Mexico has taken a significant step toward joining a new athletic conference.

The Mexico Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to accept an invitation to join the Midland Empire Conference at its March 17 meeting. The MEC Board of Controls will meet on April 9 to vote on the accepted invitations of Mexico and fellow North Central Missouri Conference schools Moberly, Kirksville and Marshall.

The announcement of the NCMC’s dissolution at the end of this school year came in October 2024, and Mexico athletic director Brandon Schafer said it has been a process since then for him and Superintendent Dr. Troy Lentz to find a new conference. The MEC board meeting on Feb. 24 developed letters of invitation to Mexico and three other schools, which now puts each of them one step closer to it being official, according to Schafer.

“I know that the MEC ADs are going to work with us,” Schafer said. “They are very excited for the process. It will be tedious and we’ll have to be creative, but I’m going to make sure I do what I can to ensure that Mexico and our student-athletes are treated fairly and have opportunities to be successful in a conference.”

Schafer said it isn’t completely certain yet what schools will be in the expanded MEC or when this will begin, but said there will certainly be East and West divisions and that the initial school year could be 2028-29. He said the MEC board will need to “review the practical components of membership,” as was stated in the letter, leading up to and during the April 9 meeting.

These practical components include “conference governance and expectations” and “transition timing and implementation planning,” but the component that gave Schafer the most concern was scheduling and traveling. The four schools — Maryville, Savannah, Benton and Bishop LeBlond — who joined the MEC when it was established in 1962 are each three to four hours away from Mexico. Excelsior Springs, Cameron and Chillicothe are two to three hours away. 

The answer that has been proposed thus far would be the East and West Divisions with those aforementioned schools, excluding Chillicothe, being in the West and Mexico, the other new members and Chillicothe being in the East.

“My first concern was travel, finding schedules and what do these divisions look like,” Schafer said. “Like in basketball, there are five teams in the East, so we play them. If we add a couple schools, we would only do partial cross division. If we have to do full cross division, they would split that up as best they can where we don’t go to Maryville, St. Joseph Benton and Savannah — the three furthest away — unless we find days on Fridays or find days during breaks, or those days that will best work for our schedule and teams.”

Schafer said they will work with the other schools in the future to find what is best for both sides. He said Mexico’s other formal requests to other conferences were denied, but MEC accepted them as it was looking to expand. Mexico is bigger than most of the current MEC schools, Schafer said, so he believes Mexico would “compete in almost everything.”

During the meeting, football head coach Steve Haag said it is a “great opportunity” and scheduling would be made easier being part of a conference. Haag said he is willing to travel and leave earlier in the day for longer trips but did mention coaches’ pay, bus driver pay and extra drivers need to be looked at.

“I think we’re at plus 70% free and reduced lunch,” Haag said. “Now you’re asking a low socioeconomic community to travel far and watch our kids play. I think we can make some stuff happen to make sure that we can get those people to see their kids play or to go support the teams when they are far away.”

Lentz said during the meeting that he likes how Mexico athletes will have chances at all-conference honors and did express travel concerns. He added that working with the other schools’ administrators will alleviate some of those concerns and that it ultimately provides good competition.

“I’m thankful that there is an invitation because it’s an opportunity to be a part of a conference that has had a lot of athletic success or has some really good teams in good districts,” Lentz said. “It’s good to be in a conference where your kids are going to be challenged, and I think that our kids will be challenged in the MEC.”

Schafer said there would be two years when Mexico would be independent if the 2028-29 plan is accepted. He added Mexico has nine contracts out for football next season that are $1,000 each, so it would be costly to back out of those and he doesn’t want to be “burning bridges” with those schools. Finding games in the middle of the football season as an independent school would be “nearly impossible,” and basketball on Friday nights would be “difficult to do.”

Lentz said at the meeting that being an independent football school long-term isn’t what’s best for the school or community. He said independents would match up with each other, so Mexico would have to make long drives to schools like Jackson or Rolla, but with this expanded MEC, Mexico would have shorter and familiar trips with the current NCMC schools. 

Schafer said he prefers to have “a sense of control” over scheduling as part of the MEC, and he especially wants Mexico’s athletes to have the best possible opportunities for success. That’s what they have worked for over the past couple years.

“Dr. Lentz and I have put in a lot of time and communication,” Schafer said. “It has been a very frustrating process. The MEC reaching out created that sense of belonging because we have been reaching out to other conferences.”