THE MISSOURI VALLEY FOOTBALL CONFERENCE (1985-present)
Founded in 1985, the Missouri Valley Football Conference has shaped itself into the nation’s premier NCAA FCS conference. In May 2025, the MVFC President's Council approved a new governance structure that recognizes the strong partnership between key multi-sport conferences and positions the league for continued success as the dominant conference in the FCS.
The agreement placed Jeff Jackson as the commissioner of the MVFC. Jackson has served as Commissioner of the Missouri Valley Conference (the all-sport league for five MVFC members) since July 1, 2021. The agreement further places Josh Fenton as the Executive Advisor for the MVFC. Fenton has served as Commissioner of The Summit League (the all-sport league for four MVFC members) since April of 2023. Notably, Kyle Grooms joined the football staff as Chief Operating Officer to further enhance MVFC leadership.
The change coincided with the retirement of MVFC commissioner Patty Viverito on June 30, 2025. Viverito had been the league's only commissioner, serving in that capacity for 40 years.
Last season, the MVFC extended its FCS-record to 14-straight title game appearances as NDSU defeated No. 1 seed Montana State in Frisco for the crown. Notably, the 2024 season marked the 20th title appearance for a league team. The league is 14-6 in title games, although Youngstown State (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994) and Southern Illinois (1983) both played in the championship prior to joining the league. All 20 of the league’s title-game appearances have occurred since 1997.
The MVFC is 107-48 (.690) since 2010 in the playoffs -- which includes 18 intra-conference games (meaning the league is 89-30 against teams from other leagues for a phenomenal .748 winning percentage).
Since 2015, the MVFC has partnered with ESPN to distribute all league games on an ESPN platform (ESPN+ in 2024) and in August 2023, the Conference announced a multimedia rights extension with ESPN. The agreement features national linear and digital exposure for the Conference, beginning with the 2024 football season and extending through the 2029 season. In 2024, for the first time in the league's 40-year history, two regular-season Missouri Valley Football Conference home games were selected for national linear distribution.
There’s not much that has eluded the Missouri Valley Football Conference in its first 40 seasons of competition. The league’s first four decades have included national championships, national players of the year, national coaches of the year, No. 1 national rankings, and countless All-Americans. League member North Dakota State earned five-straight national championships from 2011-15, three-straight from 2017-19, and the league also has NCAA titles in 1997 (YSU), 2002 (WKU), 2021 (NDSU), 2022 (SDSU), 2023 (SDSU), and 2024 (NDSU). Indeed, all signs point to continued national prominence for the Missouri Valley Football Conference as it enters its 41st season in 2025.
In June 2008, presidents of the Gateway Football Conference and the Missouri Valley Conference approved a rebranding initiative that changed the football conference name from the Gateway Football Conference to the Missouri Valley Football Conference. It represented the second name change for the football league. Initially, the conference competed as the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (1985-91) and the Gateway Football Conference (1992-2007).
Although the league shares the Missouri Valley name, the football-playing members compete under separate administrative umbrellas, as the Missouri Valley Conference and the Missouri Valley Football Conference remain separate entities.
The Missouri Valley Football Conference has an FCS-best 14 national championships (North Dakota State – 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2024; South Dakota State – 2022 and 2023; Western Kentucky - 2002; Youngstown State - 1997), and league members Youngstown State (3) and Southern Illinois (1) own additional titles prior to their league membership, meaning 18 FCS championship trophies (of 47 total previous championships) are housed on league campuses, in addition to six (Youngstown State on three separate occasions, UNI in 2005, Illinois State in 2014, South Dakota State in Spring 2021, and North Dakota State in 2022) runner-up finishes. Only five FCS leagues possess more than a single FCS championship trophy, and the Missouri Valley Football Conference is among that elite.
The league has established itself as a leader among FCS conferences. Counting last year, an MVFC member has reached the FCS semifinals 23 times in the past 14 seasons (and 37 times overall). The MVFC has had two semifinal teams eight times since 2014 (and three in 2024).
