Ten teams from Mount Pleasant to Boone, nine conference games each, a true single round robin, and the largest field hockey league in the country. Here is the full MAC field hockey schedule, nonconference included.
Table of Contents
- How MAC field hockey works in 2026
- Opening weekend, August 28 to 31
- Week 2, September 2 to 7
- Week 3, September 9 to 13
- Conference week 1, September 17 to 20
- Conference week 2, September 25 to 27
- Conference week 3, October 2 to 6
- Conference week 4, October 9 to 11
- Conference week 5, October 16 to 18
- Conference week 6, October 23 to 25
- Conference week 7, October 29 and 30
- The games the composite gets wrong
- MAC Championship
- NCAA Tournament
- Games to circle in 2026
- MAC field hockey 2026 FAQ
- Dig deeper
Times are Eastern. Conference games are in bold. Several late-October conference games are still listed TBA; those are noted as they appear.
How MAC field hockey works in 2026
Ten teams play MAC field hockey, more than any other conference in the sport. The ACC, Big Ten and Ivy League have eight or nine; the Atlantic 10 has seven. The MAC has ten, and everyone plays everyone once: nine conference games apiece, 45 in all, from September 17 to October 30.
Six of the ten are MAC schools proper. Ball State, Central Michigan, Kent State, Miami and Ohio sit in the league’s traditional Ohio-Michigan-Indiana footprint, and Massachusetts joined as a full member. The other four are here for field hockey only: Appalachian State from the Sun Belt, Bellarmine from the ASUN, James Madison from the Sun Belt and Longwood from the Big South. Add them up and the conference stretches from Amherst, Massachusetts to Boone, North Carolina to Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
Miami is the standard. The RedHawks won their eighth straight MAC championship last fall, beating Massachusetts 2-1 in double overtime in the final, then reached the Elite Eight. They took 81 points and nine of ten first-place votes in the preseason coaches poll, and nine of ten coaches picked them to win the tournament again.
Massachusetts was second at 73 with the remaining first-place vote. Appalachian State third at 62, James Madison fourth at 60, then Kent State (44), Ohio (42), Central Michigan (31), Ball State (28), Bellarmine (15) and Longwood (14). Miami and UMass shared the 2025 regular-season title.
Two MAC teams open in the national top 20: Miami at No. 10, Massachusetts at No. 15.
Miami returns Malena Sabez, the 2025 MAC Offensive Player of the Year who led the conference with 25 goals, and Justina Intzes, the MAC Freshman of the Year, who scored 20 of her own. Nine RedHawks who logged 500-plus minutes are back.
Opening weekend, August 28 to 31
Massachusetts beat a ranked team. Miami lost one in double overtime and then won. Everybody else lost.
| Game | Date | Time / Result |
| Michigan State at Ohio | Aug 28 | Michigan State 3-1 |
| Miami vs Louisville (Louisville) | Aug 28 | Louisville 2-1 (2OT) |
| James Madison vs Temple (College Park) | Aug 28 | Temple 2-1 |
| Kent State vs Lafayette (Evanston) | Aug 28 | Lafayette 2-1 |
| Central Michigan at UC Davis | Aug 28 | UC Davis 2-1 (OT) |
| Ball State at Bucknell | Aug 28 | Bucknell 1-0 |
| Towson at Appalachian State | Aug 28 | App State 1-0 (OT) |
| Massachusetts vs Liberty (Orono, Maine) | Aug 29 | Massachusetts 3-2 |
| Miami vs Indiana (Louisville) | Aug 29 | Miami 2-1 |
| Ball State vs Sacred Heart (Lewisburg) | Aug 29 | Ball State 3-2 |
| Bellarmine vs Old Dominion (Columbus) | Aug 29 | 3:00 |
| James Madison vs Drexel (College Park) | Aug 30 | 11:00 AM |
| Georgetown at Appalachian State | Aug 30 | 12:00 |
| Massachusetts at Maine | Aug 30 | 12:00 |
| Queens at Longwood | Aug 30 | 12:00 |
| Saint Louis at Ohio | Aug 30 | 1:00 |
| Bellarmine at Ohio State | Aug 30 | 1:00 |
| Kent State vs VCU (Evanston) | Aug 30 | 2:30 |
| Central Michigan at California | Aug 30 | 4:00 |
| Central Michigan at Stanford | Aug 31 | 3:00 |
Massachusetts beating No. 8 Liberty is the best result any MAC team posted, and it came on a neutral field in Maine. Central Michigan opened with three games in four days in California: UC Davis on Friday, California on Sunday, Stanford on Monday. Nobody in the league covers more ground in a shorter window.
