MAC Announces Missouri, Northern Iowa and Old Dominion Join as Affiliate Members in Wrestling
9/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Cleveland, Ohio – The Mid-American
Conference (MAC) announced today the addition of the University of
Missouri, the University of Northern Iowa and Old Dominion
University as affiliate members in the sport of wrestling.
All three universities have joined the MAC with five-year
agreements, with Missouri and Northern Iowa joining the MAC for the
conference tournament only for the 2012-13 season and then
participate fully in regular season and tournament action for the
next four consecutive years (2013-14 season thru 2016-17 academic
season). Old Dominion will join the MAC for the regular
season and tournament action in the 2013-14 season through the
2017-18 academic season.
The addition of the three affiliate members will increase the MAC
wrestling membership to nine members with Buffalo, Central
Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois and
Ohio. With this increase in wrestling membership, the MAC
will become the third largest Division I wrestling league in the
nation only behind the Big Ten and the Eastern Intercollegiate
Wrestling Association (EIWA). This move will also provide the
conference extended recruiting opportunities from across the
Midwest towards the East Coast into Virginia.
“After significant study and discussion by our member
institution's coaches and administrators the Mid-American
Conference has made a move that will take what is already a very
strong wrestling conference and make it one of the elite wrestling
conferences in the country,” said Dr. Jon A. Steinbrecher,
Commissioner of the Mid-American Conference. “I am
pleased to welcome Missouri, Northern Iowa, and Old Dominion, their
student-athletes, coaches and fans to the MAC in the sport of
wrestling.”
Last season Kent State won the MAC regular season title and the
previous season witnessed a three-way tie for the MAC regular
season title between Kent State, Central Michigan and Ohio.