The Missouri Valley Football Conference success is not limited to the immediate past. From 2010-19, MVFC teams compiled a playoff record of 67-28, and only one other conference (the CAA at 44-39) had a winning mark in that span.
Team accomplishments have helped solidify the Missouri Valley Football Conference among the FCS elite, but individuals at the league’s member institutions are the real source of pride within the conference. Thanks to great players and strong coaching, the Missouri Valley Football Conference has reached and will maintain its place among the FCS best.
In 1997, Youngstown State grabbed the crowned jewel for the conference, as the league had one of its most successful seasons. In addition to claiming the league’s first national championship, the Penguins finished the year ranked No. 1, marking the first time a league member has held that spot in a season-ending poll. That year, Western Illinois was at No. 6, marking the first time the league ended the year with two teams ranked among the top six.
In 1999, the Missouri Valley Football Conference trumped that, as YSU finished the year No. 2, and Illinois State was No. 3. UNI also finished in the top 20 in both nationally recognized polls.
In 2002, Western Kentucky added to the league’s national championship trophy case with an FCS crown, while both WKU (No. 1) and Western Illinois (No. 5) finished among the nation’s top five in the season-ending polls. WKU became the first school to earn victories against the tourney’s top three seeds en route to its national championship.
In 2003, four Valley Football teams represented the league in the 16-team NCAA playoffs, marking the first time any league has sent that many to the playoffs in the same year.
In 2004, Southern Illinois spent a league-record 11 weeks as the nation’s top-ranked team, while all eight league teams received votes for the Top 25 at some point in the season. LB Boomer Grigsby of Illinois State earned a National Defensive Player of the Year honor, while SIU’s Jerry Kill was National Coach of the Year.
In 2005, UNI became the fourth league school to reach the FCS championship game since 1997, while Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky combined to hold the nation’s No. 1 ranking in the top-25 polls for five weeks.
In 2006, Youngstown State won its second-straight league championship, and the Penguins were joined in the playoff field by Illinois State and Southern Illinois. That marked only the second time in league history the league had more than two teams qualify for the 16-team playoff field. SIU’s Arkee Whitlock was a national player of the year award winner (College Sporting News) and was third in the Walter Payton Award balloting.
In 2008, six teams were nationally ranked in the same poll, marking the first time in league history that had happened. Those six teams were ranked for four-straight weeks. North Dakota State held the nation’s No. 1 spot for its first two weeks as a conference member, while rookie coach Dale Lennon of Southern Illinois became just the third to win Coach of the Year honors in his first league season.
In 2011, North Dakota State won the national crown and finished the season atop the Top-25 rankings. UNI was No. 5 in the final FCS Coaches poll, and Illinois State was ranked No. 20 in The Sports Network poll. For ISU, it marked the first top-25 ranking in a season-ending poll since 2006. Six different league schools cracked into the Top 25 during the season.
In 2012 and 2013, North Dakota State repeated as national champions, becoming just the second team in FCS history to three-peat as national champions (only Appalachian State has previously accomplished this feat at the FCS level). The Bison went an unprecedented 15-0 and established an all-time FCS record with 33-straight victories before losing.
The 2014 playoffs ended again with a North Dakota State national championship, but Illinois State reached the title game, too, marking the first NCAA FCS championship game for the Redbirds. It was the first intra-conference matchup in the FCS title game since the NCAA began conducting one in 1978. The Bison narrowly edged the Redbirds, 29-27, in what was the only meeting between the co-champs in 2014 (they did not play one another in the regular season). The final national poll had five MVFC teams in it, and for the first time the league held the No. 1 (North Dakota State) and No. 2 (Illinois State) positions in the season-ending Sports Network rankings. During the 2014 season, the league demonstrated its superiority as eight different MVFC teams achieved a top-25 ranking. The league posted two wins against FBS programs and had a 30-2 non-conference record against FCS peers. And for the first time, the NCAA awarded the league with five playoff teams.