Week 2, September 2 to 7
The league scatters. Bellarmine goes west, Kent State and Ball State play at Big Ten sites, and Miami finally gets a home game.
| Game | Date | Time |
| Appalachian State at Davidson | Sep 2 | 6:00 |
| Michigan State at Miami | Sep 4 | 1:00 |
| Bellarmine at Stanford | Sep 4 | 3:00 |
| Boston University at Massachusetts | Sep 4 | 4:00 |
| Longwood at William & Mary | Sep 4 | 5:00 |
| Kent State at Michigan | Sep 4 | 5:00 |
| Ohio at Queens | Sep 4 | 5:00 |
| Kent State vs Vermont (Ann Arbor) | Sep 5 | 2:00 |
| Ball State vs Lehigh (Iowa City) | Sep 5 | 3:00 |
| Appalachian State at American | Sep 6 | 12:00 |
| Central Michigan vs New Hampshire (Bloomington) | Sep 6 | 12:00 |
| Liberty at James Madison | Sep 6 | 12:00 |
| Ohio at Wake Forest | Sep 6 | 12:00 |
| Richmond at Longwood | Sep 6 | 1:00 |
| UMass Lowell at Massachusetts | Sep 6 | 1:00 |
| Ball State at Iowa | Sep 6 | 2:00 |
| Bellarmine at UC Davis | Sep 6 | 3:00 |
| Central Michigan at Indiana | Sep 7 | 12:00 |
James Madison gets No. 8 Liberty at home. Bellarmine plays Stanford on Friday and UC Davis on Sunday, which is a long way from Louisville.
Week 3, September 9 to 13
Miami and Northwestern share a field. So do Miami and Iowa.
| Game | Date | Time |
| Queens at Appalachian State | Sep 9 | 6:00 |
| Mercyhurst at Central Michigan | Sep 11 | 1:00 |
| Michigan State at Kent State | Sep 11 | 2:00 |
| Miami vs Iowa (Evanston) | Sep 11 | 3:00 |
| Massachusetts at Harvard | Sep 11 | 3:30 |
| Longwood at Davidson | Sep 11 | 5:00 |
| James Madison at Duke | Sep 11 | 5:00 |
| Indiana at Ball State | Sep 13 | 11:00 AM |
| Miami at Northwestern | Sep 13 | 11:00 AM |
| Wake Forest at Appalachian State | Sep 13 | 12:00 |
| Davidson at Ohio | Sep 13 | 12:00 |
| Delaware at Kent State | Sep 13 | 12:00 |
| Longwood at Liberty | Sep 13 | 1:00 |
| New Hampshire at Massachusetts | Sep 13 | 1:00 |
| Saint Louis at Central Michigan | Sep 13 | 1:00 |
| James Madison at Virginia | Sep 13 | 1:00 |
Miami spends the weekend at Northwestern’s field, playing No. 11 Iowa on Friday and the No. 1 team in the country on Sunday. James Madison plays No. 6 Duke and No. 5 Virginia in three days.
