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| Iowa Wesleyan athletics photo |
Iowa Wesleyan, one of the smallest schools in NCAA Division III, has announced its intent to return to the NAIA. The school left the NAIA for Division III in 2013 and was only eligible for the D-III NCAA Tournament for a short time.
The school, which is a member of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for the majority of its 16 sports but is a football affiliate of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, announced its intention to withdraw from those conferences at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year.
The departure, along with the previously announced departure of St. Scholastica and the closing of MacMurray, will leave the UMAC without the necessary seven schools to maintain its football automatic bid. Without additional members, the UMAC would lose its AQ effective the fall of 2023.
“The UMAC is disappointed to have Iowa Wesleyan leave our conference as an associate member,” said UMAC Commissioner Corey Borchardt. “Iowa Wesleyan has been a positive contributor to the conference in football and has upheld the conference’s mission and core values over the last seven years. We recognize the challenges that exist within the current landscape of higher education and understand and respect the difficult decision made by Iowa Wesleyan’s leadership to best serve the institution’s student-athletes.”
Iowa Wesleyan has 560 full-time undergraduates, of which half participate in intercollegiate athletics.
The NAIA encourages former members to return, granting former members immediate eligibilty for postseason tournaments.
If the remaining membership remains stable, the SLIAC will have eight members remaining in the fall of 2021: Blackburn, Eureka, Fontbonne, Greenville, Principia, Spalding, Webster, Westminster (Mo.).