The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is reportedly cancelling postseason tournaments for eight of their sports. MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher confirmed the reports to WTOL.com earlier today. The move by the MAC means that postseason tournaments for baseball, softball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, women’s lacrosse and field hockey are indefinitely cancelled.
Additionally, the MAC has altered the seasons for men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball. For basketball, the first round of the MAC tournament has been eliminated, and instead, an additionally two games will be added to each team’s regular season schedule. The alterations for volleyball are unclear at this time, although they’ll likely be similar to the changes made to basketball.
The move by the MAC comes in the face of financial strain put on the conference due the the COVID-19 pandemic. The MAC is one of a handful of conferences that have already called for the NCAA to provide financial assistance to all Division I athletic departments. Commissioner Steinbrecher also told WTOL that these changes will last a “minimum of 4 years”.
Notably, swimming & diving has remained untouched, at least in this most recent move by the conference. Other “individual” sports, like track & field, golf, and wrestling have remained untouched as well. This is likely due to the integral part conference championships play in the overall seasons of these sports. For example, it would extremely difficult to name a conference champion in swimming & diving without a conference championship meet, given that swimming & diving doesn’t have a conference regular season in the same form as team sports.
The MAC currently hosts five men’s swimming and diving teams, and eight women’s teams.
Men’s swimming & diving programs:
- Miami (OH)
- Ball State
- Evansville
- Southern Illinois
- Missouri State
Women’s swimming and diving programs:
- Akron
- Ball State
- Bowling Green
- Buffalo
- Eastern Michigan
- Miami (OH)
- Ohio
- Toledo