Conference week 1, September 17 to 20
Conference play opens on a Thursday in Farmville, Virginia.
| Game | Date | Time |
| Miami at Longwood | Sep 17 | 5:00 |
| Ohio at Massachusetts | Sep 18 | 11:00 AM |
| James Madison at Ball State | Sep 18 | 1:00 |
| Central Michigan at Kent State | Sep 18 | 2:00 |
| Bellarmine at Appalachian State | Sep 18 | 6:00 |
| Miami at Liberty | Sep 19 | 12:00 |
| Bellarmine at Davidson | Sep 20 | 12:00 |
| Michigan State at Ball State | Sep 20 | 12:00 |
| Appalachian State at Liberty | Sep 20 | 1:00 |
| Michigan at Central Michigan | Sep 20 | 1:00 |
| Massachusetts at UAlbany | Sep 20 | 1:00 |
| Bucknell at Kent State | Sep 20 | 1:00 |
Five conference games gets the whole league on the field in a single round. That is the arithmetic advantage of having an even number of teams, and the MAC uses it every conference week.
Conference week 2, September 25 to 27
Ten conference games in three days and not a single nonconference game. The biggest weekend in the league.
| Game | Date | Time |
| Ball State at Central Michigan | Sep 25 | 1:00 |
| Massachusetts at Kent State | Sep 25 | 2:00 |
| James Madison at Miami | Sep 25 | 2:00 |
| Longwood at Bellarmine | Sep 25 | 3:00 |
| Appalachian State at Ohio | Sep 25 | 3:00 |
| Appalachian State at Miami | Sep 27 | 12:00 |
| Longwood at Ball State | Sep 27 | 12:00 |
| Kent State at James Madison | Sep 27 | 12:00 |
| Ohio at Bellarmine | Sep 27 | 12:00 |
| Massachusetts at Central Michigan | Sep 27 | 1:00 |
Miami hosts the teams picked third and fourth in the league on consecutive dates. James Madison and Appalachian State both travel to Oxford, and neither gets an easy Sunday.
Conference week 3, October 2 to 6
| Game | Date | Time |
| Bellarmine at Kent State | Oct 2 | TBA |
| Miami at Massachusetts | Oct 2 | 2:00 |
| Central Michigan at Ohio | Oct 2 | 3:00 |
| Ball State at Appalachian State | Oct 2 | 3:00 |
| James Madison at Longwood | Oct 2 | 5:00 |
| Mercyhurst at Ohio | Oct 4 | 12:00 |
| Ball State at Davidson | Oct 4 | 12:00 |
| Miami at New Hampshire | Oct 4 | 12:00 |
| James Madison at William & Mary | Oct 4 | 1:00 |
| Massachusetts at UConn | Oct 4 | 1:00 |
| Central Michigan at Saint Louis | Oct 4 | 2:00 |
| Bellarmine at Louisville | Oct 6 | 6:00 |
Miami at Massachusetts is the 2025 MAC championship game replayed, No. 10 at No. 15, in Amherst on a Friday afternoon. It is the best game the conference will produce all year and it has no television window.
Conference week 4, October 9 to 11
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Ball State at Kent State | Oct 9 | 1:00 | |
| Bellarmine at James Madison | Oct 9 | 2:00 | ESPN+ |
| Longwood at Central Michigan | Oct 9 | 2:00 | |
| Ohio at Miami | Oct 9 | 3:00 | |
| Appalachian State at Massachusetts | Oct 9 | 4:00 | |
| Ohio at Indiana | Oct 11 | TBA | |
| Longwood at Michigan State | Oct 11 | 11:00 AM | |
| Appalachian State at Vermont | Oct 11 | 11:00 AM | |
| Bellarmine at William & Mary | Oct 11 | 11:00 AM | |
| Penn State at Kent State | Oct 11 | 12:00 | |
| Massachusetts at Brown | Oct 11 | 1:00 |
Ohio at Miami is the Battle of the Bricks, field hockey edition, two schools forty-five minutes apart who have been irritating each other since the nineteenth century.
