The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association is one of the nation's oldest conferences in the NCAA. Below are the key moments in the history of the Association.
The Beginning & Early Years...
The MIAA was established in 1912 as 14 schools joined together and created the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
In 1924, the Association reorganized to include only the five regional state universities. That same year, the MIAA announced it would sponsor football, basketball, and outdoor track and field. Over the next 30 years, the conference added the sports of tennis and indoor track and field.
The Start of the NCAA Era...
The 1957 season started the movement of what we would now know as the MIAA as it joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) College Division. The first-ever national championship as an NCAA member was won by Southwest Missouri State in men's golf. After the switch to the NCAA membership, the addition of sports for cross country, wrestling, swimming, and baseball soon followed.
Division II was officially christened in 1973 when NCAA members at a Special Convention that summer voted to establish three divisions for athletics competition. The MIAA is one of only six charter member conferences that still exist within NCAA Division II today.
Changes of the Eighties...
Another monumental moment in league history came in 1981 and 1982. Ken B. Jones was appointed the MIAA's first full-time commissioner in 1981. The following year the Association started sponsoring championships in women's athletics for basketball, cross country, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. The University of Central Missouri made history when it became the first school in NCAA history to win national titles in the same year for both men's and women's basketball.
A decade that started with change, ended with change. In 1989, the MIAA expanded into the state of Kansas by adding Pittsburg State University and Washburn University. The two members became the first schools outside of Missouri to be added to the MIAA.
The Move Towards The Modern MIAA...
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 and Washburn gained membership but didn't occur until after Emporia State, the third Kansas school, earned membership.
In 1997, Ken B. Jones retired after 16 years as the Commissioner. Following his retirement, the MIAA CEOs named Ralph McFillen as the next Commissioner. Northwest Missouri football made history in back-to-back years. They were the first team in Division II history to be national champions with a 15-0 record during the 1998 season and in 1999 won the longest NCAA Championship game at any level with a four-overtime victory over Carson-Newman.
As a new Millenium took over, the MIAA continued to make history. On October 17, 2002, over 26,000 fans filed into Arrowhead Stadium to watch a rivalry game between Northwest Missouri and Pittsburg State. The game is the largest crowd to watch an MIAA event and one of the largest crowds in NCAA Division II football history.
In 2007, Commissioner Ralph McFillen announced his retirement and the MIAA CEO Council selected Jim Johnson to become the next Commissioner. A year into his leadership, the MIAA unveiled a new logo, moved the Baseball Championship to Community America Ballpark in Kansas City, Kansas and added women's golf as a championship. The following year, the Association conducted TitleFest, crowning eight conference champions over a 10-week span all in the Kansas City area.
As the first decade of the 2000s came to an end, Jim Johnson stepped down as Commissioner and the CEO Council announced Dr. Bob Boerigter as the MIAA's fourth full-time Commissioner.
Expansion Era & National Championship Dominance...
On July 29, 2010, the MIAA CEO Council voted to extend invitations to the University of Central Oklahoma and Northeastern State University to become members of the league. The expansion process was not quite over and on September 24, 2010, it voted to extend invitations to the University of Nebraska Kearney and Lindenwood University to become conference institutions starting in the 2012-13 season.
The MIAA collected five NCAA Division II Football National Championship titles from 2009 to 2015.
The 2012-2013 academic year saw the Association bring back the sport of men's soccer and wrestling, with Nebraska Kearney taking home the NCAA Division II Wrestling National Championship that season. MIAA women dominated the NCAA Division II Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field National Championships from 2014 to 2016 with three different institutions collecting five national titles.
With two members departing after the 2018-19 season, the MIAA again looked to expand for the 2019-2020 season. The MIAA CEO Council wasted little time and announced that Newman University and Rogers State University would be admitted as associate members starting that fall season. The two schools, already in the conference's footprint, brought the league to 12 full-time members and two associate members in the states of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
Era of National Leadership & Influence...
Considered to be one of the best conferences in all of NCAA Division II, the MIAA has backed that title since the 2010s. The Association has won at least one national team championship in every academic year since 2008-09 (no national championships were played in 2020-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). In this on-going span of national dominance, 44 national titles have been won with five of those national championship teams going undefeated in their season.
The Northwest Missouri State University men's basketball team made NCAA Division II history in 2022 by becoming the first program to produce three consecutive national championships, with also having won four of the last five national titles (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022).
Pittsburg State University's men's and women's track and field programs have been dominating NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships. The Gorillas have collected a combined nine national titles since the 2022 NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships. Pitt State's running programs are also left their mark in MIAA history in the 2023-24 academic year as the Gorilla men and women claimed MIAA titles at the men's and women's cross country championships, and the men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field championships — becoming first MIAA member to accomplish this feat since 1988-89 (Southeast Missouri State University).
MIAA members have swept the last four NCAA Division II Wrestling National Championships with the University of Nebraska Kearney winning the team titles in 2022 and 2025, and the University of Central Oklahoma capturing back-to-back national titles in 2023 and 2024.
The MIAA has also made history outside of competition when it became the first NCAA Division II conference to steam live broadcasts behind a paywall beginning in the 2020-21 academic year. The MIAA Network entered into an exclusive rights deal with Hudl in 2017 and became Hudl's first collegiate client to surpass $2 million in gross receipts in 2021. The partnership propelled the network to new heights in revenue generation, as The MIAA Network continues set records in revenue and viewership year after year. Revenue generated by The MIAA Network is also directed back to MIAA member institutions, with nearly $700k in Network revenue distributed to its member athletic departments in the 2023-24 academic year.