For the first time since joining the Missouri Valley Football Conference for the 2008 season, South Dakota State has been tabbed as the league pre-season favorite in a poll conducted by league coaches, media and sports information directors.  South Dakota State returns 10 offensive starters and 10 defensive starters from its Spring 2021 team, which reached the FCS title game and earned a share of the MVFC crown.

MVFC Pre-Season Poll and Team (PDF)

SDSU received 24 first-place votes and 454 total points to edge North Dakota State, which earned 435 points and had 18 first-place tallies.   North Dakota and Southern Illinois were third and fourth with 357 and 345 total points, respectively.  UNI, which received the remaining first-place vote, had 311 points to finish fifth.  And defending tri-champ Missouri State was picked sixth with 256 points.  Illinois State (196), South Dakota (163), Youngstown State (126), Indiana State (112) and Western Illinois (83) rounded out the voting.

Collectively, the league returns 88 percent (212 of 242 student-athletes) of its starting lineups to this year's fall rosters (from Spring 2021, and for Indiana State Fall 2019).  UNI, notably, is slated to return all 11 starters on both sides of the ball.



Although the 2020-21 season did not yield a national championship, the season may have been one of the most successful in league history as the Conference and its member schools navigated through a season that was shifted from the fall to the spring.  Despite cancelled games due to COVID-19 which also led to multiple league teams who became unable to compete or complete the season, five MVFC teams made a playoff field that was limited to only 16 total participants.  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.  Those three schools were joined in the playoff field by North Dakota State and Southern Illinois.  Four teams advanced to the quarterfinals, and South Dakota State reached its first title game.  

    SIU, 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.

    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 a league-record five players taken in the 2021 NFL Draft, highlighted by QB Trey Lance of NDSU who was the third overall pick.

    In terms of post-season success, a league school has now reached the title game 11 times since 2011 (North Dakota State-8, Illinois State-1, South Dakota State-1, Youngstown State-1).  South Dakota State extended the league’s FCS-record streak of having at least one MVFC team in the finals to 10-straight years as the Jackrabbits reached the FCS Championship in the Spring of 2021, falling to second-seeded Sam Houston State in the final seconds.

    The 2021 season will mark the seventh in an agreement with ESPN to distribute all 44 league games on ESPN3 (or ESPN+), while the league has implemented other initiatives to promote its institutions, student-athletes and coaches, including a weekly podcast series (“First and Goal”), and video segments that review (“Two-Minute Drill”) and preview (“The Extra Point”) each week’s contests throughout the season.  The MVFC and other FCS leagues have partnered in the production of a weekly “FCS ALL IN” special which will air 15 times on Saturdays throughout the season on a dedicated YouTube channel, beginning Aug. 21.

A pre-season favorite has claimed the league crown 22 times (in 35 previous polls).

In addition to today's team rankings, the Conference has announced its preseason team, voted on by coaches, sports information directors, and a media panel.  All 11 teams have at least one honoree, topped by Southern Illinois with 13 total selections.