The St Joseph News has done an excellent job of looking at the escalating cost of competing in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA). It’s primarily a football discussion but it points to the role of Athletics on campus and as part of the process of differentiating a school and a program.
The turf’s always greener … MIAA schools engaged in a fundraising struggle
by R.J. Cooper, Thursday, August 28, 2008
Scientists likely would blame Jerry Wollmering’s receding hairline on genetics. The Truman State athletic director blames it on the MIAA.
Wollmering watched as Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T) left the conference in 2004, and Southwest Baptist did the same in football after last season. Those two schools had something in common with Truman in that they had higher academic standards than the rest of the MIAA and fewer resources — a two-fold handicap that had Rolla and Baptist finishing in the conference’s last three spots nine times from 1995-2004.
In 2003, when Rolla went 0-11, the Miners funded just 19 of its 36 allowable scholarships. Endowments have allowed the university to raise that number to the 30s the past couple of seasons, and the Miners also funded about $725,000 in improvements to its facilities.
But that’s peanuts compared to Pittsburg State, Northwest Missouri State, Central Missouri or Washburn — all of which have invested anywhere from $5.5 million to $11 million in their respective stadiums during the past 13 years.
The administration in Rolla eventually decided it didn’t care to compete in the MIAA’s emerging arms race.
What approach would you say Drury and Missouri State are taking? Do you agree with it?
