KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The MIAA Chief Executive Officer's Council voted Wednesday (July 1) to sunset Southwest Baptist University's independent status in football, following the 2012 season. The vote confirms the recommendation of the MIAA Institutional Representatives in early June.

"I'm very grateful for the presidents to allow us to go independent two years ago," said SBU president Dr. Pat Taylor. "I thought this move is and has been a good move for our program. However, I knew when Lincoln was admitted into the conference, that this issue would resurface. The 11-team unbalanced schedule was one of our arguments (for going independent) a few years ago when Nebraska-Omaha was coming into the conference. Though I argued fervently against ending the exception, I'm not surprised or offended by today's vote."

In other action from the MIAA CEO Council, Taylor was elected the new president for the upcoming academic year. The council also voted against adding Rockhurst to the league.

Lincoln University will re-join the MIAA beginning with the 2010-11 academic year, though they won't play football until the 2011 season. The Blue Tigers were members of the conference from 1970-99. The University of Nebraska-Omaha joined the MIAA beginning with the 2008-09 season.

SBU Bearcat football head coach Keith Allen expressed his thoughts. "We appreciate the opportunity from the MIAA to allow us to play five years as an independent. We look forward to re-joining the conference in 2013 as a more competitive program."

Allen added that beginning in 2010, SBU is already set to play 4-5 MIAA schools as part of their independent schedule. The Bearcats open their 2009 slate against two MIAA squads. SBU opens in Warrensburg against Central Missouri on Thursday, August 27 and returns home a week later on September 3 against Northwest Missouri State. Allen's Bearcats were 5-6 overall in their first season as an independent in 2008.

The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, currently made up of 11 NCAA Division II institutions in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, was first organized in 1912 as the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and reorganized in 1924.

A member of the NCAA since 1957, the conference changed its name to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association in 1992 after Emporia State became the third non-Missouri school to join the circuit.