![]() | |
Association | NCAA |
---|---|
Founded | 1907 |
Commissioner | Jeff Jackson (since 2021) |
Sports fielded |
|
Division | Division I |
Subdivision | non-football |
No. of teams | 12 |
Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri |
Region | Midwestern & Southern United States |
Official website | www |
Locations | |
![]() |
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(August 2018) |
The MVC was established in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association or MVIAA, 12 years after the Big Ten, the only Division I conference that is older. It is the third oldest college athletic conference in the United States, after the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA Division III Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA). [1] The MVIAA split in 1928, with most of the larger schools forming a conference that retained the MVIAA name; this conference evolved into the Big Eight Conference. The smaller MVIAA schools (Drake, Grinnell and Washington University in St. Louis), plus Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, which joined the Big Eight in 1957), were joined by Creighton to form the MVC, which retained the old MVIAA's administrative staff. The Big Eight merged with four Texas schools of the Southwest Conference to form the Big 12 Conference in 1996. [2]
To this day, it has never been definitively established which conference was the original and which was the spinoff, though the Big Eight would go on to become the more prestigious of the two. During the Big Eight's run, both conferences claimed 1907 as their founding date, and the same history through 1927.
MVC teams held a 74–27 non-conference record during the 2006–07 college basketball season, including a record of 44–1 at home. The Valley finished in the top six of the RPI and ahead of a BCS conference for the second consecutive year, while also garnering multiple NCAA bids for the ninth straight year and 12th of 14. [3]
The MVC has not sponsored football since 1985, when it was a hybrid I-A/I-AA (now FBS and FCS, respectively) conference. However, five members have football programs in the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) (known as the Gateway from 1985 to 2008) of Division I FCS, and two others compete in another FCS conference, the Pioneer Football League. The Missouri Valley Conference shares its name with the MVFC, and all three conferences operate from the same headquarters complex in St. Louis; however, the three are separate administratively.
After weeks of speculation, [4] [5] Wichita State announced on April 7, 2017, that it would leave the conference to join the American Athletic Conference starting with the 2017–18 season. [6] The conference announced it extended an invitation to Valparaiso University on May 9, 2017; [7] and on May 25, the MVC announced that Valparaiso would officially join the following July 1. [8]
The most recent changes to the core MVC membership were announced during the 2021–22 school year. On September 28, 2021, the MVC and Belmont University jointly announced that the school would leave the Ohio Valley Conference for the MVC effective July 1, 2022. [9] Then, on November 16, Loyola University Chicago announced it would leave the MVC at the same time, joining the Atlantic 10 Conference. [10] On the same day Loyola announced its departure, CBS Sports reported that the MVC was actively pursuing further expansion, having entered into talks with the University of Missouri–Kansas City (known athletically as Kansas City), Murray State University, and the University of Texas at Arlington (UT Arlington). The report indicated that the latter two were considered the strongest candidates, but that all three were likely to receive invitations in the coming months. [11] On January 7, 2022, the MVC announced that Murray State would officially join the conference on July 1 of that year. [12] UT Arlington would soon remove itself from the list of candidates by announcing a 2022 move to the Western Athletic Conference. [13]
Shortly before Murray State was officially announced as an incoming MVC member, Matt Brown of the Extra Points college sports blog reported that the MVC was also in membership discussions with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), then a member of the Horizon League. On the same weekend that Murray State's arrival was officially announced, MVC officials made a site visit to UIC. Brown's sources indicated that an invitation to UIC was likely. Brown noted that with the MVC losing Loyola, league officials believed that maintaining a presence in the city was a top priority, stating (emphasis in original): [14]
Throughout this process, multiple administrators at MVC institutions stressed the importance of getting access to new urban areas to recruit more students, not just athletes. With so many schools depending heavily on Chicago, and especially Chicago's suburbs, for enrollment, continuing to have a presence in the city was seen as a major priority.
On January 22, 2022, Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com reported that UIC's July entry to the MVC was "a done deal", with his sources indicating that the MVC wanted to announce the move before the Conference Commissioners Association held its annual meeting in Naples, Florida in early February. [15] UIC's entry was officially announced on January 26. [16]
Note: In the case of spring sports, the year of joining is the calendar year before the start of competition.
Institution | Location | Founded | Joined | Type | Enrollment | Nickname | Primary conference | MVC sport(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
University of Arkansas at Little Rock | Little Rock, Arkansas | 1927 | 2013–14 | Public | 13,167 | Trojans | OVC | women's swimming |
Marshall University | Huntington, West Virginia | 1837 | 2022–23 [19] [lower-alpha 1] | Public | 11,926 | Thundering Herd | Sun Belt | women's swimming |
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville [21] | Edwardsville, Illinois | 1957 | 2021–22 [lower-alpha 2] | Public | 14,000 | Cougars | OVC | men's soccer |
Institution | Location | Founded | Joins | Type | Enrollment | Nickname | Primary conference | MVC sport(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bowling Green State University | Bowling Green, Ohio | 1910 | 2023–24 [lower-alpha 1] | Public | 18,142 | Falcons | MAC | men's soccer |
Northern Illinois University | DeKalb, Illinois | 1895 | 16,769 | Huskies | ||||
Western Michigan University | Kalamazoo, Michigan | 1903 | 19,887 | Broncos |
This list does not include current full members Belmont and Valparaiso. As noted above, the Bruins played men's soccer in the MVC for the 2000 fall season (2000–01 school year), and the Beacons, then known as the Crusaders, played women's soccer in the MVC from the 1996 to 1998 fall seasons (1996–97 to 1998–99 school years).
Full members (non-football)(Full members)Assoc. members (football only)Assoc. member (other sports)
The Missouri Valley Conference sponsors championship competition in seven men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports. [32] Little Rock and Marshall are affiliates for swimming and diving and SIU Edwardsville is an affiliate in men's soccer.
The most recent change to the roster of sports was the dropping of men's tennis after the 2016–17 school year due to a lack of participating teams. Two of the four full conference members that sponsored the sport in that season no longer play men's tennis in the MVC. Southern Illinois dropped both men's and women's tennis, [33] and Wichita State joined the American Athletic Conference. Affiliate member Stony Brook dropped men's tennis after the 2016–17 season. The two remaining MVC men's tennis schools from 2016 to 2017, Drake and Illinois State, joined the Summit League for that sport, [34] and incoming MVC member Valparaiso also joined the Summit League in men's tennis.
Sport | Men's | Women's |
---|---|---|
Baseball | 10 | - |
Basketball | 12 | 10 |
Cross country | 11 | 10 |
Golf | 10 | 10 |
Soccer | 7 | 9 |
Softball | - | 10 |
Swimming & Diving | - | 9 |
Tennis | - | 7 |
Track and field (indoor) | 10 | 10 |
Track and field (outdoor) | 10 | 10 |
Volleyball | - | 10 |
School | Baseball | Basketball | Cross Country | Golf | Soccer | Track & Field (Indoor) | Track & Field (Outdoor) | Total MVC Sports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Belmont | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 7 |
Bradley | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 7 |
Drake | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 6 |
Evansville | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 7 |
UIC | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 6 |
Illinois State | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 6 |
Indiana State | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 5 |
Missouri State | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 4 |
Murray State | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 4 |
UNI | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 5 |
Southern Illinois | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 6 |
Valparaiso | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 6 |
Totals | 10 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 6+1 [lower-alpha 1] | 10 | 10 | 69+1 |
Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Missouri Valley Conference which are played by Valley schools:
School | Football | Rifle [lower-alpha 1] | Swimming & Diving | Tennis | Wrestling |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Belmont | No | No | No | Horizon | No |
Drake | Pioneer League | No | No | Summit | No |
Evansville | No | No | MAC | No | No |
Illinois State | MVFC | No | No | Summit | No |
Indiana State | MVFC | No | No | No | No |
Missouri State | MVFC | No | MAC | No | No |
Murray State | OVC [lower-alpha 2] | OVC [lower-alpha 3] | No | No | No |
UNI | MVFC | No | No | No | Big 12 |
Southern Illinois | MVFC | No | MAC | No | No |
UIC | No | No | MAC | Southland | No |
Valparaiso | Pioneer League | No | MAC [lower-alpha 4] | No | No |
School | Basketball | Cross Country | Golf | Soccer | Softball | Swimming | Tennis | Track & Field (Indoor) | Track & Field (Outdoor) | Volleyball | Total MVC Sports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Belmont | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 9 |
Bradley | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 8 |
Drake | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 9 |
Evansville | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 9 |
UIC | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 10 |
Illinois State | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 10 |
Indiana State | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 9 |
Missouri State | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 10 |
Murray State | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 9 |
UNI | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 10 |
Southern Illinois | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 8 |
Valparaiso | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 10 |
Totals | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 7+2 [lower-alpha 2] | 6 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 92+1 |
Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Missouri Valley Conference which are played by Valley schools:
School | Beach volleyball | Bowling | Gymnastics | Rifle [lower-alpha 1] | Rowing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Drake | No | No | No | No | MAAC |
Illinois State | No | No | MIC | No | No |
Missouri State | CCSA | No | No | No | No |
Murray State | No | No | No | OVC [lower-alpha 2] | No |
Valparaiso | No | Southland Bowling | No | No | No |
Future members in gray.
School | Soccer stadium | Capacity | Basketball arena | Capacity | Softball field | Capacity | Baseball field | Capacity |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Belmont | E. S. Rose Park | 300 | Curb Event Center | 5,085 | Cheryl Holt Field | 300 | E. S. Rose Park | 750 |
Bradley | Shea Stadium | 3,800 | Peoria Civic Center (men) Renaissance Coliseum (women) | 11,433 4,200 | Petersen Hotels Field [35] | 1,000 | Dozer Park | 7,500 |
Drake | James W. Cownie Soccer Complex | 2,000 | Knapp Center | 6,424 | Ron Buel Field | 500 | Non-baseball school | |
Evansville | Arad McCutchan Stadium | 2,500 | Ford Center (men) Meeks Family Fieldhouse (women) | 10,000 1,087 | James & Dorothy Cooper Stadium | 650 | Charles H. Braun Stadium | 1,200 |
UIC | Flames Field | 1,000 | Credit Union 1 Arena | 8,000 | Flames Field | 500 | Curtis Granderson Stadium | 2,000 |
Illinois State | Adelaide Street Field | 1,000 | Redbird Arena | 10,200 | Marian Kneer Softball Stadium | 1,050 | Duffy Bass Field | 1,200 |
Indiana State | Non-soccer school | Hulman Center | 10,200 | Price Field At Eleanor Forsythe St. John Softball Complex | 700 | Sycamore Stadium | 2,500 | |
Missouri State | Betty and Bobby Allison South Stadium | 1,000 | JQH Arena | 11,000 | Killian Softball Stadium | 1,200 | Hammons Field | 7,986 |
Murray State | Cutchin Field | 250 | CFSB Center | 8,600 | Racer Field | 500 | Johnny Reagan Field | 800 |
UNI | Cedar Valley Soccer Complex | — | McLeod Center | 7,018 | Robinson-Dresser Sports Complex | — | Non-baseball school | |
Southern Illinois | Lew Hartzog Complex | 500 | Banterra Center | 8,339 | Charlotte West Stadium | 502 | Itchy Jones Stadium | 2,000 |
Valparaiso | Brown Field | 5,000 | Athletics–Recreation Center | 5,000 | Valpo Softball Complex | — | Emory G. Bauer Field | 500 |
Affiliate members | ||||||||
Bowling Green | Mickey Cochrane Stadium | 1,500 | Men's soccer-only member | |||||
Northern Illinois | NIU Soccer Complex | 1,500 | Men's soccer-only member | |||||
SIU Edwardsville | Ralph Korte Stadium | 4,000 | Men's soccer-only member | |||||
Western Michigan | WMU Soccer Complex | 1,000 | Men's soccer-only member |
The Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball tournament is often referred to as Arch Madness, in reference to the Gateway Arch at the tournament's present location of St. Louis, Missouri, and a play on "March Madness". The women's tournament is currently promoted as Hoops in the Heartland.
