UMass, a football-only member from 2012-15, will reportedly join the MAC as a full member in 2025.
Sometimes, it’s not always a goodbye; it’s a “see you later.”
That’s exactly the relationship between the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the Mid-American Conference. On Monday afternoon, the MAC presidents voted to invite UMass into the conference as a full-time member at the start of the 2025-26 academic year, as first reported by Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic. UMass is expected to accept this invite and become the 13th full member of the conference.
The Minutemen first joined the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2012, participating in the MAC as a football-only member. They were added to the conference as a 14th team to evenly balance divisions when Temple was still part of the league. The Minutemen spent four seasons as part of the conference, compiling an 8-40 overall record and 7-25 conference record.
UMass Athletics
After declining full-time MAC membership, the conference and UMass agreed to split after the 2015 football season, with the Minutemen keeping Atlantic 10 membership in all sports except football, where they remained an independent program for an eight-season stretch.
UMass latching onto a conference leaves just two FBS independents for the 2025 college football season — Notre Dame and UConn.
Once 2025 rolls around, UMass’ MAC membership will come with different stipulations as a full-time member, joining the conference in baseball (men’s), football (men’s), field hockey (women’s), lacrosse (women’s), softball (women’s), and tennis (women’s). UMass will also join the MAC in men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, soccer, swimming and diving, and track and field.
UMass will be a member of an alternate conference for men’s ice hockey and women’s rowing, as the MAC does not sponsor either sport.
From a football perspective, the MAC recently scrapped divisions and announced a pod system with protected rivalries for the existing 12 members, releasing each team’s list of conference opponents through 2026. With the addition of UMass, the conference is certain to edit this system, considering the 12 members were evenly split into four pods. UMass becomes the 13th member of the league, and it is unknown if the conference plans to add a 14th program to remain at an even number for the 2025 season.
UMass will be the geographic outlier of an otherwise geographically-oriented conference as the only school in a state that does not border one of the Great Lakes. The closest conference member to UMass is Buffalo, and the two programs are separated by approximately 380 miles — roughly a five-hour, 40-minute drive.
Steinbrecher has discussed the issue of potential expansion several times, most notably in his 2022 State of the Conference speech, which came on the heels of reported flirtations with several member schools of other conferences.
“I advised out membership to be patient, evaluate any information with a critical eye and continue to look for opportunities,” Steinbrecher said at the House of Blues in Cleveland back in 2022, stating the conference would “continue to monitor all the conference realignment and affiliations happening in college football… Our culture and our philosophies are very well-aligned, and we’re very protective of that.”
When pressed later on the same speech, Steinbrecher clarified that expansion to as many as 16 member schools has historically not been sustainable — but he has also expressed his reticence to have an odd number of member schools, as having an even number simplifies scheduling and event planning.
All current 12 MAC members have been apart of the league since Buffalo’s addition in 1998, with UMass set to be the first full-time addition in nearly three decades. This is the MAC’s first conference realignment move in the 2020s, remaining relatively stable up until this point.
This is a developing story, which will be updated appropriately.