About the MIAA

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.