Five football programs in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference will become affiliate members of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference this year, as the SLIAC ends sponsorship of the sport.

The actions follow decisions since last fall by SLIAC members Blackburn to discontinue sponsorship of football and Principia to suspend the sport for the 2009 season.

Once Principia resumes the sport, the UMAC will have 10 football-playing members and expects to become eligible for automatic qualification to the Division III Football Championship in 2011.

The other football-playing SLIAC schools making the move are Eureka, Greenville, MacMurray and Westminster (Missouri) – the latter school previously having played as a UMAC affiliate along with Principia before the SLIAC reinstated football as a championship sport last year.

The SLIAC also revealed that LaGrange, one of two schools that played football as an affiliate member in the league and the2008 season champion, had asked and was permitted to drop games next season against two SLIAC members. The Georgia school, reacting to Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference member Colorado College’s recent decision to discontinue sponsorship of football, decided to pursue agreements to play games against SCAC members.

There was no announcement of plans of the SLIAC’s other affiliate member in football, Huntingdon, which finished second last season in league play.

UMAC officials greeted its new members as similar in mission and said they would strengthen football competition in the league.

“The expansion of UMAC institutions offering football further ensures the outstanding opportunity our football student-athletes can experience at the NCAA Division III level and specifically in the UMAC,” said Alan Cureton, president of Northwestern (Minnesota) and chair of the league’s council of presidents.

“The additional members assist the league in meeting a need in a particular sport where conference sponsorship is limited. We look forward to partnering with these like-minded institutions that mirror our support of the NCAA Division III philosophy.”

UMAC Commissioner Corey Borchardt also noted “a similar mission and vision” and said the new members’ “values” are compatible.

“Furthermore,” he said, “the addition of the associate members will provide greater stability in scheduling with the additional conference contests and enhance the conference identity as a whole.”

The UMAC’s current football-playing members are St. Scholastica, Crown, Martin Luther, Northwestern and Minnesota-Morris. Those schools will be joined October 30 by all of the new affiliate members except Principia in the league’s annual Dome Day, in which the UMAC stages five league games back-to-back at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

SLIAC Commissioner William J. Wolper said dropping football as a championship sport just one year after its renewal was a “very tough decision.”

“There were three primary reasons we brought football back in 2008 – to provide our schools a significant portion of their playing schedule through conference competition; to provide football student-athletes the opportunity to compete under the same moniker as other student-athletes at their institution; and to provide the student-athletes with an opportunity to compete for an automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs,” he said.

“Unfortunately, with the loss of two football programs this off-season, two of those three reasons were no longer available for our football members and their student-athletes. Therefore, for the same reasons we brought football back to the conference, we are removing it from sponsorship, allowing those schools to seek alternative affiliations.”

With the additions of LaGrange and Huntingdon, and before the decisions by Blackburn and Principia, the SLIAC had hoped to obtain automatic qualification to the Division III championship for the 2010 season.

The SLIAC will now sponsor 12 championship sports – six for men and six for women.