Report: UMass to Join Mid-American Conference; Notre Dame, UConn Last 2 Independents
UMass will rejoin the Mid-American Conference in all sports in 2025, per Action Network's Brett McMurphy.
UMass' football program is currently independent while its primary conference is the Atlantic 10. Its football team was in the MAC from 2012 to 2015 but became independent beginning in the 2016 season.
With UMass joining a conference in 2025, Notre Dame and UConn will be the last remaining independent football teams, though one or both could be inclined to join a conference in the future as the college football landscape continues to change.
UMass parted ways from the MAC after the 2015 season because the school declined to bring all of its sports to the conference. Per The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach and Chris Vannini, UMass was hesitant to leave the Atlantic 10, where it was a founding member.
According to Auerbach and Vannini, Conference USA contacted UMass about joining the conference. C-USA is still looking to add a 12th member after adding Deleware in all sports last fall.
During its first tenure in the MAC, UMass football didn't find much success, failing to produce a winning season in four years and going 7-25 in the league. The Minutemen's basketball program produced their best season this century in 2014 while playing in the MAC, going 24-9 to reach the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to Tennessee in the first round.
Last year, UMass' football team went 3-11, marking a slight improvement from the 1-11 2022 season. UMass is currently 17-10 in men's basketball and 3-26 in women's basketball.
