(Bloomington, MN) — The commissioner of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is excited for the future of his league when it comes to football, even with the pending departure of St. Thomas after the 2020 season. Dan McKane says adding St. Scholastica and re-adding Macalester for the start of the 2021 season will give the conference balance from top to bottom, offer competitive games for all of the wide-ranging football programs in what will be two new divisions. McKane says St. Scholastica is a nice addition because it offers a great variety of varsity sports, which have mostly been conference championship-contending in the Upper Midwest Conference and the Saints also bring the Duluth market into the MIAC, which is a “phenomenal area” and a good fit, according to McKane. Macalester still competes in the MIAC in sports other than football, so McKane says this is a good time to bring the Scots back into the football fold. Macalester has been more competitive in recent years as a member of the Midwest Conference. The 2021 season will be the first for Macalester in the MIAC since 2001. The announcement was made for both schools being added on May 27th and McKane says now that a couple of weeks have passed, they still couldn’t be more excited for the future of the MIAC Football Conference. He says the two, five-team divisions will be structured to help top-to-bottom competitiveness in the league, culminating with the final weekend of the regular season holding a championship game between the top two teams in each division. In addition, the rest of the teams will play the team in the other division which finished in the same position.
MIAC Commissioner Dan McKane spoke with MNN Sports Director Mike Grimm in a long-form interview discussing the future of football, but also talked about the approaching fall sports season:
