One year after the Missouri Valley Conference reintroduced men’s swimming and diving for the first time since the 2002-23 season, the conference is growing. UMass Amherst announced on Monday that its men’s swimming and diving program will join the conference as an affiliate member of July 1st.
This means there will be seven teams at the 2025 Missouri Valley Conference Championships. Miami-Ohio and Ball State are also Mid-American conference affiliates, and compete against MVC members Southern Illinois, Evansville, University of Illinois-Chicago, and Valparaiso at the championships. Many of these teams joined the MVC from the MAC, which sponsored men’s swimming and diving from 1953-2024.
The Miami-Ohio RedHawks are the powerhouse in this conference. Heading into the 2025-26 collegiate season, the team has won five-straight conference championships; four of those titles came in the MAC and the most recent from their win this season at the first MVC men’s swimming and diving championships since 2003.
A simulated version of the 2025 MVC championships with last year’s UMass roster (and using 2024-25 season best times) sees the RedHawks maintain their status as conference championships and slots the Minutemen fifth of the seven teams. Diver Andrew Bell, a rising senior and two-time NCAA Championship qualifier, would be one of the Minutemen’s most valuable athletes at this simulated championship, as he was at this year’s A-10 Championships. Bell was UMass’ high point scorer at the meet, winning gold on the 1-meter and 3-meter board. Freshman Chase Keeler was the team’s highest scoring swimmer with 36 points, followed by junior Sammy Quigg’s 30 points. The team finished sixth of eight teams at the 2025 A-10 Championships, 26 points behind fifth place La Salle.
The UMass men won 16 A-10 Championships during their time in the conference, winning their first in 1996 and their most recent in 2016. The team had 95 A-10 individual champions, 28 A-10 relay champions, and four A-10 individual championship record holders, per the school’s press release.
2025 MVC Men’s Swimming Standings
- Miami-Ohio — 820
- Southern Illinois — 691.5
- Missouri State — 602.5
- Illinois-Chicago — 553.5
- Ball State — 387.5
- Valparaiso — 139
- Evansville — 127
Never heard of them.
So, when UMASS departs the A-10, then there is no hope of keeping any team, such as M Swimming & Diving, within the A-10 I guess.
Is the Big East Meet just a by-gone memory?
It seems to me like the Big East would’ve been a better landing spot (at least geographically) for the men’s team than the MVC. Do we really think swim teams will be traveling from Amherst to Springfield for dual meets? I know for a fact that the MAC has already made an exception for their dual meets schedule by excluding UMASS, and those schools are a lot closer!
Is there any rule that says UMASS has to stick with the other MAC schools (Ball state and Miami)? When the MAC disbanded men’s soccer a few years back, those schools did not all choose the same affiliate conferences.
I think you forgot to count Missouri State in the totals for next year. Missouri State is a Conference USA school in 2026 but they don’t have swimming, so MSU will swim in the MVC again next year.
Unrelated, but Matt Fallon announced he’s not competing this summer. USA breaststroke is done
My tax $’s well invested as a Massachusetts taxpayer………their football expenses are the equivalent of standing on the “Tobin Bridge” and lighting $100 bills on fire. We’ve gotten the same return ever since the program went “big time” to Div I. This is my old college conference where Ohio U, Western Michigan, Bowling Green and my beloved alma mater “Golden Flashes” all had men’s programs in the mid to late 60’s. Only the Miami “Redskins” still have a men’s team from my era. Bowling Green went from the worst facility in the MAC to perhaps one of the best and then dropped their men’s program……go figure? I’m glad that UMASS kept both swim programs in this conference switch. For how… Read more »
They left a conference that sponsors both M Soccer and LAX, and sponsors M Swim, because.. football, a program that has won 8 games in 6 years. Only 3 of them over D1-FBS schools. If I had to hazard a guess, UMass will continue to make poor choices going forward.
UMass has made a series of embarrassingly bad decisions over the past decade, mostly surrounding their football team.
They had some pipe dream of filling up Gillette Stadium multiple times a year as an FBS school. Even when it was obvious that would never happen (they held a bunch of games there and couldn’t fill it halfway, even when counting their band in the attendance figures), they just pushed forward with the plan to change subdivisions anyways. They went from being one of the most successful FCS programs in the country to a national laughingstock that is known for being a fixture in the ESPN Bottom 10 more than anything else.
Great school though!
In unrelated news, UMass has shuttered its geography department.
What’s happening to the A-10?
A-10 is fine. They just lost a member.
UMass is joining MAC and leaving A10 on7/1
What do you mean? It’s one of 11 schools, I dont think they’ll miss UMASS