Gateway

Issue date: 8/12/08 Section: MIAA

(Photo by Michelle Bishop)

(Illustration by Michelle Bishop)

(Photo by Michelle Bishop)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - With the summer coming to a close, it's finally official: the North Central Conference is no more.

After 57 years of action, including dozens of team national titles and hundreds of individual nationals, the conference gave way after larger programs - such as Northern Colorado, North Dakota State and South Dakota State - made the transition to Division I athletics.

The various NCC schools have gone their separate ways, and UNO has found its new home in the south with the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association.

In doing so, UNO joins 10 of the toughest teams in Division II athletics: Central Missouri, Emporia State, Fort Hays State, Missouri Southern State, Missouri Western State, Northwest Missouri State, Pittsburg State, Southwest Baptist, Truman State and Washburn.

UNO Athletic Director David Miller, speaking in Omaha, said there's no cakewalk in the conference. The Mavericks will have to play their best to win championships.

"I've said a number of times that when the North Central started losing the teams to Division I, I think the MIAA overtook them as the most competitive and strongest conference in DII," Miller said. "It's a strong conference, and with the addition of UNO, it's going to make the conference even stronger."

After a long pause, Miller added with a laugh: "I am looking forward to it, though. I am looking forward to it."

The MIAA includes one Division II national champion, Central Missouri, which won the honor in 1994 and again in 2003, coming in second in 2001. Missouri Southern State and Fort Hays State both also fell one game short of the title, in 1991 and 2000 respectively.

Final rankings for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics' Directors' Cup have also been good to the MIAA, with three teams in last year's top 25: Emporia State (11th), Central Missouri (18th) and Truman State (24th). The Mavericks came in seventh out of the 231 programs that were included in the rankings.



Reflections on media day

The conference, preparing for the upcoming football season, held a media day in Kansas City on Aug. 4 in Arrowhead Stadium. Kansas City will be the location for the new MIAA headquarters being built downtown.

UNO's addition to the conference, as well as Fort Hays State in 2006, helps shift the conference from being primarily located in Missouri, thereby making Kansas City a more centrally located seat for the conference administration.

"We set the tone when we walk out of here today, and we hope to wrap that up with a great baseball championship on May 11 and send the message to Kansas City how important they are to us and how important we are to them," said MIAA Commissioner Jim Johnson in his opening remarks.

At the media day, coaches from across the conference praised UNO football in particular and Maverick athletics in general as a healthy addition - and a challenging foe - to the conference.

"The addition of Nebraska-Omaha in our league will make us that much better," said Mel Tjeerdsma, head coach of football at Northwest Missouri State. "We know that, we've been playing them. Unfortunately, we can't figure out how to beat them."

Craig Schurig, head coach for football at Washburn, said the addition of UNO "adds another championship caliber team to the conference and puts our conference as one of the top conferences in the country, bar none."

Schurig also mentioned the exit from Southern Baptist from the conference's football schedule as a positive, saying there was a "big difference" between playing the Bearcats and the Mavericks. Southern Baptist opted to play an independent schedule in hopes of revitalizing their program after several losing seasons in the MIAA.

"During the past 19 years, we've been competitive in most sports, with the exception of football," said Southern Baptist President C. Pat Taylor in a statement last summer. "We've had some good coaches and good players, but the complex situation of the economics of scholarships has prevented us from consistently fielding a competitive team."

Others at the media day saw UNO's entry to the MIAA as an opportunity not only to create new rivalries but also to rekindle old ones.

"Nebraska-Omaha at one time used to be in the same conference as Pittsburg State," said Chuck Broyles, head coach for football at Pittsburg State. "They do a great job up there."

Tyler Madsen, a media relations assistant at Truman State, says his school already has a rivalry with UNO because of women's soccer, where the teams have played in previous seasons. Last year, Truman State defeated UNO in women's soccer 2-1 on Sept. 8, only to fall to UNO 3-0 later on in the season on Nov. 9 - ending their season.

"They're a team we've always wanted to try to take down, but it's always been tough," Madsen said. "Just bringing in a quality program like UNO really makes it exciting; it brings up the level of competition across the board."

Truman State's senior quarterback Matt Ticich also praised the Maverick's increased competitiveness on the football field.

"Obviously, UNO is a very successful program," Ticich said. "It just made our conference that much better. [It's] a team that can knock off Northwest, definitely one of the best around."

For UNO's part, Football Head Coach Pat Behrns said he had no illusions about the level of play in the conference.

"We feel very, very fortunate to even be a part of this," Behrns said. "About a year ago this time of year, we weren't sure where we were going to be."

The heightened level of play is also capturing the interest of some fans of Maverick athletics who hope the new conference will invigorate interest in the program.

Miller said he often thinks that if UNO students would come out to a couple games, they would sense the excitement and competitiveness of Maverick athletics.

"I would hope our students would realize that we are playing at a very high level of intercollegiate athletics, against very, very good programs," Miller said. "The talents - the product - that [students] see on the field of play is quite good."

With the move to the MIAA, the hope is that the quality will only get better.

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