The MAC is making huge changes to the conference because of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to WTOL, the mid-major D1 conference will eliminate title games for baseball, softball, soccer, tennis, women’s lacrosse and field hockey. On top of that, the basketball tournaments will be shaved down, the top eight teams will advance and the MAC will go from 18 to 20 conference games. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
“The pandemic and resulting financial issues play into that,” said conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher. “As the financial situation changes, it will give us a chance to re-evaluate.”
Luckily, football was spared from getting hammered by any changes, which makes sense. The MAC should want to protect its greatest revenue stream in sports at all costs.
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You know things are in a very bad place when a conference like the MAC is out here making sweeping changes like this because of the pandemic.
The conference has pretty much taken a sword to non-revenue sports and even clipped men’s basketball to a substantial degree.
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Don’t be surprised if some other conferences are forced to follow the MAC’s example on this issue. Major conferences like the B1G can probably go several more months before needing to make changes.
Mid-major conferences likely can’t do the same.
It’s an ugly situation and we’re most certainly not out of the woods yet.