In eight years, the Blue Raiders have won one division title in football and appeared in five bowl games.

Middle Tennessee State joined Conference USA one year before Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers have been in seven of the last 20 NCAA tournaments, advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2008. Western Kentucky has won two Conference USA championships since joining the league in 2014 and played in bowl games in six out of seven seasons. (The MAC would maintain divisions in football.) The addition of Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State would be a credibility boost in the two most valuable sports - football and men's basketball. Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State would become the 19th and 20th schools to change conferences since Texas and Oklahoma sparked a high stakes game of musical chairs by leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. Their inclusion could be a death knell for Conference USA, which has already lost nine of its 14 schools in recent weeks to the American Athletic Conference and Sun Belt. The expectation is that Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State would begin play in the MAC in 2023.

MAC presidents, which meet on Monday evening, have the ultimate say in the addition of new member institutions, though it is thought to be a formality, one source said. There was universal agreement from the 12 ADs that Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State should be extended invitations. 'You expand for two reasons - to survive, and we're not in survival mode, and you expand to make yourself better and stronger.'Īthletic directors from the MAC discussed adding the two schools during a lengthy call Monday. If we want to do something, we'll do so when it makes sense for us,' a source said.

Will Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State bring enough money into the conference to lift the bottom line of the other 12 schools? The thinking is yes. Finances, however, will be the final decision point, the sources said.

Western kentucky mac conference