DEFIANCE, Ohio (11-1-23)– The Defiance College Yellow Jackets have been formally approved as the newest member of the Mid-States Football Association upon the transition from NCAA Division III to NAIA beginning with the 2024-25 academic year..

DC Athletic Director Tiffani Selhorst –

“We are excited to officially join the Mid-States Football Association starting next football season. The MSFA is one of the strongest football conferences in the NAIA and it will allow Defiance College to raise our level of play each week.”

DC previously announced the shift back to the NAIA for the institution’s national athletic governance on October 6. While the other varsity programs will compete within the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC), Defiance’s football team will compete in the MSFA since the WHAC does not sponsor a football championship nor does it meet the six-team requirement to award an automatic qualifier into the NAIA National Football Championship. As Defiance becomes the only NAIA football school in the state of Ohio, the Jackets will join fellow WHAC schools Concordia-Ann Arbor, Lawrence Tech, Madonna and Siena Heights in the MSFA.

The remainder of the conference sponsors teams in the Crossroads League and Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Crossroads-related schools are Taylor, Indiana Wesleyan, Marian and St. Francis of Fort Wayne while the Chicagoland schools include Olivet Nazarene, Judson, St. Francis of Illinois and Saint Xavier.

More information about the Mid-States Football Association can be found at the conference website: click here for the previous story or read through the frequently asked questions at . at DefianceAthletics.com.

Now armed with athletic scholarships and lower tuition rates, Defiance College looks to reclaim the excellence it once enjoyed in the NAIA. Yellow Jacket football won eight of the program’s 12 conference titles in the NAIA as members of the defunct Hoosier-Buckeye Collegiate and Mid-Ohio Conferences. Additionally, all three of DC’s undefeated football seasons (1953, 1966, 1969) were during the previous NAIA era.