Conference week 5, October 16 to 18
Another full conference weekend, ten games, nothing else.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Miami at Bellarmine | Oct 16 | 12:00 | |
| Massachusetts at Ball State | Oct 16 | 1:00 | |
| James Madison at Ohio | Oct 16 | 2:00 | |
| Kent State at Longwood | Oct 16 | 3:00 | |
| Central Michigan at Appalachian State | Oct 16 | 6:00 | |
| Miami at Ball State | Oct 18 | TBA | |
| Appalachian State at Kent State | Oct 18 | 12:00 | |
| Ohio at Longwood | Oct 18 | 12:00 | |
| Central Michigan at James Madison | Oct 18 | 1:00 | ESPN+ |
| Massachusetts at Bellarmine | Oct 18 | 1:00 |
Massachusetts plays at Ball State on Friday and at Bellarmine on Sunday, Muncie to Louisville, in the middle of a stretch that also includes Brown and Longwood.
Conference week 6, October 23 to 25
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Bellarmine at Central Michigan | Oct 23 | TBA | |
| Ohio at Ball State | Oct 23 | 12:00 | |
| Kent State at Miami | Oct 23 | 1:00 | |
| Appalachian State at James Madison | Oct 23 | 2:00 | ESPN+ |
| Massachusetts at Longwood | Oct 23 | 3:00 | |
| Longwood at Old Dominion | Oct 25 | 11:00 AM | |
| Queens at Ball State | Oct 25 | 12:00 | |
| Bellarmine at Michigan State | Oct 25 | 12:00 | |
| Michigan at Miami | Oct 25 | 1:00 | |
| North Carolina at Appalachian State | Oct 25 | 1:00 | |
| James Madison at Wake Forest | Oct 25 | 1:00 | |
| Ohio State at Kent State | Oct 25 | 1:00 |
Appalachian State at James Madison is preseason No. 3 at preseason No. 4, on ESPN+, and two days later App State hosts No. 2 North Carolina in Boone. Miami closes its home nonconference schedule against No. 14 Michigan.
Conference week 7, October 29 and 30
| Game | Date | Time |
| Ball State at Bellarmine | Oct 29 | 3:00 |
| Miami at Central Michigan | Oct 30 | TBA |
| Kent State at Ohio | Oct 30 | TBA |
| James Madison at Massachusetts | Oct 30 | 2:00 |
| Longwood at Appalachian State | Oct 30 | 4:00 |
| Saint Louis at Bellarmine | Nov 1 | 12:00 |
The round robin ends on a Friday with the defending champion in Mount Pleasant and James Madison in Amherst, both games with seeding attached, both still without a confirmed start time as of this writing.
The games the composite gets wrong
Ohio plays Ohio. The composite lists a September 12 game with Ohio as both the away and the home team, in Athens, at TBA. That is not a game.
Massachusetts at Bellarmine, October 18, appears twice — once as “Massachusetts” and once as “UMass Amherst,” same time, same site. One game, two database entries.
Ball State at Bellarmine, October 29, also appears twice, once at TBA and once at 3:00. Take 3:00.
Ohio at Queens, October 24, is listed in Muncie, Indiana. Queens is in Charlotte and Muncie is Ball State’s campus. The site is wrong, and the game is still TBA.
Miami vs Iowa, September 11. The MAC composite says 3:00 with Miami as the visitor. The Big Ten composite says noon with Iowa as the visitor. Both agree the game is in Evanston. Nothing else about the listings matches.
Miami at Northwestern, September 13. The MAC composite says 11:00 a.m. The Big Ten composite says 3:00.
Kent State vs VCU, August 30. The MAC composite says 2:30 in Evanston. The Atlantic 10 composite says 1:30 in Chicago.
Six conference games are still TBA, including both October 30 finales and Miami at Ball State on October 18. For a league whose regular season ends the same week as everyone else’s, that is a lot of unfilled cells in late August.
MAC Championship
Miami hosts, in Oxford, Ohio, November 4 to 7.
That gives the eight-time defending champion home field for a ninth run at it, on the same surface where the RedHawks beat Massachusetts in double overtime last November. In the preseason vote, nine of the ten coaches picked Miami to win it again; the tenth picked UMass.
Recent MAC brackets have taken six of the league’s ten teams, seeded off the round robin, with the top two seeds getting byes into the semifinals. That means four teams finish the regular season and go home — the widest postseason gate in the sport by raw numbers, and the hardest one to sneak through, because the difference between fifth and seventh in a ten-team round robin can come down to a single Sunday in October.
