Re: UMass, Gawd, I hope not. They're not a fit in my book, tough the area around there is gorgeous. But, if not UMass and MTSU, who else?
That's the problem. The pickens are pretty slim at the 1A level. Army is the best of the indies left, and the MAC would help them with some of the scheduling problems they seem to have -- they play two 1AA schools almost every year. UConn is only slightly better than UMass. It might be that a 1AA school would have to move up, but again there don't seem to be a lot out there. SIU would be a logical fit -- they're not far from WKU and are already a MAC affiliate for swimming and diving. But the program has been only so-so through the years and the stadium, while nice, is a bit small (15,000). Not much else out there.
As somebody who follows Army football closely, I just don't think there's a world where their alumni accept a move to the MAC. I also don't think scheduling's a big challenge for them.
Army's in a unique situation where they can generate a lot of revenue as a neutral field draw in a handful of military-heavy markets, and where two of (what would be) their four non-conference games are spoken for in Air Force and Navy. Joining the MAC would limit their revenue generation opportunities too substantially. As things stand now, they get revenue games with Navy and Air Force (the Air Force game is now in Dallas and a nice pay day for both schools), and they tend to play multiple P5 games per year. 2023 they're at Syracuse and LSU, and home vs. BC. This year they were at Wisconsin and home vs. Wake. They have KState in a couple of years, and have recently played at Michigan and Oklahoma. THey've signed home and home agreements with Coastal Carolina, Marshall, Tulsa, Liberty, Syracuse, UConn, and Wake. The sprinkle in FCS teams, but I think anybody here would swap Army's schedule for Ohio's quite happily. Their financial situation, too.
They have deep pocketed alums, a nice TV contract, and draw well. I just don't see what the MAC does for them.