Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association


The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division II level, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Its fourteen member institutions, of which all but one are public schools, are located in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. The MIAA is a 501 nonprofit organization incorporated in Missouri.
Originally named the "Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association", the conference was established in 1912 with 14 members, two of which are still current members. Six members were later removed from the conference in 1924 when it decided to only include the public schools. A majority of the charter members that left in 1924 have shut down their operations, or merged with another school. Over the next century, nearly twenty schools have joined and left the conference, with a few affiliate members. Some of those schools have reclassified to NCAA Division I.
The conference's current 14-campus makeup resulted when Lincoln departed the conference while Arkansas-Fort Smith joined the league for the 2024–25 season.
The current MIAA commissioner is Mike Racy.

History and overview

The MIAA currently sponsors 20 sports – ten men's and ten women's. MIAA schools with additional sports compete independently or as part of a nearby conference. On July 1, 1992, the MIAA entered a new era when the conference changed its name from the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. The name change originated in 1989, when Pittsburg State University and Washburn University became the first schools outside the state of Missouri to gain membership in the MIAA.

Founding and former members

The MIAA was established in 1912 with 14 member institutions. It included the five state teachers colleges in Missouri – Warrensburg Teachers College, Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, Southeast Missouri State Teacher's College, and Southwest Missouri State Teacher's College. It also included nine private schools – Central Methodist University, Central Wesleyan College, Culver–Stockton College, Drury University, Missouri Valley College, Missouri Wesleyan College, Tarkio College, Westminster College, and William Jewell College. Only Central Missouri and Northwest Missouri State remain members in the MIAA.
In 1924 the conference reorganized to include only public schools, and conference records tend to begin with that date. The schools left behind in the reorganization went on to later form the Missouri College Athletic Union, which would in time become the current Heart of America Athletic Conference in the NAIA.

First expansions of the conference

The Missouri School of Mines, later the University of Missouri-Rolla and now the Missouri University of Science & Technology, joined in 1935 to bring membership to six schools. The membership remained at six until Lincoln University joined in 1970, followed by the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1980.

1980s

Southwest Missouri State left the MIAA after the 1980–81 season to move on to NCAA Division I. In 1986, Southwest Baptist University brought the conference membership back to eight schools. In 1989, Pittsburg State, Washburn, Missouri Southern State College and Missouri Western State College – formerly members of the Central States Intercollegiate Conference – began competition in the 1989–90 season.

1990s and 2000s

Southeast Missouri State left the MIAA following the 1990–91 season to move on to NCAA Division I, and was replaced by Emporia State University in the 1991–92 season. Missouri-St. Louis left the MIAA in 1996, as did Missouri–Rolla in 2005. Lincoln forfeited membership in 1999.
Fort Hays State University joined the MIAA in 2006 and the University of Nebraska Omaha entered the league in 2008.
On July 3, 2007, Southwest Baptist was granted independent status for their football team, while all remaining teams will stay in the MIAA.
On July 8, 2009, the MIAA CEO Council voted to remain a 12-team league for the foreseeable future, denying an application by Rockhurst University. The vote ended short term speculation about the League expanding to 16 teams divided into two divisions.

2010s

Lincoln rejoined the conference in 2010 and in that same year, the MIAA CEO Council voted to extend invitations to the University of Central Oklahoma and Northeastern State University to become members of the league beginning in 2012–13, as well as Lindenwood University and the University of Nebraska at Kearney. In 2012, the schools started to only play each other in football and play no non-conference games. At first, the teams that were closest geographically played each other every year and would rotate through the other conference members in other years. The move to expand the league was spurred at least in part after Northwest Missouri during its national championship game run had problems finding non-conference teams that would play it resulting in 2010 with it having 10-game rather than 11-game schedule. In 2011, Nebraska–Omaha joined the Summit League and moved to Division I after the 2010–11 season.
As Nebraska–Omaha departed in 2011, the membership of the MIAA downsized to 11. Central Oklahoma, Northeastern State, Nebraska–Kearney, and Lindenwood all joined in 2012–13, pushing the membership to 15. The league returned to 14 institutions when Truman left in 2013 to join the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Southwest Baptist rejoined the MIAA in football for the 2013 football season, which meant that the schools would then play an 11-game conference football schedule with no non-conference games. In 2014, Southwest Baptist and Lincoln joined the GLVC for football only. This puts it so that all of the football schools in the MIAA can play each other now, instead of rotating.
On February 8, 2018, Newman University announced that it had accepted an invitation to join the league as an associate member in all 14 sports it sponsors beginning with the 2019–20 athletic season. On May 31, 2018, the MIAA announced that Southwest Baptist would be withdrawing its membership from the MIAA to join the Great Lakes Valley Conference full-time, effective August 1, 2019. Lindenwood followed Southwest Baptist on October 4, 2018, announcing they would be joining the GLVC as well, effective July 1, 2019. On October 18, 2018 Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma announced that it would be joining the league as an associate member, aborting a move to the Lone Star Conference. They became full members on July 1, 2022.
After more than 25 years at its current office at 17th and Main Streets, The MIAA announced that it was moving its offices to the newly renovated Hy-Vee Arena, which is formerly known as Kemper Arena.
MIAA and GAC announced a partnership in June 2018 to combine their men's tennis and men's soccer leagues in both sports for the 2019–20 academic year. Under the agreement, the MIAA will organize the tennis league and the GAC will organize the soccer.

2020 to present

On January 26, 2023, Lincoln announced it was departing the MIAA following two stints of membership inside the association spanning 43 years. On June 26, 2023, Arkansas-Fort Smith announced they had accepted an invitation to become a full-time member of the league. Both changes occurred in time for the 2024–25 season.

Commissioners

In July 1981, Ken B. Jones was appointed as the first full-time MIAA commissioner. He held the position for 16 years, retiring in 1997. Ralph McFillen succeeded Jones, serving 10 years until retiring in 2007. Jim Johnson then succeeded McFillen in July 2007 and served as commissioner until September 2010. Bob Boerigter succeeded Johnson on September 20, 2010, as commissioner and retired on January 27, 2017. On September 7, 2016, it was announced that Mike Racy would become the fifth commissioner of the MIAA, effective January 30, 2017.

Chronological timeline