By John Ostapowicz / The Jambar
Since its inception in 1985, the Missouri Valley Football Conference has garnered a lot of attention and statistically has been a staple in the Football Championship Subdivision.
The Youngstown State University football program has called the conference home since 1997 and brought the first-ever national championship title to the MVFC.
For the college football season, the MVFC is home to 11 teams.
For other sports, the Missouri Valley Conference is home to six consistent members, which includes Illinois State University, Indiana State University, Missouri State University, Murray State University, the University of Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois University.
Although the MVFC and the MVC share the same name, both remain separate entities and operate under a separate administration.
The MVFC was originally founded as the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1985. Its name was changed in 1991 to the Gateway Football Conference, a title that lasted until 2007. Missouri Valley Football Conference became the organization’s official name in June 2008 after an approved rebrand of the conference.
Patty Viverito, commissioner of the MVFC, entered her 40th season as the commissioner in 2024. She has witnessed 14 national championship victories and 20 title-game appearances — the most by any FCS conference.
Viverito said she has watched the conference evolve over the past four decades into a prestigious FCS conference.
“I’ve seen [the MVFC] grow from a six-team conference to what we are today as we are spread across the upper Midwest and as far east as Youngstown,” Viverito said. “We’ve got a long, proud history and the Penguins have been a part of it.”
Besides YSU, North Dakota State University and South Dakota State University have combined for 11 national championships since 2008. Both programs have brought national attention to the MVFC, with SDSU’s second-straight national title and NDSU’s most recent bout with the University of Colorado.
To start the 2024 season, the MVFC has seven teams in the Stats Perform FCS Top-25 rankings with South Dakota State at the No. 1 spot. In response to several teams within the rankings, Viverito said that all the teams within the league play at the highest level.
“Taking the Dakotas into the league has been a game changer. All of our teams have risen to the occasion to try and compete at the highest level. It’s certainly been the case since the beginning but we’ve never been as deep as we’ve been,” Viverito said.
Since 2015, the MVFC has partnered with ESPN for exposure on linear television and ESPN+ in 2024. The only exception to the partnership is the four Dakota universities, which use the local broadcasting network, Midco Sports.
The introduction of the MVFC “Game of the Week” has provided more exposure to several programs and allowed league games to be tabbed as an important game.
Mike Kern, associate commissioner of the MVFC, said all 11 of the programs within the league operate differently as each institution has a separate television package or requires clips from road games.
“For Youngstown, they like to have a road game delivered back to their market and would sometimes prefer a specific home game selection,” Kern said. “Several of our schools that are over the air have packages with the cable outlets so that we try to avoid going into their market and taking from games in which they are generating money for their institution.”
The most crucial brand exposure to the conference is any title appearance. Kern said the opportunity to play in a championship game benefits both the MVFC and the university, regardless of a win or loss.
“It’s a three and a half hour commercial for our league and for that school,“ Kern said.
Several members have joined or departed the MVFC over the last four decades. In 2007, Western Kentucky University left the league and moved from the FCS to the FBS to join the Sun Belt Conference.
Most recently, MSU joined the conference in 2023 and Western Illinois University departed at the conclusion of the season. Missouri State University will play its final season with the MVFC in 2024, as it will join Conference USA in the FBS to begin the 2025–26 season.
The National Football League draft prospects run deep in the MVFC. Senior quarterback Mark Gronowski for SDSU declined offers to transfer to an upper-division program to play his final season in the MVFC and enter the 2025 NFL Draft.
Over the past decade, NDSU has had two quarterbacks drafted in the first round, with former players Carson Wentz selected second overall in the 2016 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles and Trey Lance, who was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
The official start of MVFC play begins at 1 p.m. Sept. 28. For a complete list of conference games, visit valley-football.org.
