Founded in 1909, the RMAC is the fifth oldest college athletic conference in the United States (oldest in Division II), surpassed only by the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the Big Ten Conference, the Ohio Athletic Conference, and the Missouri Valley Conference. For its first thirty years, the RMAC was considered a major conference equivalent to today's Division I, before 7 larger members left and formed the Mountain States Conference (also called the Skyline Conference).