At SGI we strive to cover all the Iowa college teams in the state as we expand our offering in the first year.
The St. Ambrose Bees on the Mississippi in Davenport have been somewhat of an orphan for us and haven’t received the coverage we would like. Part of that is that we as a team in year one, are still figuring out where to devote our resources as covering 22 teams can be a challenge with an all-volunteer team.
So, yesterday we were excited to hear that St. Ambrose University officials announced the college has applied for full membership in the Heart of America Athletic Conference. St. Ambrose in 2023 became an affiliate member when they joined the conference in football only.
The fall St. Ambrose’s sister college Mt. Mercy in Cedar Rapids (St. Ambrose is the parent of Mt, Mercy) adds football for the first time as a school and is a full-time member of the Heart of America Conference already.
According to their press release, the college will begin competing in the Heart of America Athletic Conference in the fall of 2026.
SGI Opinion – We think this is a great move for the Bees
This makes sense to us, as with St. Ambrose now becoming the parent of Mt. Mercy having these sister universities in the same conference makes perfect sense. These two schools are sharing resources and personnel and having one conference to be part of saves time and money.
Athletics are vitally important to the health of smaller colleges and universities. It may irritate some that football seems to suck up all the air in athletics, but the math for smaller colleges and universities makes football very important.
When you remove the emotion it’s Math….St. Ambrose 1,939 Enrolled students – Around 100 of them play football. Mt. Mercy 1,417 Enrolled Students – Now with a football team this fall around 100 of them will be football players.
When we do the math across all the athletic programs – Soccer, Basketball, Baseball/Softball, Volleyball, Wrestling, etc. you often have 20-40% of all the students at these schools are there to go to school and play sports. Strong athletic programs are crucial to the health and survival of these institutions (Iowa Wesleyan closed in 2023 in part because their athletic programs struggled in our opinion, and cost them enrollment that led to a bad outcome for the town of Mt. Pleasant).
This move makes sense for so many reasons. Mt. Mercy and Clarke are less than 80 miles away, Grand View, William Penn, and Graceland are all in the same state. Culver-Stockton is close in NE Missouri. Schools in close proximity to each other in the same media markets are highly beneficial.
St. Ambrose being in the CCAC is an issue as they are way out west from Chicagoland, which hurts exposure and coverage of their sports. I think being in a conference that is one of the top NAIA conferences in America will really benefit the Bees and their student athletes in so many ways.
The conference had 15 Full member institutions (St. Ambrose will make it an even 16) and is nationally recognized for its high-level competition. Membership in the conference would allow St. Ambrose student-athletes to compete alongside a new set of collegiate programs and increase the university’s visibility at the national level. (We agree that this will be helpful to increase visibility for St. Ambrose Athletes as today the Bees are part of the CCAC, a conference for mainly Chicagoland Colleges)
Pending approval, the conference will review St. Ambrose University’s application in accordance with its established membership process. (The way this usually works is the announcement of we are applying rarely does not go through in conference realignment. Big 10, SEC, D2, NAIA I don;t think I have ever seen an announcement like this that did not get approved)
“This is a forward-looking step that supports the growth of our programs and the experience of our student-athletes,” said Mike Holmes, director of athletics at St. Ambrose University. “The conference’s geographic alignment, competitive strength, and national profile create an environment where our teams can participate in an elite league.”
It’s a good move an exciting time to be a Bee. As always, we appreciate your comments and support.
