The UMass Minutemen are returning to the MAC. Conference officials voted on Monday to bring back the northeast school since it departed the MAC in 2015. The school did formally apply to the conference for membership. The Minutemen were in the MAC from 2012-15, but declined full membership due to wanting to compete in the Atlantic-10 in certain sports. That voided the school’s contract with the MAC and resulted in their departure, which led to UMass becoming an Independent in college football.
With the Atlantic-10 lacking the success in other sports, UMass decided that their needed to be a change. They didn’t want to go full on into the MAC before due to logistical purposes, and rightfully so. But things change, and smaller college football programs are finding it tougher to schedule games. Being an independent makes scheduling more of a challenge. So the Minutemen went looking for a permanent home to make it a little easier. This will give them more stability with their football program.
UMass has also been involved with Conference USA about becoming a member. Ultimately, the MAC made more sense. It keeps the Minutemen more in their realm of competition. Although, it’s obvious that the program wants to do better in the conference this time around compared to their first stint. They went 7-25 in conference play in four seasons.
With UMass joining the MAC, this is gonna get interesting. The conference recently announced that they were eliminating divisions after the 2023 season. The move also bumps the MAC up to 13 teams. So a question remains whether the Minutemen will be the final school to join for now, or if the conference will seek a 14th team to balance everything out. UMass will start MAC play in 2025, while playing their last college football season as an independent in the upcoming season.