Missouri Valley Conference


The Missouri Valley Conference is the fourth-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwest though with substantial extension into the South in states like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas, along with one affiliate university in Massachusetts.

History

The MVC was established in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, 12 years after the Big Ten Conference, the only Division I conference that is older. It is the fourth-oldest college athletic conference in the United States, after the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA Division III's Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and Ohio Athletic Conference.
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 Big Eight merged with four Texas schools of the Southwest Conference to form the Big 12 Conference in 1996.
The smaller MVIAA schools, plus Oklahoma A&M, were joined by Creighton to form the MVC, which retained the old MVIAA's administrative staff.
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.
The MVC has not sponsored football since 1985, when it was a hybrid I-A/I-AA conference. However, five members have football programs in the Missouri Valley Football Conference 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, 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. The conference announced it extended an invitation to Valparaiso University on May 9, 2017; and on May 25, the MVC announced that Valparaiso would officially join the following July 1.
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. Then, on November 16, Loyola University Chicago announced it would leave the MVC at the same time, joining the Atlantic 10 Conference. 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, Murray State University, and the University of Texas at 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. On January 7, 2022, the MVC announced that Murray State would officially join the conference on July 1 of that year. UT Arlington would soon remove itself from the list of candidates by announcing a 2022 move to the Western Athletic Conference.
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, 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 :
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. UIC's entry was officially announced on January 26.
On May 10, 2024, Missouri State announced it would leave the MVC to transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision and join Conference USA, effective for the 2025–26 season.
The MVC's decades-long ties with the MVFC were formalized when the latter announced a new conference structure on May 5, 2025, taking effect that July. Under the new structure, the MVFC's top two administrative positions will be filled by the commissioners of the MVC and the also non-football Summit League, and both multisport conferences will share administrative operations. The MVC and Summit are the full-time conference homes of all but one of the MVFC's 10 members in the 2025 season.

Member schools

Current full members

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Affiliate members

Note: In the case of spring sports, the year of joining is the calendar year before the start of competition.
InstitutionLocationFoundedJoinedTypeEnrollmentNicknamePrimary
conference		MVC
sport

Little Rock, Arkansas19272013–14Public13,167TrojansOVCwomen's swimming
Ball State UniversityMuncie, Indiana19182024–25Public21,597CardinalsMACmen's swimming and diving
Bowling Green, Ohio19102023–24Public18,142FalconsMACmen's soccer
Amherst, Massachusetts18632025–26Public27,420MinutemenMACmen's swimming and diving
Miami UniversityOxford, Ohio18092024–25Public18,880RedHawksMACmen's swimming and diving
Springfield, Missouri19052025–26Public26,000Bears/Lady BearsCUSAmen's and women's swimming & diving
DeKalb, Illinois18952023–24Public16,769HuskiesMACmen's soccer
Kalamazoo, Michigan19032023–24Public19,887BroncosMACmen's soccer

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Former members

Former full members (26)

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Former affiliate members

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, and the Beacons, then known as the Crusaders, played women's soccer in the MVC from the 1996 to 1998 fall seasons.
InstitutionLocationFoundedJoinedLeftTypeEnrollmentNicknamePrimary
conference		MVC
sport
Little Rock, Arkansas19271998–991999–2000Public13,167TrojansOVCwomen's soccer
Conway, Arkansas19072010–112018–19Public13,863BearsASUNmen's soccer
Dallas Baptist UniversityDallas, Texas18982013–142022–23Private5,545PatriotsLone Starbaseball
Drury UniversitySpringfield, Missouri18731999–20002004–05Private5,474PanthersGLVCwomen's soccer
Eastern Illinois UniversityCharleston, Illinois18951996–972010–11Public11,651PanthersOVCmen's soccer
Hartford, Connecticut18772014–152015–16Private6,935HawksCNEmen's tennis
Marshall UniversityHuntington, West Virginia18372022–232023–24Public11,926Thundering HerdSun Beltwomen's swimming
Catonsville, Maryland19662014–152015–16Public13,908RetrieversAmerica Eastmen's tennis
Southern Illinois University EdwardsvilleEdwardsville, Illinois19572010–11
2021–22		2017–18
2023–24		Public14,000CougarsOVCmen's soccer
Southern Methodist UniversityUniversity Park, Texas19112000–012004–05Private12,000MustangsACCmen's soccer
Stony Brook UniversityStony Brook, New York19572014–152022–23Public24,594SeawolvesCAAmen's tennis, women's tennis
Texas Christian UniversityFort Worth, Texas18732000–012000–01Private9,518Horned FrogsBig 12men's soccer
Tulsa, Oklahoma18942000–012004–05Private4,165Golden Hurricanemen's soccer
Vanderbilt UniversityNashville, Tennessee18731997–982005–06Private12,714CommodoresSECmen's soccer
Western Kentucky UniversityBowling Green, Kentucky19061997–982007–08Public21,048HilltoppersCUSAmen's soccer

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