College football realignment: MAC to add 1 school for 2025
The next phase of college football conference realignment and expansion has come as UMass will officially join the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in football and all other sports in time for the 2025-26 season, according to reports.
The Athletic first reported the decision.
Prior to the move, UMass was one of the few remaining independent sports programs in FBS.
Now with this move, college football and other sports now have only two remaining independent programs: Notre Dame and UConn. Another former independent, the U.S. Military Academy, will join the AAC officially in the summer of 2024.
The decision comes at a time when it has become more difficult, if not impossible, for sports programs to not be members of a conference amid college football's ongoing changes, and the relative financial security that being in a conference gives to schools.
Here is what the MAC will look like in the 2025 season:
- Akron
- Bowling Green
- Ball State
- Buffalo
- Central Mich.
- Eastern Mich.
- Kent State
- Miami (Ohio)
- Northern Illinois
- Toledo
- Ohio
- Western Mich.
- UMass
UMass went 3-9 last season in head coach Don Brown's 7th season on the sideline. Brown is 47-39 during his time as Minutemen head coach.
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