As conference realignment hits college football's biggest leagues and programs, change is on the rise in one of the sport's most beloved — even if less-prestigious — conferences: the Mid-American Conference. We're waiting on official announcements from the conference and the university themselves, but it appears that the University of Massachusetts Minutemen are joining the conference as a full all-sports member.
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ESPN's Pete Thamel shared the news via X.
https://twitter.com/petethamel/status/1762198328673006013?s=46&t=AibBuAmWjKJEuniwdFISOw
Interestingly enough, the Minutemen were part of the MAC as football-only members from 2012-15, after they made the jump up from the Football Championship Subdivision. However, that arrangement was dissolved after just a few years due to contractual disagreements, and the two sides went their separate ways. Now, they're pairing up again, but to a much fuller extent than last time.
There is one wrinkle: UMass' best sport is hockey, which the MAC does not offer. Of course, hockey is handled differently than most other sports, with conferences such as Hockey East — the Minutemen's current home for the sport — that do not exist for any other sport.
Out of the traditional "Power Five" conferences, only the Big Ten has a hockey league; but "full" member schools from other conferences that have hockey programs participate in Hockey East and other leagues. The MAC does have three hockey schools — Miami of Ohio and Western Michigan, which participate in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and Bowling Green in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association — but don't expect UMass to hop over and join them.
As for the two most-popular college sports, UMass is in a bit of a rut. Regarding football, it hasn't won more than four games since coming up to the Football Bowl Subdivision; and before a three-win season in 2023, it had won just three games over the previous four seasons. We'll see if UMass can stack some wins in conference play, although it did go 0-3 against MAC teams in 2023.
They're a better squad in terms of men's basketball, hovering around .500 most years, and are decent contenders in the Atlantic 10 this season. It'll be interesting to see how they factor into the MAC pecking order, as the conference has produced some fun, plucky teams in years past.
