We’ve Got Three -- For the first time in FCS history, one league has three semifinal teams in the same season.  North Dakota State (13th semifinal trip), South Dakota (1st), South Dakota State (7th) represent the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2024.

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Saturday, Dec. 21 - Semifinals
#3 SDSU (2) at #2 NDSU (3)  [ABC]	11 AM CT
#4 South Dakota (3)  at #1 Montana State (1)  [ABC]	2:30 PM CT
# - indicates tournament seed
(xx) - indicates highest Top-25 rank in season-ending polls

 

2024 Playoff Records
MVFC (4)	7-1	0.875
Big Sky (5)	5-4	0.556
SoCon (1)	1-1	0.500
Southland (1)	1-1	0.500
Patriot League (1)	1-1	0.500
United Athletic (3)	2-3	0.400
CAA Football (4)	2-4	0.333
Big South/OVC (3)	1-3	0.250
Northeast (1)	0-1	0.000
PFL (1)	0-1	0.000

All-Time Semifinal Trips -- Here’s a look at the leaders, by conference, since 1978 (first year of the playoffs).

37 - Missouri Valley Football Conference
36 - Big Sky Conference
32 - CAA Football
29 - Southern Conference
20 - Southland Conference

Same-Season Semifinalists -- The MVFC has had two semifinalists in the same playoff in eight of the past 11 years and nine times overall.

9 - MVFC (99) (14) (16) (17) (18) (21) (22) (23) (24)
7 - CAA (2004) (2007) (2008) (2009) (2010) (13) (20)
5 - SoCon (1983) (1987) (2000) (2001) (2005)
4 - Big Sky (1981) (1990) (1994) (2019)
1 - OVC (1979); Southland (1995)

MVFC:  2 of Top 3 Seeds -- Since 1985, a league member has been seeded No. 1-4 in the FCS Championship a total of 35 times (nine different league members have been seeded in the Top 4 in league history.)  Four previous times have two MVFC teams been seeded in the Top 4 in the same tournament - and a Missouri Valley Football school won the title in three of those four seasons (2014, 2022, 2023).

Years w/Two Top 4 MVFC Seeds in the Playoffs
2007 -- #1 UNI, lost in quarters; #4 SIU, lost in semis
2014 -- #2 ILS, lost title game; #3 NDSU, won title
2022 -- #1 SDSU, won title; #3 NDSU, lost title game
2023 -- #1 SDSU, won title; #3 USD, lost in quarters
2024 -- #2 NDSU (2-0); #3 SDSU (2-0); #4 USD (2-0)

Winning Against No. 1 -- On Dec. 21, South Dakota will be looking to post the league’s 22nd all-time win vs. a No. 1-ranked team when it faces top-ranked Montana State.  Thirteen of the previous 21 MVFC wins against a No. 1 team have been league games.  MVFC schools are 8-14 all-time against non-conference No. 1-ranked teams.  For the first time in MVFC history a league team will face a No. 1 team twice in the same season -- UNI (NDSU, SDSU) and South Dakota (NDSU, Montana State) will do it this season.)



MVFC vs. MVFC in Playoffs -- The North Dakota State-South Dakota State matchup on Dec. 21 is the 20th matchup of two MVFC schools in the playoffs (and 18th in the last 13 seasons).  It represents the second time two MVFC teams have met in a semifinal.  In 2014 (Illinois State vs. NDSU) and in 2022 (NDSU vs. SDSU), the league played an all-MVFC FCS national championship game -- the only two times that’s happened in FCS history.



Rank and File -- The MVFC is 10-4 against ranked FCS non-conference teams in 2024, through games of Saturday, Dec. 14.  MVFC schools are 28-8 against FCS opponents this year, with four of those eight losses to ranked FCS non-league teams.  The 28-8  mark against peer FCS programs is the best of any FCS league.

Title Town -- At least one MVFC school has appeared in an FCS-record 13-straight title game appearances; the league has 15 total title-game appearances in that span (no other league has more than four total appearances).  The MVFC has 13 total titles, the most by an FCS league.  The 2023 season marked the 19th title game for an MVFC member.

19 - Missouri Valley Football (13 titles)
16 - Big Sky Conference (6 titles)
16 - Southern Conference (8 titles)
13 - CAA Football (6 titles)
12 - Independents (9 titles)*
9 - Southland Conference (2 titles)
5 - Ohio Valley Conference (2 titles)
*includes 5 combined trips by YSU (4) and SIU (1), with 4 FCS titles when they played as independents.