Established 1907 Members 10 | Association NCAA | |
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Division Division I non-football Sports fielded 18 (men's: 8; women's: 10) Region Midwestern United States | ||
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the second-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Currently, its members are located in the midwestern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I.
Contents
- Current members
- Affiliate members
- Former full members
- Former affiliate members
- Membership timeline
- Commissioners
- Sports
- Mens sponsored sports by school
- Womens sponsored sports by school
- Facilities
- Basketball tournament champions by year
- National team titles by institution
- Mens basketball attendance
- Football champions by year
- References
The MVC was founded in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA), 12 years after the Big Ten, the only Division I conference that is older. However, some consider the MVC to have been formed from a split of the MVIAA in 1928. Most of the larger schools formed a conference that retained the MVIAA name and ultimately became the Big Eight Conference. The smaller schools, plus Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, which joined the Big Eight in 1957), formed the MVC. During the Big Eight's existence, both conferences claimed 1907 as their founding date, as well as the same history through 1927. It was never definitively established which conference was the original, but given that the Big Eight merged with four Texas schools of the Southwest Conference to form the Big 12 Conference in 1996, only the MVC continues to have a claim to the original heritage.
During the 2006–07 college basketball season, MVC teams held a 74–27 non-conference record, including a record of 44–1 at home. The Valley finished in the Top 6 of the RPI and ahead of a BCS conference for the second consecutive year, while also garnering multiple NCAA bids for the ninth straight year and 12th of 14.
The MVC has not sponsored football since 1985, when it was a hybrid I-A/I-AA (now FBS and FCS), respectively. However, five members have football programs in the Missouri Valley Football Conference (known as the Gateway from 1985 to 2008) of Division I FCS, and a sixth competes in another FCS conference, the Pioneer Football League. The Missouri Valley Conference shares its name with the Missouri Valley Football Conference, and the two also operate from the same headquarters complex in St. Louis. However, the two are separate administratively.
Current members
† – Bradley and Drake both withdrew from the MVC during the 1951–52 academic year in protest over the Johnny Bright Incident, a racially motivated on-field attack by an Oklahoma A&M football player against Drake player Johnny Bright in a 1951 game. Bradley returned to the MVC for non-football sports in the 1955–56 school year, with Drake doing the same a year later. However, Bradley never returned to MVC football, dropping the sport in 1970, and Drake did not return for football until 1971.
Affiliate members
Note: In the case of spring sports, the year of joining is the calendar year before the start of competition.
Former full members
Former affiliate members
Membership timeline
Full members (non-football) (Full members) Assoc. members (football only) Assoc. member (other sports)
Commissioners
- C. E. McClung (1907 – 19??)
- Arthur (Artie) E. Eilers (1925–1957)
- Norvell Neve (1957–1969)
- DeWitt T. Weaver (1969–1972)
- Mickey Holmes (1972–1979)
- David Price (1979–1981)
- Richard D. Martin (1981–1985)
- James A. Haney (1985–1988)
- Doug Elgin (1988 – present)
Sports
The Missouri Valley Conference sponsors championship competition in eight men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Central Arkansas and SIU Edwardsville are Affiliate members for men's soccer, Dallas Baptist is an Affiliate member for baseball, and Little Rock is an Affiliate member for swimming and diving.
Men's sponsored sports by school
Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Missouri Valley Conference which are played by Valley schools:
Women's sponsored sports by school
Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Missouri Valley Conference which are played by Valley schools:
Facilities
- For the football venues of schools who participate in the sport, see Facilities of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and Facilities of the Pioneer Football League.
Basketball tournament champions by year
The Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Championship is often referred to as Arch Madness, in reference to the Gateway Arch at the tournament's present location of St. Louis, Missouri, and a play on "March Madness".
NB: Missouri State was known as Southwest Missouri State until August 2005.
National team titles by institution
School – Number – NCAA Championships
NCAA Championships as of March, 2013
(*-Titles won by schools in Division II/College Division prior to their moving to Division I in the late 1960s or early 1970s.)
Football poll, Helms and AIAW titles are not included in the NCAA Championship count.
Men's basketball attendance
Sources:
The Valley is well known for having some of the most dedicated fanbases in all of college basketball, with several members regularly selling out their large arenas on a nightly basis throughout the year. One member (Wichita State) sold out every single game for the 2006–07 season and in 2012–13 averaged 10,312 attendees in their 10,506 seat arena. Former member (Creighton) had the sixth highest attendance for Division I in 2012–13 while Wichita State, Bradley, Illinois State, Missouri State, and Indiana State were all among the NCAA's top 100 teams in home attendance.
In 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13, the Valley maintained its position as the eighth ranked conference in average attendance.
The Valley made history in March 2007 with record attendance for four days at St. Louis' Scottrade Center as 85,074 fans turned out to watch the five sessions of the tournament. The two sellout crowds of 22,612 for the semifinals and final of the 2007 State Farm Tournament set an all-time attendance record for basketball at the arena and also gave The Valley the distinction of having the largest championship crowd for any of the 30 NCAA conference tournaments in 2007.