26 June 2023
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KSNT) – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (MIAA) – the Division II conference Washburn and Emporia State are members of – just got bigger.
The MIAA announced Monday that Arkansas-Fort Smith will join the conference with full membership in the fall of 2024.
Fort Smith becomes the first MIAA member in the state of Arkansas – adding to the conference spanning Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri.
“The MIAA is excited to welcome the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith as a new member beginning next summer,” MIAA Commissioner Mike Racy said in a press release. “As the MIAA CEOs have approved a plan for steady and strategic membership growth during the next few years, UAFS provides the MIAA with an opportunity to add an outstanding public university, with great leadership and terrific athletic facilities, in a growing community in Northwest Arkansas.”
The Lions are host of ten sports – men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, volleyball and baseball.
The last MIAA expansion came in 2019 with the inclusion of Newman and Rogers State.