Sometimes the breaking up of an Athletic Conference can be like a divorce. Emotions take over and sometimes people base there choices and future plans on them. Things can look gloomy to one side and the other side thinks everything is just fine. With a divorce a married couple will usually visit a marriage counselor for help in getting issues straight. Unfortunately conferences don’t ask anyone for help including their members.

Were there signs that the American Mideast Conference was having problems? Some would say that happened when they expanded east and had over 20 members at one time with all different backgrounds and make-up of athletic programs. In the past several years the following schools opted to go NCAA D2 - Tiffin, Urbana and Ohio Dominican. But the stability of the conference has not been there since 1997…

1997 - Findlay withdraws.
1998 - Mid-Ohio Conference changes its name to the AMERICAN MIDEAST CONFERENCE in time for the league’s 50th anniversary.
Geneva, Notre Dame, and Saint Vincent begin regular season AMC competition in the fall.
1999 - Point Park, Seton Hill, and Wilberforce begin regular season competition in the fall.
2000 - Central State begins regular season competition in the fall.
2001 - Carlow, Daemen, Houghton, Roberts Wesleyan, and Ursuline begin regular season competition in the fall.
2002 - Central State withdraws.
2006 - Saint Vincent withdraws.
2007 - Geneva, Seton Hill, and Tiffin withdraw. Northwestern Ohio joins as an associate member.
2008 - Urbana withdraws. Northwestern Ohio begins regular season competition.
2009 - Rio Grande withdraws and joins Mid South Conference. Shawnee State announces it will leave for Mid South in 2010. Northwestern Ohio is accepted into membership with the Wolverine-Hoosier beginning in 2010. Notre Dame and Cedarville are accepted into NCAA D2 membership process.

The above is just the beginning, recently more members have decided to move to NCAA D2 and even other members are moving to a different NAIA conference. Will the AMC survive, doesn’t look that way today.

So what happened? That is a good question one that each of the member schools might have different reasons for and that is probably why the AMC is falling a part. Could it have been prevented?

Sometimes others can learn from a situation such as this. Over the years the AMC has been a stable conference in the NAIA, which shows it could happen to any conference. The warning signs are above in the movement of schools. Both the AMC and NAIA needed to provide instant actions to attempt to stop this from happening. The issues seemed to be dealt with as though the member schools who are now setting to leave would decide against leaving and come running back to the AMC. I think the AMC and NAIA underestimated the resolve of there own members, if they were listening at all.

The loss of a viable AMC is a shot that now the NAIA has to deal with, the loss of schools to the NCAA D2 is a bigger blow. Quality schools are packing up and moving forward and this all during hard economic times when others are cutting back budgets.

Why go to the NCAA? According to schools I have talked with during this issue. The NCAA has better recognition with fans, family members, athletes and the media. Higher academic standards for athletes. Tournament financial compensation. If these are the problems they need to corrected and backed by the NAIA member schools.

Can a switch for an NAIA member to D2 work? Ask Findlay who just won the NCAA D2 Men’s National Basketball Championship on a game broadcast on national television. This in a very short time for Findlay as a D2 member.

One big key that no one talks about to much, many D2 schools made the move to D1 or even D3 and the D2 schools were depleting very fast. The solution more members and D2 seems to be the answer for most NAIA schools looking to find a new home, it works for both sides. The NCAA has implemented a site to encourage schools to join D2 and why it is positive for them.

Another key issue has been with the loss of NAIA members over the past several years many current member schools think that new members who are being accepted do not meet the standards needed to be in the NAIA. Schools who might be entering now, would not have been allowed in several years ago.

As with every issue there are always two sides, the NAIA is in business because of member schools. Members can have impact and need to express those opinions when needed. Is it time for a overhaul of the NAIA? Should the NAIA merge with the NCAA? Should the NAIA consider relationships with other college athletic associations? One thing that needs to be worked on is a plan to stop quality schools from leaving in the future. Acting on the problem and not hoping that it will just go away in the future. Conferences need to be working with member schools to see what they need and to meet those needs. The present schools leaving the AMC to become D2 are considering a new D2 conference, which shows that the problem was not with the relationships between those members.

Ask yourself this question…do you know how members in your conference feel about your school or the conference for the future. Have you done an internal check to see if everyone is on the same page. I can assure you this, many NAIA schools are looking to see what there future will be. Have you done this? What would you do if schools started to leave your conference?

College athletics need a viable NAIA for the future, that will be decided by it’s current members and current administration. We have put together for HS conferences a simple method to evaluate there conferences on a regular basis (www.theseniorreports.com/barometer.htm ). This form allows them to evaluate and fine tune how the conference is operated and to find out how the members feel. College conferences need to do the same thing in hopes of preventing a conference collapse, but to also strengthen it as well. Not to do anything would be a mistake.