Mid-American Conference (MAC)
Mid-American Conference logo
Established	1946
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I FBS
Members	12 (13 in football)
Sports fielded	23 (men's: 11; women's: 12)
Region	Great Lakes
Headquarters	Cleveland, Ohio
Commissioner	Jon Steinbrecher (since 2009)
Website	mac-sports.com
Locations

The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twelve full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members located in Illinois, Indiana and New York. For football, the MAC participates in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision.

The MAC is headquartered in the Public Square district in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, and has two members in the nearby Akron area. The MAC has been referred to as the "Conference of Quarterbacks" because of the accomplishments of numerous former players in the National Football League.^[1][2] The conference also ranks highest among all eleven NCAA Division I FBS conferences for graduation rates.^[3]

Membership[link]

Current members[link]

There are twelve schools with full membership:

Affiliate members[link]

Eight schools have MAC affiliate membership status. On July 1, 2012, Temple will join the Big East Conference for all sports, and Massachusetts will replace Temple as a football only member in the MAC East Division.

Former members[link]

Membership timeline[link]

<timeline>

DateFormat = yyyy

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20

Period = from:1946 till:2020

TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal

PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#

Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7)

         id:line     value:black

         id:bg       value:white
         id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
         id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
         id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
         id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote)
         id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
         id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two  

PlotData=

  width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

  bar:1 color:Full  from:1946 till:1947 text:Wayne (1946–47)

  bar:2 color:Full  from:1946 till:1949 text:Butler (1946–49)

  bar:3 color:Full  from:1946 till:1953 text:Cincinnati (1946–53)

  bar:4 color:Full  from:1946 till:1955 text:Western Reserve (1946–55)

  bar:5 color:Full  from:1946 till:End  text:Ohio (1946–present)

  bar:6 color:Full  from:1947 till:End  text:Miami (1947–present)

  bar:7 color:Full  from:1947 till:End  text:Western Michigan (1947–present)

  bar:8 color:Full  from:1950 till:End  text:Toledo (1950–present)

  bar:9 color:Full  from:1951 till:End  text:Kent State (1951–present)

  bar:10 color:Full from:1952 till:End  text:Bowling Green (1952–present)

  bar:11 color:Full from:1954 till:1969 text:Marshall (1954–69)

  bar:12 color:Full from:1971 till:End  text:Central Michigan (1971–present)

  bar:13 color:Full from:1971 till:End  text:Eastern Michigan (1971–present)

  bar:14 color:Full from:1973 till:End  text:Ball State (1973–present)

  bar:15 color:Full from:1975 till:1986 text:Northern Illinois (1975–86)
  bar:15 color:Full from:1997 till:End  text:Northern Illinois (1997–present)

  bar:16 color:Full from:1992 till:End  text:Akron (1992–present)

  bar:11 color:Full from:1997 till:2005 text:Marshall  (1997–05)

  bar:17 color:Full from:1998 till:End  text:Buffalo (1998–present)

  bar:18 color:AssocF from:2001 till:2005  text:UCF (2001–05)

  bar:19 color:AssocF from:2007 till:2012  text:Temple (2007–12)

  bar:20 color:AssocF from:2012 till:End  text:UMass (2012–present)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1947

TextData =

   fontsize:L
   textcolor:black
   pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)
   text:^"Mid-American Conference Membership History"

1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. Full members Full members (non-football) Assoc. members (football only) Assoc. member (list sports) Other Conference Other Conference <# </timeline>

Full members Associate members (football only)

History[link]

Locations of the football-playing members of the Mid-American conference

The Mid-American Conference charter members were Ohio University, Butler University, the University of Cincinnati, Wayne University (now Wayne State University) and Western Reserve University, one of the predecessors to today's Case Western Reserve University. Butler 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 (1950), Kent State University (1951) and Bowling Green State University (1952). 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..." ^[8]

The membership stayed steady for the next two decades except for the addition of Marshall University in 1954 and the departure of Western Reserve, which chose to de-emphasize intercollegiate athletics.^{[citation needed]} Marshall was expelled from the conference in 1969 due to NCAA violations.^[9] 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. Northern Illinois left after the 1986 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 Northern Illinois and addition of the University at Buffalo's Bulls in 1997 and 1998, respectively. The University of Central Florida joined for football only in 2001, becoming the first football-only member in conference history. Marshall (a second time) and Central Florida would leave after the 2004–2005 academic year, both joining Conference USA in all sports.

