Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference is a collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western Massachusetts to Illinois. Its members compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. For football, the conference participates in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision. Nine of the thirteen full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members located in Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts and New York.
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.
History
The five charter members of the Mid-American Conference were Ohio University, Butler University, the University of Cincinnati, Wayne University, and Western Reserve University, one of the predecessors to today's Case Western Reserve University. Wayne University left after the first year. Miami University and Western Michigan University took the place of those charter members for the 1948 season. The MAC added the University of Toledo, Kent State University, and Bowling Green State University. The University of Cincinnati resigned its membership February 18, 1953, with an effective date of June 1, 1953. Cincinnati's decision was based on a new requirement that at least 5 conference football games would have to be scheduled each season, university president Raymond Walters saying they "...regretfully resign...as the university could not continue under the present setup..."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. Marshall was expelled from the conference in 1969 due to NCAA violations. 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.
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.
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. Hartwick's contract was not renewed by the MAC in 2015. Nine schools are 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 had also been a member in that sport from 2005 until dropping field hockey after the 2016 season. Binghamton University is an affiliate in men's tennis. In June 2017, SIU Edwardsville was invited to become an affiliate member in both men's soccer and wrestling in 2018. When Buffalo suddenly dropped four sports, including men's soccer, SIUE's move in that sport was made immediately.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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, and Akron moved it to the Big East Conference.
The MAC eliminated its East and West divisions for football in January 2024. The divisions had already been eliminated for other sports in 2020. 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. 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.
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; correspondingly, 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.
Member universities
Membership map
Current full members
There are thirteen public universities with full membership:| Institution | Location | Founded | Type | Enrollment | Endowment | Nickname | Joined | Colors |
| University of Akron | Akron, Ohio | 1870 | Public | 16,094 | $235 | Zips | 1992 | |
| Ball State University | Muncie, Indiana | 1918 | Public | 21,597 | $325 | Cardinals | 1973 | |
| Bowling Green State University | Bowling Green, Ohio | 1910 | Public | 18,142 | $155 | Falcons | 1952 | |
| University at Buffalo | Buffalo, New York | 1846 | Public | 32,347 | $1,020 | Bulls | 1998 | |
| Central Michigan University | Mount Pleasant, Michigan | 1892 | Public | 17,311 | $246 | Chippewas | 1971 | |
| Eastern Michigan University | Ypsilanti, Michigan | 1849 | Public | 16,294 | $94 | Eagles | 1971 | |
| Kent State University | Kent, Ohio | 1910 | Public | 26,822 | $301 | Golden Flashes | 1951 | |
| University of Massachusetts Amherst | Amherst, Massachusetts | 1863 | Public | 27,420 | $1,500 | Minutemen & Minutewomen | 2025 | |
| Miami University | Oxford, Ohio | 1809 | Public | 18,880 | $814 | RedHawks | 1947 | |
| Northern Illinois University | DeKalb, Illinois | 1895 | Public | 16,769 | $99 | Huskies | 1975, 1997 | |
| Ohio University | Athens, Ohio | 1804 | Public | 25,714 | $879 | Bobcats | 1946 | |
| University of Toledo | Toledo, Ohio | 1872 | Public | 18,319 | $625 | Rockets | 1950 | |
| Western Michigan University | Kalamazoo, Michigan | 1903 | Public | 19,887 | $760 | Broncos | 1947 |
;Notes:
Current affiliate members
Eighteen schools have MAC affiliate membership status as of 2025. On July 1, 2012, Temple joined the Big East Conference for football only, 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 for Conference USA. Old Dominion discontinued wrestling in April 2020.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. The new affiliates for 2014-15 were Binghamton in men's tennis and Longwood in field hockey.
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. Missouri State dropped field hockey, but remained a MAC member in men's swimming & diving. Appalachian State joined MAC field hockey, and SIU Edwardsville joined in men's soccer. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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. At the same time, four schools became single-sport MAC members-Bellarmine in field hockey, Georgia Southern and Georgia State in men's soccer, and Valparaiso in men's swimming.
In 2022, West Virginia men's soccer was scheduled to leave the MAC for single-sport membership in Conference USA. However, due to the tenuous future of CUSA at that time, West Virginia opted instead to join the Sun Belt Conference 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. 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. Also in 2022, the MAC gained another affiliate when another Chicago institution, UIC, joined for men's swimming & diving. 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. 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.
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 joining the MVC as affiliates for that sport. 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.
| Institution | Location | Founded | Type | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined | Colors | MAC sport | Primary conference |
| Appalachian State University | Boone, North Carolina | 1899 | Public | 19,089 | Mountaineers | 2017 | Field hockey | Sun Belt | |
| Bellarmine University | Louisville, Kentucky | 1950 | Catholic | 3,973 | Knights | 2021 | Field hockey | ASUN | |
| ' | Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania | 1839 | Public | 9,950 | Huskies | 2019 | PSAC | ||
| ' | Lock Haven, Pennsylvania | 1870 | Public | 4,607 | Bald Eagles | 2019 | PSAC | ||
| ' | Newark, Delaware | 1743 | Public | 23,774 | Blue Hens | 2025 | CUSA | ||
| ' | Detroit, Michigan | 1877 | Catholic | 5,700 | Titans | 2020 | Horizon | ||
| George Mason University | Fairfax, Virginia | 1957 | Public | 35,047 | Patriots | 2019 | Atlantic 10 | ||
| High Point University | High Point, North Carolina | 1924 | United Methodist | 4,545 | Panthers | 2025 | Big South | ||
| James Madison University | Harrisonburg, Virginia | 1908 | Public | 21,496 | Dukes | 2024 | Field hockey | Sun Belt | |
| Longwood University | Farmville, Virginia | 1839 | Public | 4,800 | Lancers | 2014 | Field hockey | Big South | |
| ' | Clarion, Pennsylvania | 1867 | Public | 5,225 | Golden Eagles | 2019 | PSAC | ||
| ' | Edinboro, Pennsylvania | 1857 | Public | 4,834 | Fighting Scots | 2019 | PSAC | ||
| Rider University | Lawrenceville, New Jersey | 1865 | Nonsectarian | 5,400 | Broncs | 2019 | MAAC | ||
| Robert Morris University | Moon Township, Pennsylvania | 1921 | Nonsectarian | 4,895 | Colonials | 2020 | Horizon | ||
| Southern Illinois University Edwardsville | Edwardsville, Illinois | 1957 | Public | 14,142 | Cougars | 2018 | OVC | ||
| Temple University | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1884 | State-related | 37,365 | Owls | 2025 | American | ||
| Chicago, Illinois | 1859 | Public | 34,199 | Flames | 2023 | Missouri Valley | |||
| Youngstown State University | Youngstown, Ohio | 1908 | Public | 15,058 | Penguins | 2020 | Horizon |
;Notes: