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Logos for Midwest Athletic Conference schools has membership has changed over they years.
In an era where schools change conferences on the drop of the hat on both the high school and collegiate levels, the Midwest Athletic Conference has remained a small fraternity of members and former members.
Only 14 schools can lay claim of being in the MAC over the 50 years of existence. No school has ever been kicked out of the conference. Two schools have left on their own and another merged with another MAC member.
From the first football game in 1973 until the end of the 1977-78 school season, the original conference group - Coldwater, Marion Local, Minster, New Bremen, Parkway, St. Henry, Bradford and Ansonia - stayed together.
The first moves came in 1977 when Mendon-Union, Fort Recovery and New Knoxville were brought in. None of the three schools had football (Fort Recovery didn't start its program until the 1990s), but then-commissioner Jon Sidenbender "would not leave them in the cold" and all three earned membership.
"We were playing a combined Auglaize-Mercer County League schedule (in everything but football)," said longtime New Bremen athletic director Burt Fiser. "The mechanics were there. We might have to play St. Henry twice (once in AMCL play, the other in MAC play). Other schools played one game and it would be a (game) for each league. We felt that (bringing the three schools into the MAC) would be cleaner. Some schools didn't want to play (other members) twice, the old theory if we had to play them a third time in the tournament, it makes it more difficult. As far as the schools and inclusion in the league, there was never any doubt."
Bradford and Ansonia left after the 1977-78 season to join the Cross County Conference, which later was dissolved and now makes up the majority of the West Ohio Athletic Conference.
The next move came in 1982, when Delphos St. John's left the Western Buckeye League and joined the MAC. The move was to help solidify non-conference schedules, which, due to trouble finding non-league opponents later in the season, prompted some teams to face others twice.
"Initially, we played two teams twice," said Fiser. "It was murder trying to find someone to play like the seventh or eighth week of the season. We felt that was a solution until we could find (a permanent move), which would be growth."
The league dropped to nine when Mendon-Union, one of the smallest schools in the state, closed its doors and merged with Parkway.
The MAC began to look for a new 10th member as the 21st century arrived to even out the schedule for sports other than football. Lehman and Lima Central Catholic both expressed interest, but the conference invited Versailles - a school which already played some conference teams during the season - into the fold.
"Speaking on behalf of Coldwater, it wasn't that hard (of a decision)," said Eric Goodwin, who is starting his 26th year as Coldwater's athletic director and involved in the expansion progress. "My philosophy is if they're willing to play us in the regular season - and we did with Versailles for a long time in football plus many other sports - we feel that they're a good fit for our league as well. We always had a great relationship with them. I think most of the other schools were the same way. … At the end of the day, we want schools that are just like our schools. I think that's what Versailles is: just like our community and our school."
The inclusion of Versailles allowed the MAC to cut its non-conference schedule from three games to two, but made for an imbalanced football schedule with nine teams. Each team would have a non-league game between Weeks Three and 10, which proved difficult to find. A number of MAC teams took on Lehman, which played an independent schedule at the time.
Anna, a member of the Shelby County Athletic League (which does not have football), had its first full varsity season in 2000 - defeating New Bremen in the first game at Cardinal Stadium - and played a football-only schedule in the CCC before getting an invitation to join the MAC as a football-only member.
"The beauty of Anna was they were right there," said Fiser. "We were already playing them in football as well as other sports. Other schools were playing them in other sports, so there was a relationship there."
The conference continued to tweak its process when several schools - notably Fort Recovery and New Bremen - struggled with football, both with numbers and staying competitive in conference play. Rather than let them bow out of football in the conference, which is not permitted per the bylaws, the MAC cut its conference schedule from nine games to eight and introduced a formula based in part upon the records of the teams over the previous several years, allowing teams that struggled to avoid playing the teams that were perenially at the top of the conference.
While it did halt some longtime rivalries, the formula paid dividends as more conference teams began to qualify for the football playoffs, which at the time were limited to the top eight teams in each region. Better still, the teams that had struggled and debated leaving or dropping their programs began to improve. Fort Recovery won a state title in 2015 and New Bremen, which had considered folding the football team before current coach Chris Schmidt took over, won state football titles in 2020 and 2022.
"We want all our teams to be successful," said Goodwin. "When we play MAC opponents, we want to beat them as bad as they want to beat us. But at the end of the day, in Week One and Two in football, we want the MAC to go 10-0 both weeks. Not so much as it helps with (computer) points, that doesn't matter as much anymore, but it's pride. This year we went 7-3 the first week, 70% of the games. That's the MAC, that's what we do. We want all our schools to be successful."
