FB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

Luther will be leaving the ARC after this upcoming season:
https://d3sports.com/notables/2025/06/luther-leaves-arc-for-mwc

This comes as a surprise to me.  Luther is an original member dating to 1922.  7 of the 9 members of the conference can trace their roots in the conference to the 1920's - 1930's. 

With the facilities improvements underway at Luther.  Renovated field house and I thought an indoor practice facility.  Their history of athletics success and strong financial position, I believed they were attempting to improve football and basketball to competitive standards.  And their overall athletics department were already strong. 

I'm not sure this move will drive enrollment.  They should be more competitive on the athletics side.  Cornell went from a bottom feeder in the IIAC to .500 in football with the move to the MWC.  I would think that improves attitudes on campus. 

It also seemed like Luther did a bit of a dig to the ARC in their statement about athletics and academics, with the ARC firing back in their statement noting the conferences academics in their release. 

Still, this is a sad day to see an original member leave.

[doolittledog]

Interview with the Luther President
https://youtu.be/QfmCqrFIhfI

[HansenRatings]

I had an interesting conversation with a Luther grad at a church event last night. He was a early '00s grad, and was on the Swimming & Diving team. The interesting thing given his perspective from the S&D side was that most of the college programs he competed against were MWC teams, so for him personally, he was a big fan of the move.

He brought up the general difference in enrollment between Luther and the rest of the ARC, but that's a somewhat outdated argument (and a weird one to make when half the MWC is below 1,000 students). Luther's been bleeding students recently. I think when I was in school circa 2008-2012, they were consistently above 2,000 students. In 2020? 1,785. This last fall? 1,374. I had no idea their einrollment was declining so quickly until looking it up this morning. From the interview doolittledog posted, the college president brought up that only 1/3 of their students are from Iowa, and this move aligns them with institutions that better encompass their student body's geographic footprint, so if this move helps them stabilize enrollment, that alone makes it a great move for them.

He brought up the academic argument, too, saying the MWC schools are a better fit. Yes, I was wearing a Wartburg shirt when he said this (and our pastor is a Wartburg grad!), but I didn't take the bait.

Another thing from the President's interview, which I've been wondering about, is that the MWC doesn't sponsor wrestling. Seemed like they're going to try for an affiliate membership in the ARC. I think the CCIW would probably be the next best option. He also mentioned that "some sports" will have tougher competition in the Midwest conference than the American Rivers. I am very curious which sports he's thinking about. Looking at the sports rated by Massey, the only sports that are anywhere close to ranked the same are tennis. In every other sport, the American Rivers conference is head & shoulders ahead of the Midwest.

[DriftlessDuhawk]

A lot of non-answers in that interview...

I think that the most interesting aspect was that he said they had an invitation to the MWC since 2022. From my understanding, they did not alert the league office to their intention to leave the conference until the day prior to the press release. They are also not leaving the conference in the way agreed upon in the bylaws, and thus will be paying additional fees to leave in such a hasty manner. It makes you wonder why they sat on this idea for so long, but now feel the need to rush out of the league.

[HansenRatings]

A lot of non-answers in that interview...

I think that the most interesting aspect was that he said they had an invitation to the MWC since 2022. From my understanding, they did not alert the league office to their intention to leave the conference until the day prior to the press release. They are also not leaving the conference in the way agreed upon in the bylaws, and thus will be paying additional fees to leave in such a hasty manner. It makes you wonder why they sat on this idea for so long, but now feel the need to rush out of the league.

He said the most recent invitation came at the end of May? I'm assuming that was just the public invitation, since it appeared form his other responses that they had been prepping to leave the league since 2022.

I'm not a reporter by any means, but talking to the couple of folks I know who are actually "in the know," the ARC was not caught off guard by this announcement at all, and they've been passively courting new members for a while. Sounded like there were 2-3 different schools interested.

[hazzben]

If you're thinking you still need a place for your wrestler to compete, seems counterproductive to take a dig at the athletics and academics of your historic conference home on the way out. Why on earth would the ARC give Luther affiliate wrestling status. IMO, the dumbest thing the MIAC did was let MAC leave for football and keep their other sports. This one seems even more obvious from an outsiders perspective. If I'm ARC presidents/AD's "Don't let the door hit ya on the way out"