In 2015, five league teams (Illinois State, North Dakota State, UNI, South Dakota State and Western Illinois) again represented the conference in the FCS playoffs, and North Dakota State took home a fifth-straight title. The league wasn’t short of individual national accomplishments as a total of 17 different players earned All-America honors. NDSU QB Carson Wentz earned the NCAA’s Elite 90 Award for the third-straight year. Wentz, one of three players from the MVFC taken in the 2016 NFL Draft, became the highest-ever draft pick for the league, taken second overall by the Philadelphia Eagles.
The 2016 season featured four MVFC wins against FBS schools, including Illinois State’s win at Northwestern, North Dakota State’s win at No. 11 Iowa, Western Illinois’ victory at Northern Illinois and UNI’s triumph at Iowa State. NDSU’s win over nationally ranked Iowa marked the fourth time an FCS school had beaten an AP Top-25 FBS program, and coupled with Illinois State’s win against Northwestern, it gave the MVFC two wins against B1G opponents in the same season for the first time. The four FBS wins established a league mark. Youngstown State and North Dakota State both reached the semifinals of the FCS Championship, while the Penguins represented the league in the title game. Four MVFC teams earned playoff bids.
The 2017 and 2018 seasons featured two semifinal teams (South Dakota State and North Dakota State) and the same result in the title game – NDSU defeated James Madison in 2017 for the crown, and then bested No. 3 Eastern Washington in 2018. The Bison completed a perfect 15-0 season after being ranked No. 1 in every poll throughout the season. QB Easton Stick surpassed former NDSU QB Brock Jensen as the all-time leader in FCS wins by a QB as he finished his career with an NCAA-record 49 wins (Jensen had 48.) NDSU (1) and SDSU (3) finished the season ranked among the FCS’ top three in the polls.
In 2019, four league teams finished the season ranked in the Top 10, while North Dakota State went wire-to-wire as the nation’s top team, capping its perfect 16-0 season with a 28-20 win against No. 2 James Madison in the title game. The 16-0 season marked the first in college football in the modern era and the first since Yale in 1894. In the process, NDSU extended its winning streak to an FCS-record 37-straight games. Other MVFC teams ranked in the final poll included UNI (5), Illinois State (7) and South Dakota State (10). Each represented the league in the NCAA playoffs.
That year (2019), freshman QB Trey Lance of North Dakota State won both the Walter Payton Player of the Year and Jerry Rice Freshman of the Year awards after becoming the first MVFC freshman to earn the league’s Offensive Player of the Year Award. He was also the first MVFC Payton Award winner as well as the first MVFC Rice Award recipient.
In 2020-21, five MVFC teams were ranked in the Top 13 of the final Stats Perform Top 25 poll, led by SDSU’s No. 2 ranking. The league had an FCS-best 16 student-athletes on the FCS Stats Perform All-America team, and the MVFC had what was then a league-record five players taken in the 2021 NFL Draft, highlighted by QB Trey Lance of NDSU, who was the third overall pick. Three schools shared the league title (Missouri State, North Dakota, and South Dakota State), marking just the second time in league history that the Conference had tri-champions. Southern Illinois, which snapped NDSU’s FCS- and league-record 39-game winning streak, was making its first playoff appearance since 2009; Missouri State earned its first league title and first playoff appearance since 1990; UND reached the playoffs in its first year as an MVFC member; and NDSU and SDSU extended their streaks of consecutive playoff trips to 11 and nine-straight years, respectively. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 season was moved to Spring 2021, and the championship bracket was limited to 16 total teams (with a remarkable five entrants from the MVFC).
In 2021, for the first time in Conference history, six Missouri Valley Football Conference teams earned bids into the 24-team FCS playoff field. Only one other conference in NCAA history has received six bids in a single playoff (CAA in 2018). The MVFC had received as many as five bids four times previously (2014, 2015, 2017, and in Spring 2021). League schools combined for eight wins in the 2021 tournament, capped by North Dakota State’s championship game victory against Montana State. The 2021 season was capped by an incredible presence in the April 2022 NFL Draft. A total of nine MVFC players were drafted, setting an all-time high for the Conference (surpassing the previous-record total of five in 2021).
