Harman Patil (Editor)

Missouri Valley Football Conference

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Association
  
NCAA

Members
  
10

Division
  
Division I FCS

Region
  
Midwest

Missouri Valley Football Conference

Established
  
1982 (chartered) 1985 (began football)

Sports fielded
  
1 (football) (men's: 1; women's: 0)

The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) (formerly the Gateway Football Conference) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a football-only conference.

Contents

History

The Missouri Valley Football Conference has a convoluted history that involves three other conferences:

  • Missouri Valley Conference (MVC): A long-established conference, in existence since 1907, that sponsored football until 1985. In its last years as a football conference, it was a hybrid league that included teams in NCAA Divisions I-A (today's FBS) and I-AA (now FCS).
  • Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (Gateway): A women's sports conference founded in 1982 by MVC member schools.
  • Association of Mid-Continent Universities (AMCU): An all-sports conference, also founded in 1982, that sponsored football at the I-AA level through the 1984 season. The AMCU had absorbed the Mid-Continent Athletic Association, a football-only league founded in 1978. (After dropping football, the AMCU later became the Mid-Continent Conference, and is now The Summit League.)

    • In 1985, the MVC stopped sponsoring football. At that time, the two remaining I-AA members from the MVC (Illinois State and Southern Illinois) joined Eastern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Southwest Missouri State, and Western Illinois from the AMCU and together became a football conference under the Gateway's auspices. Indiana State, which had left MVC football after the 1981 season to become a Division I-AA independent while remaining a full MVC member, would join the next year.

    In 1992, when the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference merged with the MVC, the football conference kept the Gateway charter, with a minor name change to Gateway Football Conference. After Eastern Illinois joined the Ohio Valley Conference for football in 1995, Youngstown State joined in 1997 and was followed by Western Kentucky University in 2001. Southwest Missouri State changed its name to Missouri State in 2005.

    Western Kentucky moved to the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A) after the 2006 season. Left with seven members for the 2007 season, Great West Football Conference members North Dakota State and South Dakota State were invited to join the conference beginning with the 2008 season. Subsequently, the Gateway Football Conference changed its name to the Missouri Valley Football Conference in June 2008. This change aligned the conference with the Missouri Valley Conference, a conference in which five of the nine Missouri Valley Football schools were (and still are) all-sports members. The conferences continue to share the "Missouri Valley" name, and space in the same building in Saint Louis, Missouri, but remain separate administratively.

    The University of South Dakota joined as the 10th member in 2012. The University of North Dakota will join as the 11th member in 2020. This will bring back the yearly rivalry between North Dakota State and University of North Dakota, University of South Dakota and University of North Dakota, as well as establishing a potential rivalry with South Dakota State.

    Champions

  • 1985: Northern Iowa (5-0)
  • 1986: Eastern Illinois (5-1)
  • 1987: Northern Iowa (6-0)
  • 1988: Western Illinois (6-0)
  • 1989: Missouri State (5-1)
  • 1990: Missouri State & Northern Iowa (5-1)
  • 1991: Northern Iowa (5-1)
  • 1992: Northern Iowa (5-1)
  • 1993: Northern Iowa (5-1)
  • 1994: Northern Iowa (6-0)
  • 1995: Eastern Illinois & Northern Iowa (5-1)
  • 1996: Northern Iowa (6-0)
  • 1997: Western Illinois (6-0)
  • 1998: Western Illinois (5-1)
  • 1999: Illinois State (6-0)
  • 2000: Western Illinois (5-1)
  • 2001: Northern Iowa (6-1)
  • 2002: Western Illinois & WKU (6-1)
  • 2003: Northern Iowa & Southern Illinois (6-1)
  • 2004: Southern Illinois (7-0)
  • 2005: Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, & Youngstown State (5-2)
  • 2006: Youngstown State (6-1)
  • 2007: Northern Iowa (6-0)
  • 2008: Northern Iowa (7-1) & Southern Illinois (7-1)
  • 2009: Southern Illinois (8-0)
  • 2010: Northern Iowa (6-2)
  • 2011: North Dakota State (7-1) & Northern Iowa (7-1)
  • 2012: North Dakota State (7-1)
  • 2013: North Dakota State (8-0)
  • 2014: Illinois State (7-1) & North Dakota State (7-1)
  • 2015: Illinois State (7-1) & North Dakota State (7-1)
  • 2016: North Dakota State (7-1) & South Dakota State (7-1)

    • Conference titles by school

    † 2-way tie for conference championship
    ‡ 3-way tie for conference championship

    NCAA Football Championship Subdivision national championships

    ♯ Now a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

    Overall Winning Streaks

    † FCS Record

    Consecutive Conference Wins

    1. North Dakota State, 18 (2012-2014)

    References

    Missouri Valley Football Conference Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA