UMass athletics: Men’s swimming and diving team to join Missouri Valley Conference as affiliate member

AMHERST — Every UMass athletics program has finally found a home for next season.

The last to do so was the UMass men’s swimming and diving team, as the school announced Monday that it would be joining the Missouri Valley Conference as an affiliate member.

Beginning on July 1, UMass will compete in the Mid-American Conference in baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, field hockey, football, men's and women's indoor/outdoor track and field, women's lacrosse, women's soccer, softball, women's swimming and diving, women's tennis and rowing. The hockey program remains in Hockey East, while men’s soccer will join the Summit League next season and men’s lacrosse stays in the Atlantic 10. And now, men’s swimming and diving will head to the Missouri Valley Conference.

The Minutemen are the seventh men's swimming and diving program in the league for 2025-26, and the third MAC affiliate with Ball State and Miami (Ohio). That trio joins Evansville, University of Illinois-Chicago, Southern Illinois and Valparaiso in the MVC, a conference that first sponsored men’s swimming and diving over 100 years ago and reintroduced the sport to the league last season. The MVC hadn’t sponsored swimming since 2002-03 prior to the 2024-25 campaign.

The MAC sponsored men's swimming and diving from 1953-2024, but no longer does. Miami (Ohio) enters the upcoming season winners of five consecutive conference championships in the sport, claiming four in the MAC as well as last year’s MVC title. The MAC does sponsor women’s swimming and diving, where the Minutewomen will compete beginning this year.

In UMass’ storied history in the A-10, the men's swimming and diving program won the conference championship 16 times, earning its first A-10 crown in 1996. The Minutemen won three consecutive titles in 1997, before winning from 2001-05, and again from 2007-12. They picked up their final two championships in 2015 and 2016.

According to a press release from the school, the Minutemen produced 95 individual Atlantic 10 champions, 28 A-10 relay champions and they still hold four A-10 individual championship records.