In 2022, for just the second time in FCS history, two teams from the same league played one another in the FCS national championship game. South Dakota State earned its first FCS crown, knocking off defending champion and league rival North Dakota State. On Oct. 15, 2022, then-No. 2 SDSU beat then-No. 1 NDSU, 23-21, in the Fargodome, marking only the second time in FCS history that the top two teams in the national media poll played one another during the regular season. The other involved league member UNI against Idaho in 1992. Coach John Stiegelmeier of South Dakota State earned National Coach of the Year honors, and LB Zeke Vandenburgh of Illinois State was named the FCS Defensive Player of the Year.
The 2023 season delivered yet another national championship as South Dakota State extended its winning streak to 29-straight games while earning a second-straight FCS title. Jimmy Rogers earned FCS National Coach of the Year honors in his first season as SDSU’s head coach as the Jackrabbits went 15-0. QB Mark Gronowski of SDSU was tabbed FCS Offensive Player of the Year by multiple organizations.
In 2024, North Dakota State again hoisted the championship trophy in Frisco, downing top-seeded Montana State in the title game. For the first time in FCS history, one league had three semifinal teams in the same season. North Dakota State (13th semifinal trip), South Dakota (1st), South Dakota State (7th) represented the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2024. Notably, North Dakota State’s CharMar Brown earned the 2024 Jerry Rice Award as the FCS Freshman Player of the Year. NDSU (1), SDSU (3) and USD (4) finished the season ranked among the top-four teams in the FCS.
The original Gateway Conference was founded as a women’s athletic organization in August 1982, following the dissolution of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. In September of that year, Patty Viverito was named the first commissioner of the newly founded conference. Before moving to its permanent headquarters in St. Louis, the conference spent three organizational months on the campus of Eastern Illinois University.
In July of 1992, the 10-team conference disbanded as its women’s programs realigned with their men’s teams in their respective conferences. The league assumed its new name on July 1, 1992, becoming the Gateway Football Conference, an NCAA FCS football league comprised of seven Midwest institutions. In its decade of operation, the Gateway sponsored championships in 10 women’s sports and football. The women’s sports were basketball, cross country, golf, indoor and outdoor track & field, swimming and diving, tennis, softball, volleyball and, early on, field hockey.
The Gateway Conference football division was born on August 21, 1985, when the Gateway Conference President’s Council voted to add an FCS football division for six of its members to the previously all-women’s athletics organization. Founding members of the football division were Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, UNI, Southern Illinois, Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State), and Western Illinois. The creation of the football division marked the first time in college annals that football was added to a women’s conference. In June of 1986, Indiana State became the seventh member of the conference.
In the 40 years of the football division, league membership has been relatively stable. Eastern Illinois left the league to join the Ohio Valley Conference in 1996, while Youngstown State joined the conference in 1997 to return league membership to its original seven-member status. League membership reached what was then an all-time high of eight members for the start of the 2001 season with the addition of Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers left the league after six years to join the Sun Belt (FBS). North Dakota State and South Dakota State joined for the start of the 2008 season, giving the league nine members for the first time. And the league expanded to 10 members in 2012 after the University of South Dakota was admitted. The University of North Dakota joined the MVFC for the start of the 2020 campaign to expand league membership to 11 institutions. Murray State University joined the league for the start of the 2023 football campaign, bringing league membership to an all-time high of 12 schools. Western Illinois played its final MVFC season in 2023 after departing for the Ohio Valley Conference for the 2024 campaign. And Missouri State played its final MVFC season in 2024 as it joined Conference USA (FBS) for all sports of the 2025-26 season.
Five Missouri Valley Football Conference members also compete in the Missouri Valley Conference (Illinois State, Indiana State, Murray State, Northern Iowa, and Southern Illinois). Four league schools compete in the Summit League (North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, and South Dakota State), while Youngstown State competes in the Horizon League for its other sports.
Members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference (and initial year of membership) include Illinois State University (1985), Indiana State University (1986), Murray State University (2023), the University of North Dakota (2020), North Dakota State University (2008), the University of Northern Iowa (1985), the University of South Dakota (2012), South Dakota State University (2008), Southern Illinois University (1985), and Youngstown State University (1997).