The level of competition is a big reason for it. But the biggest reason was the instability of the Lakes Conference. Within the last 10 years, the Lakes Conference has lost Sheldon and Emmetsburg due to their declining enrollments and wanting to join "smaller-school" conferences. With the enrollments of other schools still in the Lakes continuing to drop, LeMars did not want to be left out if a couple more decided to leave for those reasons. LeMars was an independent in the late 80's and early 90's and school administration does not want that to happen again so they took an offensive stand and decided to control their destiny.
In addition to this, travel time is decreased drastically. 5 conference games will be within 30 or so minutes travel time. In the Lakes, 0 conference games were within 30 minutes. Sure, the CBAL/CBTJ games will be slightly further than ELC/Eburg were, but it will be 4 lane highway/interstate the entire way instead of zig-zagging through rural Iowa.
LeMars's enrollment is holding steady/continues to grow slightly, so it just makes sense to join the MRAC. They will be the 6th biggest school in that conference (ahead of Heelan and SBL) instead of the biggest or second biggest (depending on the year) in the Lakes.
The community of LeMars is mostly excited about this move. I think most are expecting some years of "growing pains" much like SBL experienced when first joining, but its the time after that that is very exciting.