NB: Missouri State was known as Southwest Missouri State until August 2005.
Season | Men's Champion | Women's Champion |
---|---|---|
1977 | Southern Illinois | No Tournament |
1978 | Creighton | No Tournament |
1979 | Indiana State | No Tournament |
1980 | Bradley | No Tournament |
1981 | Creighton | No Tournament |
1982 | Tulsa | No Tournament |
1983 | Illinois State | Illinois State |
1984 | Tulsa | No Tournament |
1985 | Wichita State | No Tournament |
1986 | Tulsa | No Tournament |
1987 | Wichita State | Southern Illinois |
1988 | Bradley | Eastern Illinois |
1989 | Creighton | Illinois State |
1990 | Illinois State | Southern Illinois |
1991 | Creighton | Missouri State |
1992 | Missouri State | Missouri State |
1993 | Southern Illinois | Missouri State |
1994 | Southern Illinois | Missouri State |
1995 | Southern Illinois | Drake |
1996 | Tulsa | Missouri State |
1997 | Illinois State | Illinois State |
1998 | Illinois State | Illinois State |
1999 | Creighton | Evansville |
2000 | Creighton | Drake |
2001 | Indiana State | Missouri State |
2002 | Creighton | Creighton |
2003 | Creighton | Missouri State |
2004 | UNI | Missouri State |
2005 | Creighton | Illinois State |
2006 | Southern Illinois | Missouri State |
2007 | Creighton | Drake |
2008 | Drake | Illinois State |
2009 | UNI | Evansville |
2010 | UNI | UNI |
2011 | Indiana State | UNI |
2012 | Creighton | Creighton |
2013 | Creighton | Wichita State |
2014 | Wichita State | Wichita State |
2015 | UNI | Wichita State |
2016 | UNI | Missouri State |
2017 | Wichita State | Drake |
2018 | Loyola Chicago | Drake |
2019 | Bradley | Missouri State |
2020 | Bradley | Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
2021 | Loyola Chicago | Bradley |
2022 | Loyola Chicago | Illinois State |
2023 | Drake | Drake |
National team titles by institutionSchool – Number – NCAA Championships
NCAA Championships as of March 2013 (*-Titles won by schools in Division II/College Division prior to their moving to Division I in the late 1960s or early 1970s.) Football poll, Helms and AIAW titles are not included in the NCAA Championship count. Men's basketball attendanceThe Valley is well known for having some of the most dedicated fanbases in all of college basketball, with several members regularly selling out their large arenas on a nightly basis throughout the year. Former member (Creighton) had the sixth highest attendance for Division I in 2012–13 while Bradley, Illinois State, Missouri State, and Indiana State were all among the NCAA's top 100 teams in home attendance. In 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13, the Valley maintained its position as the eighth ranked conference in average attendance. The Valley made history in March 2007 with record attendance for four days at St. Louis' Scottrade Center as 85,074 fans turned out to watch the five sessions of the tournament. The two sellout crowds of 22,612 for the semifinals and final of the 2007 State Farm Tournament set an all-time attendance record for basketball at the arena and also gave The Valley the distinction of having the largest championship crowd for any of the 30 NCAA conference tournaments in 2007. [40] Football champions by year
MVC NetworkSince at least 1993, the MVC has produced an in-house package of sports as part of the MVC Network. [42] Since 1996, these telecasts have produced, in part, by Bally Sports Midwest (formerly Fox Sports Midwest). These games are distributed to regional sports networks including Bally Sports Midwest, Bally Sports Kansas City, Bally Sports Indiana and NBC Sports Chicago. [43] Until the 2020-21 season, these telecasts also aired on Fox College Sports. Outside of regional networks these telecasts were also available on ESPN3 until the 2018-19 season. These telecasts are now available on ESPN+. [44] The MVC Network is home to the first two rounds of Arch Madness, the nickname for the MVC men's basketball tournament. See alsoRelated Research Articles![]() The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twelve full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members located in Illinois, Indiana, and New York. For football, the MAC participates in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision. ![]() The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, the lower of two levels of Division I football competition. The OVC has 10 members, six of which compete in football in the conference. The North Central Conference (NCC), also known as North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, was a college athletic conference which operated in the north central United States. It participated in the NCAA's Division II. ![]() The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The KCAC