Missouri Valley Football - Tri-Champs for Third Time in 40 Years
For just the third time in the Missouri Valley Football Conference's 40-year history, the league has tri-champions as North Dakota State, South Dakota, and South Dakota State shared the MVFC crown with identical 7-1 records.
The only other seasons in which the MVFC had three teams share the title was in 2005 (UNI, Southern Illinois, and Youngstown State at 5-2) and in the Spring COVID season of 2020-21 (Missouri State, North Dakota, South Dakota State). This season is the first, however, that three teams shared the title with 7-1 marks.
It is the 11th MVFC crown for the Bison (trailing only UNI's 16 total titles), the 5th for South Dakota State (including its third-straight), and first for South Dakota. SDSU will be the league's automatic qualifier for the FCS playoffs based on tiebreaker criteria, which went to highest Sagarin rating since the teams all went 1-1 against one another.
Missouri State (8-4, 6-2 MVFC) and Illinois State (9-3, 6-2 MVFC) finished just a game behind the leaders.
The 24-team bracket for the NCAA Division I Football Championship will be unveiled on the FCS Selection Show at 11:30 a.m. CT on Sunday, Nov. 24, on ESPNU. There are 10 automatic qualifiers and 14 at-large selections. The top eight seeds will have a bye in the first round, which is next Saturday, Nov. 30. For the first time, the Committee will seed the Top 16 teams in the 24-team bracket.
| Total Titles (Outright and Shared, Combined) |
| UNI |
16 |
|
| North Dakota State |
11 |
|
| South Dakota State |
5 |
|
| Southern Illinois |
5 |
|
| Western Illinois |
5 |
|
| Illinois State |
3 |
|
| Missouri State |
3 |
|
| Eastern Illinois |
2 |
|
| Youngstown State |
2 |
|
| North Dakota |
1 |
|
| South Dakota |
1 |
|
| Western Kentucky |
1 |
|
|
|
|
| Championship Summary, Outright Titles |
|
| UNI |
10 |
|
| North Dakota State |
6 |
|
| Western Illinois |
4 |
|
| South Dakota State |
2 |
|
| Southern Illinois |
2 |
|
| Eastern Illinois |
1 |
|
| Illinois State |
1 |
|
| Missouri State |
1 |
|
| Youngstown State |
1 |
|
|
|
|
| Shared Titles |
|
|
| UNI (1990) (95) (2003) (05) (08) (11) |
6 |
|
| NDSU (2011) (14) (15) (16) (24) |
5 |
|
| Southern Illinois (2003) (2005) (2008) |
3 |
|
| Illinois State (2014) (2015) |
2 |
|
| Missouri State (1990) (20-21) |
2 |
|
| SDSU (2016) (20-21) (2024) |
3 |
|
| Eastern Illinois (1995) |
1 |
|
| North Dakota (20-21) |
1 |
|
| South Dakota (2024) |
1 |
|
| Western Illinois (2002) |
1 |
|
| Western Kentucky (2002) |
1 |
|
| Youngstown State (2005) |
1 |
|