Heart of America Athletic Conference

Heart of America Athletic Conference (The Heart)
Established	1971
Association	NAIA
Division	Division I
Members	14
Sports fielded	19 (men's: 10; women's: 9)
Headquarters	Overland Park, Kansas
Commissioner	Lori Thomas (since 2014)
Website	www.haacsports.com
Locations

The Heart of America Athletic Conference (the Heart) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA. Member institutions are located in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska in the United States.

The HAAC's earliest ancestor was the Missouri College Athletic Union, which was formed in 1924 when the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association (now the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association) split in two. The old MIAA's private schools formed the Athletic Union, while the state teachers' colleges stayed in the MIAA It was reorganized as the HAAC in 1971 when it began admitting schools outside Missouri. However, the HAAC does not presently claim the Athletic Union's history as its own.

All 10 conference schools are members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The only sport that utilizes divisions in the NAIA is basketball, and the HAAC is competing in its seventh season at the Division I level during the 2014–15 school year.

Three schools have been members of the conference since its inception – Baker University, Graceland University and Missouri Valley College.

In 1971, College of Emporia (KS), Ottawa University (KS), Tarkio College (MO), and William Jewell College were members, but they have since withdrawn from the conference. College of Emporia closed in 1974. Ottawa joined the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) in 1982, Tarkio closed in the spring of 1991 and William Jewell left at the conclusion of the 2010–11 school year to join the ranks of NCAA Division II. Central Methodist University, also an original member in 1971, withdrew from the conference in 1986, but was reinstated as a member in 1991.

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