RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The 2025-26 academic year will likely be the last that the MAAC will be known by the four-letter acronym that has been its identity for all 46 years of its existence. In an interview with Mid-Major Madness at the Saint Peter’s-Manhattan men’s basketball game on Thursday night, conference Commissioner Travis Tellitocci gave an update on the brand repositioning that was hinted at last February and initiated in November.
Tellitocci says that the MAAC has already met with student-athletes,
coaches, athletic directors, presidents, and SWAs in the “testing phase,” where the league is “down to a few names.”
He added that the league has a meeting set with an external group consisting of media outlets ESPN, CBS, FOX, and WFAN to go over those options next week.
From there, the timeline accelerates quickly.
“Ultimately, we’ll make a recommendation to the council of presidents to move forward,” Tellitocci told Mid-Major Madness. “I believe the recommendation will go to the presidents probably near the end of February. We’re getting into the logo design phase after that. So my hope is that we can announce something in the spring for full implementation for the 2026-27 seasons in July.”
Tellitocci went into a little more detail about why he feels it’s important to change the league’s brand.
“One of the things I think is very clear from our membership is that we have to get away from our current acronym,” he said. “We’re constantly referred to as ‘the other MAC,’ ‘the MAC with two As,’ ‘the MAC that doesn’t play football.’ So having that confusion with the Mid-American, the FBS, is a concern for our membership.
“As we’ve gone through the process, something that somebody said that I thought was really good, is if you have a 30-second elevator pitch to promote the MAAC, you’re spending the first 15 seconds talking about who we’re not as opposed to who we are.”
Insight on the five-year deal in Atlantic City
The MAAC announced on Tuesday that it signed a five-year contract to continue holding its men’s and women’s basketball championships at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall through 2031. It’s the longest deal in conference history, and Tellitocci says the extra security was important.
“When we went into the process, we started looking at a three-year deal,” Tellitocci said. “I think as we got much further into the process, one of the things we talked about as a group of presidents is that we’d be starting this process over again in another year and a half.
“With the excitement that’s been in Atlantic City that’s been building over the years, thought that was really an opportunity for us to put a stake somewhere and continue to try to build momentum.”
He also noted that the end of the five-year deal, 2031, now lines up to coincide with the end of the MAAC’s media rights agreement with ESPN. A key component of that deal is the return of the MAAC men’s basketball championship game to a slot with less competition earlier in the week, playing on Tuesday night.
In the release announcing Atlantic City’s contract, it was mentioned that the league explored hybrid options, where the tournament starts on campus sites and then later rounds are played at a single neutral site.
“There was interest (in the hybrid model),” Tellitocci said. “I think when you looked at those options – and there was some interest from other arenas in that – one of the things that we discussed with starting on campus was could we do it from an attendance standpoint? I think something that people were worried about is that would opening rounds draw? That’s not always a guarantee. And then you also have to figure that students are on spring break during that time too. We ultimately decided that neutral site was the best for the conference.”
But why was Atlantic City a better option than Albany, which Tellitocci said had a “very competitive bid.”
“I talked a lot about hotels last week, and that’s a big factor that people take for granted,” Tellitocci said. “We require a lot of hotel rooms, between having 20 teams there, our bands and spirit squads. So the fact that in Atlantic City, we can put both of our teams in two very good resort properties, we can house our bands and spirit squads in one property, and still have enough room for fans was a big component of that as well.”
With the new MAAC Tournament schedule, one of the pieces of feedback that I found most interesting was that some fans were in favor of playing the men’s Saturday quarterfinals and Sunday semifinals during the day session instead of the night session.
Tellitocci said that the league did discuss that, but that the turnaround time was still seen as a problem.
Finally, Tellitocci confirmed that he has been in talks with world-famous acrobat Red Panda about performing at halftime during the MAAC Tournament. He said that the times do not line up for the greatest halftime show in the world to come to Atlantic City on Tuesday night for the men’s championship game this year but said that Red Panda will perform at some point – if not this year, then within the next few years – at the MAAC Tournament.