is the oldest conference in the NAIA and the second oldest in the United States, tracing its history to 1890. ![]() The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) by its charter member schools: the University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, and Washington University in St. Louis. Additionally, the University of Iowa was an original member of the MVIAA, while maintaining joint membership in the Western Conference. ![]() The Great West Conference (GWC) was an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Originally a football-only league, it became an all-sports entity during the 2008–09 season. The GWC stopped sponsoring football following the 2011 season. The conference became defunct when four of the remaining five full member schools became members of other conferences on July 1, 2013. ![]() The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States, from Illinois on the east of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the West, with additional members in the Western state of Colorado and the Southern state of Oklahoma. Founded as the Association of Mid-Continent Universities in 1982, it rebranded as the Mid-Continent Conference in 1989, then again as the Summit League on June 1, 2007. The league headquarters are in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. ![]() The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. ![]() The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Its thirteen member institutions are located in the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, with an Iowa school joining in July 2023. There are also six associate members who participate in sports not sponsored by their home conferences. NCAA Division I independent schools are four-year institutions that compete in college athletics at the NCAA Division I level, but do not belong to an established athletic conference for a particular sport. These schools may however still compete as members of an athletic conference in other sports. A school may also be fully independent, and not belong to any athletic conference for any sport at all. The reason for independent status varies among institutions, but it is frequently because the school's primary athletic conference does not sponsor a particular sport. ![]() The Valparaiso Beacons is the name of the athletic teams from Valparaiso University – often referred to as Valpo – in Valparaiso, Indiana, United States. The Beacons compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level and are members of the Missouri Valley Conference in all sports except football, bowling, and men's swimming. ![]() The UIC Flames are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Chicago, located in Chicago, Illinois, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) since the 2022–23 academic year. The Flames previously competed in the D-I Horizon League from 1994–95 to 2021–22; in the D-I Mid-Continent Conference from 1982–83 to 1993–94; as an NCAA D-I Independent during the 1981–82 school year; and in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1949–50 to about 1980–81. Michael Lipitz joined UIC in October 2019 as the athletic director0 ![]() The Valparaiso Crusaders men's soccer team represented Valparaiso University (Valpo) in NCAA Division I soccer competition as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference The Crusaders played home matches at Brown Field on the Valpo campus in Valparaiso, Indiana. The 2017 Missouri Valley Conference men's soccer season was the 27th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The 2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was the 62nd season of NCAA championship men's college soccer. The season was originally slated to begin on August 28, 2020 and conclude on November 15, 2020. The season was to culminate with the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, which was to be held from November 18 to December 13, 2020, with the four-team College Cup at Meredith Field at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara, California. The 2021 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was the 63rd season of NCAA championship men's college soccer. After the 2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 season partially returned to normal. However, despite the development of several vaccines, the pandemic was still ongoing, which might have led to various local or regional disruptions. Also, many conferences did not fully return to their pre-COVID state, with several having changed postseason tournament formats. ![]() Beginning in the 2021–22 academic year, extensive changes occurred in NCAA conference membership, primarily at the Division I level. References
External links |