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The Western Interstate University Football Association (WIUFA) was one of the first intercollegiate
athletic conferences An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conf ...
in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, existing from 1892 to 1897.


Formation, history and evolution

The football teams from the Universities of
Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
,
Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, and
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
formed the conference and competed against each other annually. Early WIUFA play led to the transition of the famous
rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...
between Kansas and Missouri to the football field as many of the fans and some of the first players on both teams were the sons of men who had fought each other on either side of the conflict in
Bleeding Kansas Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the ...
and later the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. Racial tension surrounding the participation of Iowa's Frank Kinney Holbrook in the 1896 game between Iowa and Missouri ended up preventing what may have become a long-standing rivalry between the two schools. All four members of the WIUFA would later be among the original members of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA), which was formed in 1907. Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska stayed with the MVIAA as it evolved over the decades into the
Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...
, which existed through the 1995 season, while Iowa remained a member of the
Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
and left after only one season of MVIAA competition. Beginning in 1996, the members of the Big Eight joined with four schools of the former
Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...
to form the new
Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...
.


Record-keeping discrepancies

For every year of the conference's existence, except 1896, there was at least one disagreement as to the final score of a game between member schools. However, in no cases is the final outcome of any game disputed.


Seasons


See also

*
List of Western Interstate University Football Association standings This is a list of yearly Western Interstate University Football Association football standings. Standings References {{NCAA Division I FBS conference standings navbox Western Interstate University Football Association Standings Standing ...
*
List of defunct college football conferences This is a list of defunct college football conferences in the United States and a defunct university football conference in Canada. Not all of the conferences listed here are truly defunct. Some simply stopped sponsoring football and continue under ...


References

{{Reflist Defunct NCAA Division I conferences 1892 establishments in the United States 1897 disestablishments in the United States Sports leagues established in 1892 Sports leagues disestablished in 1897