Mid-american Conference encyclopedia topics

Member schools

There are twelve schools with full membership:

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Endowment
East Division
University of Akron	Zips	Akron, Ohio (217,074)	1870	Public	24,704	$212 million
Bowling Green State University	Falcons	Bowling Green, Ohio (29,636)	1910	Public	22,882	$70 million
University at Buffalo	Bulls	Buffalo, New York (292,648)	1846	Public	28,054	$566 million
Kent State University	Golden Flashes	Kent, Ohio (27,946)	1910	Public	22,352	$80 million
Miami University	RedHawks	Oxford, Ohio (21,943)	1809	Public	20,126	$320 million
Ohio University	Bobcats	Athens, Ohio (21,342)	1804	Public	20,437	$240 million
West Division
Ball State University	Cardinals	Muncie, Indiana (65,287)	1918	Public	20,113	$117 million
Central Michigan University	Chippewas	Mount Pleasant, Michigan (25,946)	1892	Public	26,788	$41 million
Eastern Michigan University	Eagles	Ypsilanti, Michigan (22,362)	1849	Public	22,974	$50 million
Northern Illinois University	Huskies	DeKalb, Illinois (39,018)	1895	Public	25,313	$63 million
University of Toledo	Rockets	Toledo, Ohio (295,029)	1872	Public	19,706	$173 million
Western Michigan University	Broncos	Kalamazoo, Michigan (77,145)	1903	Public	24,818	$197 million

Four schools have affiliate membership status:

Institution	Nickname	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Sport	Endowment
Chicago State University	Cougars	Chicago, Illinois	1867	Public	7,131	Men's tennis	$3 million
Florida Atlantic University	Owls	Boca Raton, Florida	1964	Public	26,245	Men's soccer	$194 million
Hartwick College	Hawks	Oneonta, New York	1797	Private	1,520	Men's soccer	$59 million
Missouri State University	Lady Bears	Springfield, Missouri	1905	Public	17,425	Field hockey	$55 million
Temple University	Owls	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	1884	Public	34,218	Football	$204 million

Division breakdown

MAC East

MAC West

History

The Mid-American Conference charter members were Ohio University, Butler University, the University of Cincinnati, Wayne State University and Western Reserve University, one of the predecessors to today's Case Western Reserve University. Wayne State never participated and quickly bowed out. Butler left after the first year. Miami University and Western Michigan University took the place of those charter members for the 1948 season. By the time the University of Cincinnati left after the 1952–1953 season, the MAC had already added University of Toledo (1950), Kent State University (1951) and Bowling Green State University (1952).

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. Marshall was kicked out of the conference in 1969. 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, Pennsylvania signed a six year contract with the MAC as a football-only school and began play in the East Division in 2007.

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, 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.

Former members

Membership time line

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1947 till:2009 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5

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

        id:line     value:black

        id:bg       value:white

PlotData=

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

 bar:1 color:green  from:1947 till:1950 text:Butler (1947–1950)

 bar:2 color:green  from:1947 till:1953 text:Cincinnati (1947–1953)

 bar:3 color:green  from:1947 till:1955 text:Western Reserve (1947–1955)

 bar:4 color:green  from:1947 till:End  text:Ohio (1947–present)

 bar:5 color:green  from:1948 till:End  text:Miami (1948–present)

 bar:6 color:green  from:1948 till:End  text:Western Michigan (1948–present)

 bar:7 color:green  from:1951 till:End  text:Kent State (1951–present)

 bar:8 color:green  from:1951 till:End  text:Toledo (1951–present)

 bar:9 color:green  from:1952 till:End  text:Bowling Green (1952–present)

 bar:10 color:green from:1954 till:1969 text:Marshall (1954–1969)

 bar:11 color:green from:1972 till:End  text:Central Michigan (1972–present)

 bar:12 color:green from:1972 till:End  text:Eastern Michigan (1972–present)

 bar:13 color:green from:1973 till:1986 text:Northern Illinois (1973–1986)

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

 bar:15 color:green from:1992 till:End  text:Akron (1992–present)

 bar:10 color:green from:1997 till:2005 text:Marshall (1997–2005)

 bar:13 color:green from:1997 till:End  text:Northern Illinois (1997–present)

 bar:16 color:green from:1999 till:End  text:Buffalo (1999–present)

 bar:17 color:green from:2002 till:2005 text:Central Florida (2002–2005)

 bar:18 color:green from:2007 till:End  shift:(-190,0) text:Temple (2007–present)

 bar:19 color:green from:2007 till:End  shift:(-190,0) text:Hartwick (2007–present)

 bar:20 color:green from:2008 till:End  shift:(-190,0) text:Chicago State (2008–present)

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

TextData = fontsize:L

          textcolor:black

          pos:(175,30) # tabs:(0-center)

          text:"Membership History"

Commissioners

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–present

Championships

Football

The MAC is contracted to provide a team for three college football bowl games, the GMAC Bowl, Motor City Bowl and International Bowl. In the event that a Big East team cannot be provided for the newly created Papajohns.com Bowl, a fourth MAC team is selected.

