Missouri Valley Football Conference

For the related multi-sport conference, see Missouri Valley Conference.

The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a football-only conference.

Missouri Valley Football Conference

Current season, competition or edition: 2025 Missouri Valley Football Conference season
Formerly	Gateway Football Conference (1992–2008) Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (1982–1992)
Association	NCAA
Founded	1982 (chartered)[1] 1985 (began football)
Commissioner	Patty Viverito (since 1982)
Sports fielded	1 (football) men's: 1 women's: 0
Division	Division I
Subdivision	FCS
No. of teams	11 (10 in 2025)
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri
Region	Midwest
Official website	www.valley-football.org
Locations

History

Gateway Conference logo

The Missouri Valley Football Conference has a complex history that involves three other conferences:

• Missouri Valley Conference (MVC): A long-established conference, in existence since 1907, that sponsored football until 1985. In its last years as a football conference, it was a hybrid league that included teams in NCAA Divisions I-A (today's FBS) and I-AA (now FCS).
• Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (Gateway): A women's sports conference founded in 1982 by MVC member schools.^[1][2]
• Association of Mid-Continent Universities (AMCU): An all-sports conference, also founded in 1982, that sponsored football at the I-AA level through the 1984 season. The AMCU had absorbed the Mid-Continent Athletic Association, a football-only league founded in 1978. (After dropping football, the AMCU later became the Mid-Continent Conference, and is now The Summit League.)

In 1985, the MVC stopped sponsoring football. At that time, the two remaining I-AA members from the MVC (Illinois State and Southern Illinois) joined Eastern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Southwest Missouri State, and Western Illinois from the AMCU and together became a football conference under Gateway's auspices.^[3] Indiana State, which had left MVC football after the 1981 season to become a Division I-AA independent while remaining a full MVC member, would join the next year.^[4]

Illinois
State

Indiana
State

Missouri State

Murray State

North Dakota State

North Dakota

Northern Iowa

South Dakota

South Dakota State

Southern Illinois

Youngstown State

Locations of Missouri Valley Football Conference Members
– Horizon League member
– Missouri Valley Conference member
– Summit League member

In 1992, when the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference merged with the MVC,^[1] the football conference kept the Gateway charter, with a minor name change to Gateway Football Conference. After Eastern Illinois joined the Ohio Valley Conference for football in 1996, Youngstown State joined in 1997 and was followed by Western Kentucky University in 2001. Southwest Missouri State changed its name to Missouri State in 2005.

Western Kentucky moved to the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A) after the 2006 season,^[5] leaving the GFC with seven members for the 2007 season. Great West Football Conference members North Dakota State and South Dakota State^[6] were invited to join the conference beginning with the 2008 season.^[7] Subsequently, the Gateway Football Conference changed its name to the Missouri Valley Football Conference in June 2008. This change aligned the conference with the Missouri Valley Conference, a conference in which five of the nine Missouri Valley Football schools were (and still are) all-sports members. The conferences continue to share the "Missouri Valley" name, and space in the same building in St. Louis, but remain separate administratively.^[8]

The University of South Dakota joined as the 10th member in 2012. The University of North Dakota joined as the 11th member in 2020, bringing back the yearly rivalries among North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State which had existed under the Division II North Central Conference that NDSU and SDSU left in 2004–05.^[9][10][11]

On April 4, 2022, Murray State University, who had previously been announced as a new MVC member effective in July 2022, joined the MVFC in 2023, bringing the league up to a record high of 12 active members.^[12] This was short-lived however, as on May 12, 2023, founding member Western Illinois announced that they would be leaving the MVFC and their full time conference, the Summit League, for the Ohio Valley Conference beginning in fall 2023 and 2024. They would leave the Summit beginning in fall 2023, and would leave the Valley after the conclusion of the 2023 football season.^[13] Almost exactly a year after that, on May 10, 2024, fellow founding member Missouri State announced that they accepted an invitation to join Conference USA in all sports, beginning with the 2025-26 academic year.^[14]

On May 5, 2025, the conference announced a new governance structure that will begin on July 1, 2025 following longtime commissioner Patty Viverito's retirement on June 30. The new structure will place current Missouri Valley Conference commissioner Jeff Jackson as the new MVFC commissioner and current Summit League commissioner Josh Fenton as an executive advisor to the conference. This move marks the conference's only leadership change in its 40 year history.^[15] With this move, there will now be a formal connection to both primary conferences for 9 of the 10 conference members (Youngstown State is a member of the Horizon League).

