The UMAC's Dome Day will get
a lot busier again in 2009. D3sports.com file photo |
The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference announces the expansion of
membership as five institutions have accepted an invitation to join
the league as associate members participating in football only.
Eureka, Greenville, MacMurray, Principia and Westminster (Mo.) will
join the UMAC beginning with the 2009 season. The SLIAC, which only
reinstated football in 2008, drops the sport for the second time in
a decade.
The five institutions, which all remain full members of the St.
Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, will join the existing
five football members of the UMAC (St. Scholastica, Crown, Martin
Luther, Northwestern (Minn.) and Minnesota-Morris) to form a
10-team football conference. Principia announced in January the
suspension of their football program for the 2009 season with the
intention of reinstating the program in the future. Associate SLIAC
members Huntingdon and LaGrange are not included.
The UMAC expects to receive an automatic bid to the playoffs
beginning in 2011 after the mandatory two-year waiting period is
completed.
"This was a very tough decision for our administrators because of
the excitement that surrounded our institutions and the conference
as a whole when football returned to the SLIAC last season as well
as the great relationship being built with our affiliate members,
Huntingdon and LaGrange," SLIAC Commissioner William J. Wolper
said.
"There were three primary reasons we brought football back in 2008
-– to provide our schools a significant portion of their
playing schedule through conference competition; to provide
football student-athletes the opportunity to compete under the same
moniker as other student-athletes at their institution; and to
provide the student-athletes an opportunity to compete for an
automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs.
"Unfortunately, with the loss of two football programs this
offseason, two of those three reasons were no longer available ...
Therefore, for the same reasons we brought football back to the
conference, we are removing it from sponsorship allowing those
schools to seek alternative affiliations."
Corey Borchardt, Commissioner of the UMAC, said, “We are
excited to add these institutions to the UMAC as associate members
first and foremost because they share a similar mission and vision
as well as exhibit values that also concur with our full
membership. Furthermore, the addition of the associate members will
provide greater stability in scheduling with the additional
conference contests and enhance the conference identity as a
whole."
A playing schedule among the six formerly SLIAC football programs
was to remain in place for 2009. However, in light of the
announcement by Colorado College of the Southern Collegiate
Athletic Conference that it would be dropping football, and given
Huntingdon's location to several SCAC institutions, Huntingdon
requested to drop games vs. SLIAC schools as it felt now was the
best opportunity to get into multi-year agreements with SCAC
members. Schools affected by Huntingdon's request (Eureka and
MacMurray) have filled those open dates.
Two of the UMAC's new institutions are very familiar with the
league, as Principia and Westminster (Mo.) were both UMAC football
members from 2002 to 2007. Westminster won the UMAC championship in
2003 and 2004.