A school district in Topeka, Kansas, is considering sponsoring a football bowl game that would involve a team from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association and another Division II conference to be determined.

MIAA Commissioner Jim Johnson said athletics directors at his league’s institutions are all for the idea, though the school district has not yet secured a conference for the MIAA team to match up against.

Jeff Litfin, general director of student support service for USD 501 in Topeka, told the Topeka Capital-Journal that he’s extended an invitation to the Lone Star Conference, but that the Northern Sun Intercollegiate and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conferences would be considered if the Lone Star declines.

Lone Star Commissioner Stan Wagnon said his schools appreciate the offer but are weighing whether it makes sense from a financial standpoint for the league to participate, since the Lone Star is not as geographically proximate to Topeka as schools in the MIAA.

The bowl game, the first of which could be in 2009, would be played in early December in Topeka, possibly on the same weekend of the Mineral Water Bowl, in which the MIAA and Northern Sun already participate (sending the highest-rated conference teams not in the NCAA Division II playoffs) annually in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.

“Our experience with the Mineral Water Bowl has been very positive, and this new bowl game just presents another opportunity for a team from our league that doesn’t qualify for the postseason to play an additional game,” Johnson said, noting that Division II legislation no longer limits the number of teams from one conference to participate in bowl games.

Traveling to Topeka is not an issue, either, Johnson said, since league members travel there regularly to play Washburn anyway. “It was pretty much a no-brainer for us,” he said.

Northwest Missouri State, Pittsburg State and Nebraska-Omaha represented the MIAA in the 2008 playoffs and Missouri Western played in the Mineral Water Bowl, where the Griffons lost to Augustana (South Dakota), 37-16.