In May 2005, Temple University 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 University of Louisville was 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.

In addition to football affiliate Temple University, Missouri State University is an affiliate for field hockey, Hartwick College is an affiliate for men's soccer and Chicago State University is an affiliate for men's tennis.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst Minutemen will join the MAC for football only in July 2012.^[10]

Temple University has ended its affiliation with the MAC in football and will join the Big East for football in 2012 (it will switch all of its other sports to the Big East in 2013, ending its membership in the Atlantic 10).^[11][12]

The West Virginia University Mountaineers will join the MAC as an affiliate for men's soccer starting with the 2012 season.^[13]

Commissioners[link]

• Dave Reese, 1946–1964
• Bob James, 1964–1971
• Fred Jacoby, 1971–1982
• Jim Lessig, 1982–1990
• Karl Benson, 1990–1994
• Jerry Ippoliti, 1994–1999
• Rick Chryst, 1999–2009
• Jon Steinbrecher, 2009–present

Sports[link]

The MAC sponsors the following 23 sports (11 men's, 12 women's):^[14]

Football[link]

For the most recently completed season, see 2011 Mid-American Conference football season

^[15]

MAC champions

Bowl games

The MAC is contracted to provide a team for three college football bowl games including the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, GoDaddy.com Bowl, and Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. For the 2012 season, the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl will have the first pick of MAC teams, and the GoDaddy.com Bowl will get the second pick. For the 2013 season, the GoDaddy.com Bowl will receive the first pick of MAC teams, and the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl will receive the second pick.

For the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the MAC has secondary bowl tie-ins with New Mexico Bowl, BBVA Compass Bowl, and Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl to select a fourth MAC bowl team if a primary contracted conference cannot fill its bowl spot in one of the aforementioned bowl games. For the 2012 season, the MAC has a secondary tie-in with the TicketCity Bowl to select a potential fifth MAC bowl team if one of the primary contracted spots is not filled.^[16]

Bowl Championship Series

The MAC champion will receive an automatic berth in one of the five BCS bowl games if they are the highest ranked non-automatic qualifying conference champion and either of the following:

• Ranked in the top 12 of the BCS Rankings.
• Ranked in the top 16 of the BCS Rankings and its ranking is higher than that of an automatic qualifying conference champion.

Rivalries

Football rivalries involving MAC teams include:

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, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan have each won the trophy three times, and Western Michigan has won the trophy once.

Basketball[link]

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 Quicken Loans Arena through 2017.^[17] 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.^[18] 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.

Championships[link]

Current MAC champions[link]

Facilities[link]

Hall of Fame[link]

The Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame was the first Division I conference Hall of Fame.^[19] It was established in 1987 and classes have been inducted in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994 and 2012.^[20]

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.^[19]

The following list are the members of the MAC Hall of Fame, along with the school they were affiliated with, the sport(s) they were inducted for and the year they were inducted.

Media[link]

Broadcasts[link]

A number of MAC sports, including football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, soccer, wrestling and volleyball, are telecast on SportsTime Ohio replacing FSN Ohio as the MAC TV Partner the deal was signed in July 2010 and is for three years.^[21] Along with STO, ESPN Regional TV retains the “local and regional” syndication telecast rights to the MAC for Football.

Ball State produces its own comprehensive television package with Ball State Sports Link. Affiliate stations include WIPB in Muncie, WNDY in Indianapolis, The CW in Fort Wayne, WHME in South Bend, WTVW in Evansville, WYIN in Merrillville and Comcast in Michigan. All Ball State Sports Link games are also broadcast on student radio station WCRD and on the Ball State Radio Network produced by WLBC-FM and Backyard Broadcasting.

NIU has multiple football and basketball games telecast by Comcast SportsNet Chicago. In addition, most Northern Illinois 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[link]

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.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website