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)
- 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)

### 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|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||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|
||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|Oxford, Ohio|1809|Public|RedHawks|1977|
|Northern Illinois University|DeKalb, Illinois|1895|Public|Huskies|1975, 1997|
|Ohio University|Athens, Ohio|1804|Public|Bobcats|1948|
||Toledo, Ohio|1872|Public|Rockets|1950|
|(UMass)|Amherst, Massachusetts|1863|Public|Minutemen & Minutewomen || 2025||
|Western Michigan University|Kalamazoo, Michigan|1903|Public|Broncos|1947|

### 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.

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, along with one former wrestling member dropping the sport.

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.

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.

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, and Missouri wrestling left to become a single-sport member of its former all-sports home of the Big 12 Conference.

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, but changed its plans amid the larger conference realignment of the early 2020s. WVU instead moved men's soccer to the Sun Belt Conference. The MAC replaced WVU with Chicago State University, which was leaving the Western Athletic Conference at that time. 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. In 2023, UIC added men's tennis to its MAC membership.

More changes to associate membership came in July 2024. First, James Madison University joined the MAC for field hockey. 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.

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. 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||PSAC <small>(NCAA Division II)</small> || Huskies||
|(Clarion)|Clarion, Pennsylvania|1867|2019|Public||PSAC <small>(NCAA Division II)</small> || Golden Eagles||
||Newark, Delaware|1743|2025|Public||CUSA|Blue Hens|
||Detroit, Michigan|1877|2020|Private||Horizon League|Titans|
|(Edinboro)|Edinboro, Pennsylvania|1857|2019|Public||PSAC <small>(NCAA Division II)</small> || Fighting Scots||
|George Mason University|Fairfax County, Virginia|1957|2019|Public||Atlantic 10|Patriots|
|High Point University|High Point, North Carolina|1924|2025|Private||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||PSAC <small>(NCAA Division II)</small> || Bald Eagles||
|Longwood University|Farmville, Virginia|1839|2014|Public|Field hockey|Big South|Lancers|
|Rider University|Lawrenceville, New Jersey|1865|2019|Private||MAAC|Broncs|
|Robert Morris University|Moon Township, Pennsylvania|1921|2020|Private||Horizon League|Colonials|
|Southern Illinois University Edwardsville|Edwardsville, Illinois|1957|2018|Public||Ohio Valley|Cougars|
|Temple University|Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|1884|2025|Public||American|Owls|
|(UIC)|Chicago, Illinois|1859|2023|Public||Missouri Valley|Flames|
|Youngstown State University|Youngstown, Ohio|1908|2020|Public||Horizon League|Penguins|