Luther College announced its exit from the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) after 103 years. The school will join the Midwest Conference for the 2026-27 academic year.
Luther has been a member of the A-R-C since the conference’s beginning in 1922. The school’s departure will leave only three of the 12 original members of the conference, including Simpson College.
In their time in the A-R-C, Luther has created rivalries and traditions within the conference.
There are mixed opinions regarding Luther’s decision to exit the A-R-C. According to Luther, the Midwest Conference is simply a better fit for them.
The A-R-C commissioner, Marie Stroman, reiterated Luther’s statement.
“Luther had done some strategic review of which institutions they wanted to associate with and found a lot of commonalities with institutions in the Midwest Conference, so we’ll take it at that,” Stroman said.
However, in the eyes of Simpson’s Director of Athletics, Marty Bell, there may be a bigger reason for the departure.
“Luther was looking to leave to align more with their geographic recruiting base, I think, is probably the real reason they were looking,” Bell said.
Luther leaving the A-R-C will have large impacts on many different facets; competitiveness, scheduling and finances. For competition, Luther has recently won conference titles in men’s golf, swimming and diving, soccer and tennis. Their women’s sports have recently won tennis, as well as swimming and diving.
According to Stroman, the conference already had scheduling lined up for the 2026 winter sports and 2027 fall sports. They are now working to reconfigure those schedules with the help of the active members’ coaches.
From a financial aspect, the A-R-C runs on the membership fees paid by each respected school. With Luther leaving, the conference will lose this revenue. They are, however, required to pay an exit fee, as required by the A-R-C.
“Our office here in Cedar Rapids, the programming, all of that stuff is funded by the institutions, and so Luther will still be kind of paying their part while they’re exiting. It will provide kind of a financial stability for us while we kind of transition to eight member schools,” Stroman said.
Assistant baseball coach Ryan Willis is disappointed to see a team like Luther leave the conference, especially as a former player for Simpson.
“As a guy who has been around the conference for a lot of years, I don’t like to see good schools in our conference leave our conference, but I certainly understand if that’s what they think is best for them, then that’s what they should do,” Willis said.
Luther leaving may raise many concerns about other teams following suit, competitiveness and general strength of the conference. However, Stroman is not worried about the future state of the conference.
“Personally, as the commissioner, I don’t have concern. I think we are well-equipped and well situated to move through this transition,” Stroman said.