Basketball

In March of 2006, Commissioner Rick Chryst and Cleveland Cavaliers president Len Komoroski announced that the Mid-American Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments would remain in Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena through 2011. 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 (the 2007 semi-final between Akron and Kent State drew a crowd of more than 15,000). 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.

Hall of Fame

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

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.

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.

Harold Anderson, Bowling Green, Basketball, 1991
Janet Bachna, Kent State, Gymnastics, 1992
Joe Begala, Kent State, Wrestling, 1991
Tom Beutler, Toledo, Football, 1994
Kermit Blosser, Ohio, Golf, 1988
Jim Corrigal, Kent State, Football, 1994
Hasely Crawford, Eastern Michigan, Track and field, 1991
Caroline (Mast) Daugherty, Ohio, Basketball, 1994
Chuck Ealey, Toledo, Football, 1988
Fran Ebert, Western Michigan, Softball, Basketball, 1992
John Gill, WMU Athlete, Coach, Administrator, 1994
Maurice Harvey, Ball State, Football, 1992
Bill Hess, Ohio, Football coach, 1992
Gary Hogeboom, Central Michigan, Football, 1994
Fred Jacoby, MAC Commissioner, 1990
Bob James, MAC Commissioner, 1989
Ron Johnson, Eastern Michigan, Football, 1988
Ted Kjolhede, Central Michigan, Basketball, 1988
Ken Kramer, Ball State, Football, 1991
Bill Lajoie, Western Michigan, Baseball, 1991
Jack Lambert, Kent State, Football, 1988
Frank Lauterbur, Toledo, Football, 1990
Mel Long, Toledo, Football, 1992
Charlier Maher, Western Michigan, Baseball, 1989
Ray McCallum, Ball State, Basketball, 1988
Jack McLain, MAC Football Official, 1992

Karen Michalak, Central Michigan, Basketball, Track and field, Field hockey, 1992
Gordon Minty, Eastern Michigan, Track and field, 1994
Steve Mix, Toledo, Basketball, 1989
Thurman Munson, Kent State, Baseball, 1990
Ira Murchinson, Western Michigan, Track and field, 1990
Don Nehlen, Bowling Green, Football, 1994
Manny Newsome, Western Michigan, Basketball, 1988
Bob Owchinko, Eastern Michigam, Baseball, 1992
Ara Parseghian, Miami, Football, 1988
Doyt Perry, Bowling Green, Football, 1988
John Pont, Miami, Football Player/Coach, 1992
John Pruis, Ball State, President, 1994
Trevor Rees, Kent State, Football, 1989
David Reese, MAC Commissioner, 1988
George Rider, Miami, Track and field, 1989
William Rohr, Miami, Basketball coach 1994
Don Roundfield, Central Michigan, Basketball, 1990
Bo Schembechler, Miami, Football Coach, 1991
Dick Shrider, Miami, Basketball, 1990
Jim Snyder, Ohio, Basketball, 1991
Shafer Suggs, Ball State, Football, 1989
Phil Villapiano, Bowling Green, Football, 1992
Nate Thurmond, Bowling Green, Basketball, 1989
Bob Welch, Eastern Michigan, Baseball, 1990
Dave Wottle, Bowling Green, Track and field, 1990
Bob Wren, Ohio, Baseball, 1989

Conference facilities

School	Football stadium	Capacity	Basketball arena	Capacity
Akron	Rubber Bowl	35,202	James A. Rhodes Arena	5,500
Ball State	Scheumann Stadium	25,400	John E. Worthen Arena	11,500
Bowling Green	Doyt Perry Stadium	23,724	Anderson Arena	5,000
Buffalo	University at Buffalo Stadium	31,000	Alumni Arena	6,100
Central Michigan	Kelly/Shorts Stadium	30,199	Daniel P. Rose Center	5,200
Eastern Michigan	Rynearson Stadium	30,200	Convocation Center	8,800
Kent State	Dix Stadium	29,287	Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center	6,327
Miami	Yager Stadium	24,286	Millett Hall	9,200
Northern Illinois	Brigham Field at Huskie Stadium	31,000	Convocation Center	10,000
Ohio	Peden Stadium	24,000	Convocation Center	13,080
Temple *	Lincoln Financial Field	68,532	Liacouras Center †	10,224
Toledo	Glass Bowl	26,248	Savage Hall	9,000
Western Michigan	Waldo Stadium	30,200	University Arena	5,421