KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association is proud to formally introduce its new logo.

The new design will first be utilized as the 2008 MIAA Basketball Tournament logo, then be used as the general league mark beginning July 1.

This is part of a series of changes in the conference over the past year, beginning with the hiring of Jim Johnson as commissioner last January, the addition of the University of Nebraska-Omaha in July, and the move of the conference headquarters to downtown Kansas City in November.

The new logo uses a new color scheme -- red, white and blue in honor of our country and the fact America is part of the conference's name. Orange and brown had been the league colors because no member utilized them as school colors.

"The timing was right to make a change, especially with a school from Nebraska joining the conference arguably making our current logo obsolete," Johnson said. "The states logo served us well, but the new mark is very dynamic and represents us much better as we move further into the 21st century and approach our 100th anniversary."

The new design includes 1912, the year the MIAA (then the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association) was founded. It also uses the hexagon, which has become a symbol of the commitment by NCAA Division II members to six defining attributes -- learning, balance, resourcefulness, sportsmanship, passion and service.

"The conference has embraced these ideals as part of Division II's strategic positioning platform, and the use of the hexagon in our new mark ties all of that together," Johnson said.

The banner with the letters MIAA inside is representative of the conference's ties to Kansas City, as it is symbolic of the marquees on historic Municipal Auditorium -- home of the MIAA Basketball Championships since 2003.

The mark was produced by Lagom Design of Kansas City, Mo., and designed by Jim Wagner. Wagner, a graduate of Truman State University, also designed the 2007 MIAA Basketball Tournament logo.

"It is great that not only is Jim from a conference-member school, but one of the other partners in the firm -- Bob Lafferty -- is a graduate of Central Missouri," Johnson said. "The fact those two were very familiar with the MIAA from their college days made this a very special project for them, and we enjoyed working with Lagom."

A complete user guide with the logo and associated uses will be distributed to the media prior to July 1.

-- MIAA --