Mount Mercy University’s Robert W. Plaster Athletic Complex will be seeing a lot more pigskins, shoulder pads and cleats within the next two years.
The Catholic university, located at 1330 Elmhurst Dr. in N.E. Cedar Rapids, is adding football to its list of athletic programs, with competition expected to begin in the fall of 2026.
It’s an addition that has been a long time coming, MMU officials said at a press conference Oct. 4, since the university opened the $16 million complex in 2017. Designed with an eye for expansion, the goal was to provide home fields for both MMU’s current and future teams that would benefit from the multipurpose facilities.
Football marks the university’s 20th intercollegiate sport, coming on the heels of the women’s lacrosse team, which was announced in 2022.
“At the time we finished Plaster Athletic Complex, our Board of Trustees said that the answer to football was ‘no, for now,’” said Mount Mercy Athletic Director Paul Gavin, in a release. “It’s exciting that the time for football is finally here, and we can begin building another popular program for our Mustang community.”
The university’s Board of Trustees voted to add football to its lineup of scholarship sports on Sept. 26, adding that the search for a head coach with recruitment experience will “begin immediately.”
“I can’t wait to start this search,” said Mr. Gavin. “I know we’re in the thick of football season right now, but the sooner we can find the right person for this role, the sooner we’ll be able to bring new student-athletes into our program.”
Mount Mercy has hired Kansas-based Mammoth Consulting to conduct the search, and Mr. Gavin expects it will be mid-November to early December before the university engages in “initial discussions” with potential candidates, and 7-10 days to begin assembling the staff needed for the new program.
Mount Mercy University’s athletic programs garnered significant recognition during the 2023-24 academic year, both in competition and the classroom.
The university saw 32 individual athletes qualify for national championships, while four were named NAIA All-Americans. Academically, 119 student-athletes were honored as Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes, and 93 earned Heart of America Scholar Athlete recognition. The student-athletes maintained an average GPA of 3.28, and Mount Mercy also achieved a Gold Level designation as a Champions of Character Five-Star Institution, awarded by the NAIA.
“There was uncertainty about whether we could be competitive enough (at the start), but nearly half the (athletic) programs here have sent their teams to their respective tournaments,” said Mr. Gavin.
“Athletics are very important to the health of our campus, as they are for many small private colleges,” said Todd Olson, Mount Mercy University president, in the release. “Adding football will not only allow us to increase enrollment, but will also enrich the vibrancy of our student experience and provide more opportunities to bring alumni and community members to our campus.”
What’s next for the Mustangs? Mr. Gavin said with the addition of the football program, he envisions auxiliary sports that accompany football like marching band, a dance program and doubling the current cheerleading program, also mentioning the possibility of a men’s and women’s wrestling team and adding a men’s lacrosse team to the program in the future.
“I think as Mount Mercy continues to invest and add additional sports, young people will want to come here and play sports,” he said. When he took the position as athletic director in 2015 there were 385 student athletes; today, there are close to 600.
With the added resources from the merger with St. Ambrose University, the possibilities for athletics are growing, Mr. Gavin said.
Mount Mercy, St. Ambrose University in midst of merger
The university’s announcement comes two months after it held a joint press conference with St. Ambrose University, announcing the merger of the two institutions. The full transition is expected to wrap up by mid-2026, at which point Mount Mercy will assume the Davenport-based institution’s name and operate as “the Mount Mercy Campus of St. Ambrose University.”
During the interim, St. Ambrose will continue to operate Mount Mercy as a separate university, maintaining its own degree authorization, accreditation, and federal student financial aid participation.
“We will continue to have a distinct Mount Mercy campus experience here with academic programs on this campus, offerings on this campus, and perhaps expanded sets of graduate offerings, expanded opportunities and co-curricular areas,” St. Ambrose president Amy Novak said, adding that both campuses will retain their respective mascots.
“We will continue to be the Mount Mercy Mustangs, so I just want to be clear, we’re not going to have two sets of Bees flying around here,” she said, referring to St. Ambrose’s mascot, “we’re going to have Mustangs and Bees probably competing against each other.”
Mount Mercy hopes football players will join the student body as early as next fall, in the interim training and working with coaches and athletic staff in planning for the program’s inaugural season.
MMU is a long-standing member of the NAIA and joined the Heart of America Athletic Conference (Heart) for the 2016-17 season. The NAIA includes 237 schools, 97 of which have football programs, with 10 located in Iowa.
The Heart currently consists of 13 institutions from Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas, with 11 fielding football teams. By fall 2026, when Mount Mercy plans to launch its football program, the Heart will have expanded to a 15-team league.
