MAC Concludes Spring Meetings
MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE CONCLUDES SPRING MEETINGS
Cleveland, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference concluded its Spring Meetings with the Council of Presidents, Council of Directors of Athletics, Council of Senior Administrators, Council of Faculty Athletics Representatives and the Council of Student Athletes. The focus of the meetings, held at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel May 29 - 31, centered on student-athlete issues of academic preparation and success, mental health awareness, sexual violence prevention, time obligations, years of eligibility, transfer issues, sports wagering, and non-traditional courses.
Along with discussion, several items were approved through the MAC's governance structure, including:
- Revise the MAC men’s basketball incentive plan to further encourage the Conference’s ‘right-sized’ non-conference scheduling philosophy, replacing incentives for non-conference winning percentage with incentives for wins over Quadrant I and Quadrant II non-conference opponents.
- Additional change to the MAC men’s basketball distribution policy to reward success in the NCAA Tournament. Specifically, to provide teams that win in the NCAA Tournament to receive 30% of the value of the units earned the next two-years.
- Eliminating divisions in the sports of women’s soccer and women’s softball beginning with the 2018-19 academic year.
- Approved the MAC policy on sexual violence prevention.
- Tournament change for Conference sponsored sports with six or fewer full members in the sports of men’s soccer, men’s tennis and women’s field hockey beginning with the 2018-19 academic season.
- Discussion and substantive conversation on sports wagering.
- Lengthy conversation around the recent recommendations by the Commission on College Basketball.
- The MAC Council of Student Athletes had meetings and discussion with all of the MAC governance groups – Council of Presidents, Council of Directors of Athletics, Council of Senior Administrators and Council of Faculty Representatives.
- Presentations from Nick Dawson, ESPN Vice President, Programming & Acquisitions; Len Komoroski, Cleveland Cavaliers/Quicken Loans Arena, Chief Executive Officer; and Donald Remy, NCAA Executive Vice President of Law, Policy & Governance and Chief Legal Officer.
- For the eighth consecutive academic year, membership revenue distribution exceeded the budgeted projections.
MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE
Founded in 1946, the Mid-American Conference is an NCAA Division I, 12-member conference that sponsors 23 championships and is one of 10 members of the Football Bowl Subdivison (FBS). With total enrollment of nearly 300,000 students, the league represents institutions of higher learning in five states - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, and Ohio.
Current MAC schools that hold full membership and the year they joined are -- East Division: University of Akron (1992), Bowling Green State University (1952), University at Buffalo (1998), Kent State University (1951), Miami University (1947), Ohio University (1946). West Division: Ball State University (1973), Central Michigan University (1971), Eastern Michigan University (1971), Northern Illinois University (1975-86, rejoined in 1997), University of Toledo (1950), Western Michigan University (1947). The conference office is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
