ANNVILLE, Pa. (Conference News) – The Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) has announced its plan to realign the MAC Commonwealth and MAC Freedom beginning in the 2020-21 academic year with the addition of both Stevens Institute of Technology and York College of Pennsylvania. The MAC will move to a nine-and-nine conference structure.
"We are so proud to welcome Stevens and York to the MAC," said Dr. Thomas Botzman, MAC Executive Committee Chair and Misericordia University President. "We are also very excited to see that the conference will be able to preserve many of its historic rivalries with our new alignment."
With the addition of both Stevens and York (Pa.), the MAC increases its membership to 18 institutions beginning in the 2020-21 academic year. The new realignment will place nine institutions in both the MAC Commonwealth and the MAC Freedom. Three institutions will be making a new home in the realignment, including Arcadia University, Eastern University and Lycoming College.
The new conference structure can be viewed below.
| MAC COMMONWEALTH |
MAC FREEDOM |
| Albright College |
Arcadia University |
| Alvernia University |
Delaware Valley University |
| Eastern University |
DeSales University |
| Hood College |
Fairleigh Dickinson University – Florham Campus |
| Lebanon Valley College |
King's College |
| Messiah College |
Lycoming College |
| Stevenson University |
Misericordia University |
| Widener University |
Stevens Institute of Technology |
| York College |
Wilkes University |
"The nine-and-nine structure allows another team to qualify for conference postseason play in our [NCAA] automatic qualifier sports," said Ken Andrews, MAC Executive Director. "Also with this new alignment, we prioritized missed class time by decreasing overall travel time for our membership as a whole."
The new alignment will affect 13 of the 27 sports that are split into two conferences, including baseball, men's and women's basketball, field hockey, men's golf, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis and women's volleyball.
"With the addition of Stevens (2019-20) and York (2020-21) to the MAC, the Conference has been exploring realignment options for some time to properly serve all 18-member schools moving forward," said Arcadia Director of Athletics
Brian Granata.
"Our realignment, along with that of Eastern and Lycoming, provides a multitude of benefits across the conference, including shortened travel to away games and fewer missed classes to name a few. The financial savings that come with such things as shortened travel will allow us to re-appropriate resources to further enhance the student-athlete experience.
"While we have had our share of recent success in the MAC Commonwealth, and value the relationships and rivalries fostered over the years, the future realignment best serves all 18 institutions in the Conference and we look forward building relationships and rivalries with our new conference foes."
The sports of men's volleyball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's cross country and women's golf will be unaffected as the MAC is not currently split into two conferences in those sports.
It should be noted that Arcadia originally joined the MAC Freedom in 2007, before moving to the MAC Commonwealth in 2008.
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