The league has not published the 2026 bracket size. Confirm before assuming your team is in.
NCAA Tournament
The 2026 field is 18 teams: ten automatic qualifiers, including the MAC champion, and eight at-large selections.
Opening-round games are November 11 and involve the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers. First and second rounds are at campus sites on November 13 and 15. The semifinals are November 20 and the championship is November 22, both hosted by Louisville at Trager Stadium.
Miami reached the Elite Eight last season, the deepest run by a MAC team in years, and with two ranked programs the league has a plausible case for an at-large bid alongside its automatic one.
Games to circle in 2026
Miami at Massachusetts, October 2. The championship game rematch, No. 10 at No. 15, first at second in the league poll. Whoever wins this probably hosts nothing — Miami has the tournament regardless — but it settles the regular-season race.
James Madison at Miami, September 25. Preseason No. 4 at preseason No. 1, in Oxford, on the last Friday in September.
Appalachian State at Miami, September 27. Preseason No. 3 at preseason No. 1, two days later, same field. Miami’s weekend is the hardest anybody draws in conference play.
Appalachian State at James Madison, October 23. Third against fourth, on ESPN+, in Harrisonburg, with the top-four seeds still unsettled.
Ohio at Miami, October 9. The Battle of the Bricks. Forty-five miles, a hundred and thirty years, and a Friday afternoon in October.
Central Michigan at UC Davis, California and Stanford, August 28 to 31. Three games in four days on the West Coast to open the season. Nobody else in Division I field hockey does this.
Miami at Iowa and at Northwestern, September 11 and 13. The RedHawks play No. 11 and No. 1 on the same trip, at the same field, in Evanston.
North Carolina at Appalachian State, October 25. The No. 2 team in the country plays in Boone, two days after the Mountaineers’ biggest conference game.
Michigan at Miami, October 25. No. 14 closes Miami’s nonconference home schedule, one weekend before the RedHawks host the tournament.
Miami at Central Michigan, October 30. The regular season ends with the defending champion in Mount Pleasant. Start time to be announced.
MAC field hockey 2026 FAQ
When does MAC conference play start? September 17, with Miami at Longwood. The round robin ends October 30.
How many conference games does each team play? Nine. Ten teams, 45 conference games, a full single round robin. It is the largest field hockey conference in Division I.
Which schools play MAC field hockey? Ten: Appalachian State, Ball State, Bellarmine, Central Michigan, James Madison, Kent State, Longwood, Massachusetts, Miami and Ohio. Appalachian State, Bellarmine, James Madison and Longwood are in the league for field hockey only.
Who is the favorite? Miami, with 81 points and nine of ten first-place votes. The RedHawks have won eight straight MAC championships. Massachusetts was second at 73 with the other first-place vote.
How many MAC teams are ranked? Two of ten in the preseason top 20: Miami (10) and Massachusetts (15).
Where is the MAC Championship? Miami’s campus in Oxford, Ohio, November 4 to 7.
Where can I watch? James Madison home games are on ESPN+ and are the only ones the composite tags with a network. Everything else streams through school platforms; check individual school sites.
Dig deeper
- Back a player. How fans can back field hockey players in the NIL era — 90 percent of what you send reaches them directly
- See the whole league. The Mid-American Conference hub has every school and every sport
- Find your school. Every college with a field hockey program on the platform
- Know the market. Mid-American Conference NIL deals, across the league
- Know the rivalry. Miami, Ohio, and the Battle of the Bricks
- Know the schools. Miami (OH) NIL deals, James Madison NIL deals and App State NIL deals
- Know the sport. Field hockey is quietly producing college sports’ hardest-working athletes
- Rosters without borders. Field hockey in the USA, and how international students handle NIL
- Read the other leagues. The 2026 ACC and Big Ten field hockey schedules, every game, every week
- More field hockey. Everything in the Field Hockey section
