In 1912, the "Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletics Association" (MASCAA) was founded primarily as a track association and had its first event, a track meet, at
Lafayette College in May 1913. In 1922, it was reorganized as the "Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Conference" (MASCAC or MAC). The original 13 members present at the formation meeting in 1922 were:
Bucknell University,
Drexel University,
Franklin & Marshall College,
Gettysburg College,
Haverford College,
Muhlenberg College,
New York University,
Princeton University,
Rutgers University,
Stevens Institute of Technology,
Susquehanna University,
Swarthmore College, and the
University of Delaware. In addition, another five members who were not present at the initial meeting but formally approved of the plan were:
Columbia University,
Johns Hopkins University,
Lehigh University,
Ursinus College, and
Widener University.
Elizabethtown College moved to the Landmark Conference for 2014–15. In May 2018, Manhattanville College announced that they would leave the MAC Freedom Conference and return to the
Skyline Conference for the 2019–20 academic year. Manhattanville was a charter member of the Skyline before leaving to join the MAC in 2007. Three months later, the MAC announced that Stevens Institute of Technology, which had left the conference in 1978, would return in 2019–20 and replace Manhattanville in the MAC Freedom. In April 2019, the MAC announced that
York College of Pennsylvania would join the MAC Commonwealth in 2020–21. In May 2019, the MAC announced it would realign the Commonwealth and Freedom conferences into two equally-sized leagues effective with York's arrival in 2020. At that time, Arcadia and Lycoming moved from the MAC Commonwealth to the MAC Freedom, while Eastern made the opposite move. In February 2022, the
Landmark Conference announced that
Wilkes University and
Lycoming College accepted invitations to the conference starting in the 2023–24 season. Shortly afterwards, Misericordia announced that they would begin sponsoring men's ice hockey in 2024. The addition gave the MAC enough member teams to qualify for an automatic bid so the conference formally announced the addition of men's ice hockey as a sponsored sport. As part of a larger realignment within college hockey, both
Neumann University and Wilkes joined the MAC as affiliate members in ice hockey only. Those additions then gave the conference sufficient women's hockey teams for an auto bid and the conference. Both the men's and women's ice hockey divisions officially began with the 2024–25 season. The MAC announced in April 2025 that
Atlantic East Conference member
Neumann University, already a MAC member in men's ice hockey, would become a full MAC member starting in 2026–27. Neumann's future alignment within the MAC (i.e., Commonwealth or Freedom) was not determined at that time. That June, another Atlantic East member,
Marywood University, was announced as the MAC's 18th member, also effective in 2026–27. The overall MAC also announced that Marywood and Neumann would respectively join MAC Freedom and MAC Commonwealth. ==MAC football==