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

• 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

Full members

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

1. This school is often called "Miami (Ohio)" to distinguish it from the University of Miami in Florida.
2. 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

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

School	Location	Founded	Joined	Type	Sport(s)	Current main conference	Nickname
Appalachian State University	Boone, North Carolina	1899	2017	Public	Field hockey	Sun Belt	Mountaineers
Bellarmine University	Louisville, Kentucky	1950	2021	Private	Field hockey	ASUN	Knights
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania	Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania	1839	2019	Public	Men's wrestling	PSAC (NCAA Division II)	Huskies
Pennsylvania Western University Clarion (Clarion)	Clarion, Pennsylvania	1867	2019	Public	Men's wrestling	PSAC (NCAA Division II)	Golden Eagles
University of Delaware	Newark, Delaware	1743[a]	2025	Public[b]	Women's rowing	CUSA	Blue Hens
University of Detroit Mercy	Detroit, Michigan	1877	2020	Private	Women's lacrosse	Horizon League	Titans
Pennsylvania Western University Edinboro (Edinboro)	Edinboro, Pennsylvania	1857	2019	Public	Men's wrestling	PSAC (NCAA Division II)	Fighting Scots
George Mason University	Fairfax County, Virginia	1957	2019	Public	Men's wrestling	Atlantic 10	Patriots
High Point University	High Point, North Carolina	1924	2025	Private	Women's rowing	Big South	Panthers
James Madison University	Harrisonburg, Virginia	1906	2024	Public	Field hockey	Sun Belt Conference	Dukes
Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania	Lock Haven, Pennsylvania	1870	2019	Public	Men's wrestling	PSAC (NCAA Division II)	Bald Eagles
Longwood University	Farmville, Virginia	1839	2014	Public	Field hockey	Big South	Lancers
Rider University	Lawrenceville, New Jersey	1865	2019	Private	Men's wrestling	MAAC	Broncs
Robert Morris University	Moon Township, Pennsylvania	1921	2020	Private	Women's lacrosse	Horizon League	Colonials
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville	Edwardsville, Illinois	1957	2018	Public	Men's wrestling	Ohio Valley	Cougars
Temple University	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	1884	2025	Public[c]	Women's rowing	American	Owls
University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)	Chicago, Illinois	1859	2023	Public	Men's tennis	Missouri Valley	Flames
Youngstown State University	Youngstown, Ohio	1908	2020	Public	Women's lacrosse	Horizon League	Penguins

1. Founded in 1743, but did not award college degrees until 1831.
2. Delaware is officially chartered as a "privately governed, state-assisted" institution.
3. As a member of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education, Temple is privately governed but is financially supported by the state of Pennsylvania.