To celebrate 35 years of excellence in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, the league is recognizing some of its all-time top moments.  We’ve divided these moments into 10 categories and have selected the top events in each.  Today we look at MVFC moments of ‘historical significance.’

Top Moments in MVFC History (Historical Significance)

Some of the events qualify in multiple categories, so if not listed below, the moment you are looking for should be coming later in another yet-to-be released Top Moment segment.





HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
1.    Aug. 30, 2014 – (The Streak) – North Dakota State beats Iowa State, 34-14, and sets the all-time FCS record with 25 consecutive wins.  North Dakota State’s winning streak reached 33 games.

2.    Jan. 10, 2015 (MVFC Championship Game) – In what was billed the “MVFC Championship Game” that season, Illinois State and North Dakota State played each other for the FCS crown.  It has been the only FCS championship game involving two schools from the same conference.   NDSU won, 29-27.

3.    April 28, 2016 (The NFL Draft) – QB Carson Wentz of North Dakota State becomes the highest drafted player in league history, taken 2nd overall by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2016 NFL Draft.   He remains the only MVFC player to be drafted in the first round.

4.    2014 Dominance – No FCS league has ever been perfect, but in 2014, the MVFC had a non-conference season to remember, going 23-1 against FCS schools, which included 5 wins against top-25 teams.  On Sept. 29, eight Valley Football teams crack the Top 25.  Before 2014, the league’s high-water mark was six ranked teams.  The league has had seven or more teams ranked in the same week 16 times in its history.

5.    Sportsmanship (The Handshake) – In 2004, the league became the NCAA’s first conference to institute a full-team, pre-game handshake before all conference games.   It continues to be a unique pre-game ritual to this day. 

OTHERS CONSIDERED

Sept. 21, 2013 (Game Day in Fargo) – For just the third time in its history, ESPN’s iconic college football pregame show visited an FCS site as the network took its Saturday show to downtown Fargo, North Dakota.

Aug. 21, 1985 – the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference votes to establish a six-member NCAA I-AA football division to its women’s sports league – the first time that’s happened in college annals.  In 1986, Indiana State became the seventh member in what was the precursor to the MVFC.

Sept. 15, 2001 (Missouri State 31, Southeast Missouri State 28) – Just days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, only four Division I games were played, including only 1 against two scholarship teams.  The Bears beat SEMO in Cape Girardeau on the strength of a TD with 2:40 remaining.

Sept. 17, 2016 – NDSU’s Cam Pedersen boots a 37-yard field goal as time expires at No. 11 Iowa as the Bison became just the fourth FCS school to defeat a top-25 FBS program with a 23-21 win.

2015 -- The league enters a 10-year agreement with ESPN to deliver all conference games for distribution on either ESPN3 or ESPN+ (which launched for the 2018 season).

Expansion – The Conference has expanded five times in its history, while three ‘new members’ have won national titles, including Youngstown State (1997), Western Kentucky (2002) and North Dakota State (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018).

2014 Playoffs (MVFC has five playoff teams) – The 2014 season marked the first time the MVFC earned five playoff bids.   The league did it again in 2015 and 2017.   The MVFC and the CAA are the only two FCS leagues to earn as many as five bids in the same playoff field.

Oct. 10, 2015 (ESPN SportsCenter on the Road broadcast) - #2 NDSU 31, #10 UNI 28.  Marked the third straight year of national pregame coverage for the league (and NDSU). WR Darrius Shepherd caught the game-winning TD with 35 seconds left for a 31-28 Bison win.

2003 Playoffs (MVFC has four playoff teams) – The 2003 season marked the first time any FCS league had four teams in the playoff field – then a 16-team bracket.  Only three other leagues have matched that feat since.

Game Day in Fargo, Part II – Sept. 13, 2014 -- North Dakota State becomes one of four non-FBS schools to host ESPN’s College GameDay since 1993 and the first to do it twice.   NDSU throttled Incarnate Word, 58-0, that day.

Dec. 7-14-20, 2002 – Western Kentucky became the first FCS team to beat the top three playoff seeds.  WKU beat #2 Western Illinois, #3 Georgia Southern and #1 McNeese State in successive weekends.

Sept. 7, 1985 – Missouri State beats Southern Illinois, 40-28, in Carbondale in front of 9,600 fans.  It’s the first league game.  The Bears turned four of SIU’s seven turnovers into scores.  Illinois State beat Western Illinois, 18-6, in the league’s second game, played later that evening.

1982 – The Gateway Conference hires Patty Viverito, the league’s first and only commissioner.  Football was added to the women’s sports league in 1985, and it became a single-sport league in 1992.

 
FOOTBALL TIMELINE
August 1985 -- Football added as a sport in the Gateway Conference. Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, North¬ern Iowa, Southern Illinois, Missouri State, and Western Illinois participate in the first season in 1985. 

June 1986 -- Indiana State becomes seventh member of the Gateway Conference football division. 

1995 – Eastern Illinois leaves the Gateway to pursue all-sport membership in the Ohio Valley Conference.

July 1997 -- Youngstown State officially admitted to the Gateway. 

December 1997 -- Youngstown State wins national championship.

June 2000 -- Western Kentucky admitted to the Gateway, effective for 2001 season. 

December 2002 -- Western Kentucky wins national championship.

November 2006 -- Western Kentucky announces it will leave the Gate¬way and join the Sun Belt Conference. 

March 2007 -- North Dakota State and South Dakota State admitted to the Gateway, effective for the 2008 season.

June 2008 – League rebrands its name from Gateway Football Conference to the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

November 2010 – South Dakota admitted to the Missouri Valley Football Conference, effective for the 2012 season.

January 2012 – North Dakota State wins national championship

January 2013 – North Dakota State wins national championship

January 2014 – North Dakota State wins national championship

January 2015 – North Dakota State wins national championship

January 2016 – North Dakota State wins national championship

January 2016 – North Dakota admitted to the Missouri Valley Football Conference, effective for the 2020 season.

January 2018 – North Dakota State wins national championship

January 2019 – North Dakota State wins national championship