The Mid-America Intercollegiate
Athletics Association, an 11-member conference of NCAA Division
II institutions in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, was first organized
in 1912 as the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
Over the past 95 years,
the MIAA has gained the reputation of being one of the top NCAA
Division II conferences in the nation. MIAA student-athletes have
won 12 NCAA team championships and, since 1964, 153 individual
national titles. The MIAA currently conducts championships in
eight sports for men and eight for women.
For the men, champions are
crowned in football, cross country, basketball, indoor and outdoor
track & field, baseball, tennis and golf. The women compete
for titles in volleyball, cross country, soccer, basketball, indoor
and outdoor track & field, softball, golf and tennis.
The MIAA turned a new page
on July 1, 1992, when the NCAA Division II conference changed
its name from the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association
to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
The decision to make the
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.
The conference was first
organized in 1912 with 14 member institutions. Of those original
members, the University of Central Missouri, Truman State University,
and Northwest Missouri State University still remain a part of
the MIAA.
The first change in membership
came in 1924, when the MIAA reorganized to include only the five
regional Missouri state colleges: Central, Truman (at the time
known as Northeast Missouri State), Northwest, Southeast Missouri
State University and Southwest Missouri State University (now
Missouri State).
Over the next 56 years,
three schools joined the membership: the Missouri School of Mines
(later the University of Missouri-Rolla) in 1935, Lincoln University
in 1970, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1980.
The 1980s brought the biggest
changes in the conference. In 1981, Southwest Missouri State University
opted to move to NCAA Division I and the MIAA appointed its first
full-time commissioner, Ken Jones, in July.
He would be in the position
for 16 years, retiring in 1997. Former Gulf South and Metro commissioner
Ralph McFillen succeeded Jones, serving 10 years before his retirement
in 2007. Jim Johnson succeeded McFillen in July of that year.
Southwest Baptist University
brought membership back to eight schools in 1986, before the major
expansion of the conference in 1989. Pittsburg State, Washburn,
Missouri Southern State College (now University) and Missouri
Western State College (now University) °© formerly members
of the Central States Intercollegiate Conference °© began
competition in the 1989-90 season.
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.
In August 1991, Judy Willson
was hired as the MIAA's first full-time sports information director.
She left in 1994, and was succeeded by Matt Newbery, formerly
the assistant sports information director at Pittsburg State.
He became the assistant to the commissioner for media relations
in 2005. A third full-time staff member was added in 2005, as
former Emporia State track and field athlete Natasha Oakes was
hired as the assistant to the commissioner for compliance. Larry
House joined the staff in August 2007 as coordinator of external
affairs.
The current membership of
the MIAA is at 11 schools, with the departure of Missouri-St.
Louis in 1996 and Missouri-Rolla in 2005, the forfeiture of membership
by Lincoln in 1999 and the addition of Fort Hays State University
in 2006 and the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2008.
