.
Bowl Game Affiliations
In 2017, the MAC was contracted to provide a team for each of five college football bowl games: the Bahamas Bowl, LendingTree Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Camellia Bowl (later renamed the Salute to Veterans Bowl), and Quick Lane Bowl (later renamed the GameAbove Sports Bowl). The MAC champion (if not invited to the College Football Playoff or its associated bowls) is not contractually obligated to any specific bowl. 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.
Rivalries and Trophies
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.
Basketball Tournaments
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 Arena through 2017. 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. In 2007, the MAC also announced a format change for both tournaments, bringing all twelve men's and women's teams to Cleveland.
The Mid-American Conference men's basketball tournament is an NCAA Division I postseason single-elimination tournament. The winner of the tournament receives the Mid-American Conference (MAC) automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. The tournament was first played in 1980 and expanded to include all conference members in 2000. In May 2020, as part of a broader suite of changes to MAC postseason tournaments triggered by the pandemic, the MAC announced it would reduce its men's and women's basketball tournaments to 8 teams, with all qualifying teams playing in Cleveland. Additionally, the MAC eliminated its basketball divisions and increased its conference schedule from 18 to 20 games. Seeding for the tournament is determined by winning percentage in conference play; during the era of MAC divisional play, divisional alignment did not figure into tournament seeding.
Read also: SEC Football: By the Numbers
Media Coverage and Sponsorships
In 2000, ESPN began broadcasting MAC football games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The conference agreed to the unusual windows to help improve viewership, as the games would face less competition than games in traditional windows such as on Saturdays; fans would nickname the midweek games MACtion. In 2014, the conference and ESPN agreed to a new 13-year contract, where each school receives more than $800,000 annually, and plays most November football games on weekday nights; 16 of 18 games in 2016 were not on Saturdays, for example.
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.
Hall of Fame
The Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame honors the greatest athletes, coaches, and administrators in the conference's history. To be chosen, a person must have been part of the MAC, and at least five years must have passed since they played or worked there.
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