Hustle Belt report that founding MAC member Ohio is in "preliminary" discussions with the Sun Belt conference about affiliation.
Athlon Sports has a post on the report.
M live also has a story on the report.
M Live points out and I would like to add that some of the report does not make a lot of sense.
"Metllen’s reporting suggests Ohio— and perhaps other MAC members— express concerns with the conference’s broadcaster-influenced decision to schedule weeknight games leading to declining attendance at games and that the conference’s most recent full-member additions (Buffalo in 1999 and UMass in 2025) have or will resulted in increased travel costs."
Most of the Sun Belt's locations are much farther away from Athens OH than Buffalo NY or Amherst MA. Depending on route taken, Buffalo is about 390 miles from Athens and UMass is about 380.
James Madison is about 300 miles from Ohio, Georgia Southern is 600-650 miles, South Alabama 800-850 miles and Louisiana is about 900-950 miles. The other Gulf Coast Sun Belt teams are a comparable distance. In general, travel distances to Sun Belt locations would be significantly larger.
The weekday MACation games generally have low attendances, but the schools taking part get a national TV audience that has no other competition on that night.
If Ohio really is interested in leaving the MAC, it is probably because they think they can get more money elsewhere.
Northern Illinois is leaving for the Mountain West, which has a media payout of about $6 million per school versus about $1 million for the MAC. The Sun Belt payouts are reportedly slightly more than the MAC.
The MAC's media package is up for renewal in 2027 and should result in a sizable increase.