Member schools

Current members

Institution	Location	Founded	Joined	Type	Enrollment	Endowment	Nickname	Colors	Current primary conference
Illinois State University	Normal, Illinois	1857	1985	Public	20,989	$204 million	Redbirds		Missouri Valley
Indiana State University	Terre Haute, Indiana	1865	1986		12,144	$103.1 million	Sycamores
Missouri State University	Springfield, Missouri	1905	1985	Public	23,502	$193 million	Bears		Missouri Valley
Murray State University	Murray, Kentucky	1922	2023	Public	9,427	$90.8 million	Racers		Missouri Valley
University of North Dakota	Grand Forks, North Dakota	1883	2020		15,019	$422.1 million	Fighting Hawks		Summit
North Dakota State University	Fargo, North Dakota	1890	2008		11,952	$457 million	Bison
University of Northern Iowa	Cedar Falls, Iowa	1876	1985		10,497	$163 million	Panthers		Missouri Valley
University of South Dakota	Vermillion, South Dakota	1862	2012		10,619	$328.5 million	Coyotes		Summit
South Dakota State University	Brookings, South Dakota	1881	2008		11,331	$213 million	Jackrabbits
Southern Illinois University	Carbondale, Illinois	1869	1985		11,366	$190.1 million	Salukis		Missouri Valley
Youngstown State University	Youngstown, Ohio	1908	1997		12,155	$321.5 million	Penguins		Horizon

Former members

Institution	Location	Founded	Joined	Left	Type	Nickname	Colors	Primary conference during tenure in the MVFC	Current primary conference
Eastern Illinois University	Charleston, Illinois	1895	1985	1995	Public	Panthers		Mid-Continent	Ohio Valley
Western Illinois University	Macomb, Illinois	1899	1985	2024		Leathernecks		Summit	Ohio Valley
Western Kentucky University	Bowling Green, Kentucky	1906	2001	2007		Hilltoppers		Sun Belt	CUSA

Membership timeline

Current members Former members Dual members (list additional conferences)

Conference champions

See also: List of Missouri Valley Football Conference champions

12 different teams have won MVFC championships. The most recent champions are South Dakota State, North Dakota State, and South Dakota. The school with the most championships is Northern Iowa, with 16 (10 of them outright).

NCAA Football Championship Subdivision national championships

Team	Titles	Title Years	Finals	Runner-up
North Dakota State	10	2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2024	11	2022
Youngstown State	4	1991, 1993, 1994, 1997	7	1992, 1999, 2016
South Dakota State	2	2022, 2023	3	2020
Southern Illinois	1	1983	1
Western Kentucky♯	1	2002	1
Northern Iowa	0		1	2005
Illinois State	0		1	2014

♯ Now a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

Records

Overall winning streaks

#	Team	Streak	Spoiler	Season(s)
1.	North Dakota State	39 †	Southern Illinois[16]	2017–2020
2.	North Dakota State	33	Northern Iowa	2012–2014
3.	South Dakota State	29	Oklahoma State[17]	2022–2024
4.	North Dakota State	14	South Dakota State	2015–2016
5.	Western Kentucky	13	Auburn	2002–2003
	Northern Iowa	13	Delaware	2006–2007

† FCS Record ^[18]

Consecutive conference wins

1. North Dakota State, 19 (2017–2020)
2. South Dakota State, 19 (2022–2024)
3. North Dakota State, 18 (2012–2014)

Facilities

School	Stadium	Capacity
Illinois State [19]	Hancock Stadium	13,391
Indiana State [20]	Memorial Stadium	12,764
Missouri State [21]	Robert W. Plaster Stadium	17,500
Murray State [22]	Roy Stewart Stadium	16,800
North Dakota [23]	Alerus Center	12,283
North Dakota State [24]	Fargodome	19,000
Northern Iowa [25]	UNI-Dome	16,324
South Dakota [26]	DakotaDome	9,100
South Dakota State [27]	Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium	19,300
Southern Illinois [28]	Saluki Stadium	15,000
Youngstown State [29]	Stambaugh Stadium	20,630