Nebraska-Omaha senior quarterback Zach Miller soaked up the atmosphere Monday afternoon at the Arrowhead Stadium Club for the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association football media day.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very excited about it, and it starts off with this,&#8221; Miller said.</p><p>This is Nebraska-Omaha&#8217;s first season in the MIAA. The Mavericks&#8217; former league, the North Central Conference, disbanded after last season, and it didn&#8217;t have a media day because its schools were spread so far apart.</p><p>So Miller was a bit amazed when he saw the numerous radio stations, television cameras and print media interviewing players and coaches for the upcoming season.</p><p>After all, this is Division II football, which is on a smaller scale than the NCAA teams playing in BCS conferences. But the MIAA believes it&#8217;s a cut above most Division II conferences.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a special thing,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;We got a warm welcome. It&#8217;s exciting to see the things the MIAA is doing and how they are going to move forward. I&#8217;m upset I get only one year to experience it.&#8221;</p><p>The fact that the MIAA has sent a team to the NCAA Division II championship game the last four years already made it one of the top conferences in the country. The addition of Nebraska-Omaha, a program that has reached the Division II playoffs the last three years, only increases its pedigree.</p><p>&#8220;It adds another national-caliber team to our conference,&#8221; Washburn coach Craig Schurig said. &#8220;If it wasn&#8217;t already the best conference, it seems like it&#8217;s pretty much a slam dunk now.&#8221;</p><p>The Mavericks replace Southwest Baptist, which left the MIAA in football but remains in the conference in other sports.</p><p>Nebraska-Omaha coach Pat Behrns said the MIAA immediately bringing in another team after one leaves shows the strength of the conference.</p><p>&#8220;In hindsight looking at this thing, when we lost Morningside College, I think the North Central was a little bit arrogant that we would pick somebody up and move forward,&#8221; Behrns said.</p><p>&#8220;This league, when it lost Southwest Baptist, they learned that they better get it taken care of. So I hope it works out for both of us.&#8221;</p><p>From all indications, it will. Even though Nebraska-Omaha&#8217;s addition will make it harder for teams to reach the playoffs, everybody is looking forward to the increased competition.</p><p>&#8220;It will cause more sleepless nights,&#8221; Missouri Western coach Jerry Partridge said. &#8220;They are good. It&#8217;s like trading for another Pittsburg State.&#8221;</p><p>And that&#8217;s the kind of competition players in the MIAA are eager to face.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s great for our league,&#8221; said Central Missouri senior linebacker Adrian Singletary, a graduate of Winnetonka. &#8220;They will definitely shake up things in the playoff hunt and everything like that.&#8221;</p><p>Returning to the playoffs is something Pittsburg State wants to achieve after missing out the last two seasons. Nebraska-Omaha will make that goal tougher. But the Pitt State players welcome the challenge.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard about them,&#8221; Pitt State senior linebacker Rusty Morgan said. &#8220;I know they beat Northwest Missouri last year. It&#8217;s definitely going to make our conference stronger and be another tough game.</p><p>&#8220;I love it. I would like to play somebody nationally ranked and in the top five every week.&#8221;</p><p>For some teams, it&#8217;s definitely going to seem that way. Northwest Missouri has played in the national championship game the last three years. Washburn has reached the Division II playoffs two of the last three years. Missouri Western nearly made the playoffs last year. Central Missouri is almost always in the hunt.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going to be exciting week in and week out,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;I can&#8217;t wait to get going.&#8221;