Missouri Valley Conference

The Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) is a college sports conference in the United States that sponsors many sports, but has not played football since the 1984 season.

The MVC has its roots in the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA), a league formed in 1907 by several schools in the Midwestern United States. The MVIAA split into two leagues in 1928. One league, made up mostly of large schools, kept the MVIAA name and years later became the Big Eight Conference. The smaller schools formed the MVC. Both groups claimed a 1907 founding date, and the same history up to the 1928 split. However, the Big Eight merged in 1996 with several schools from the collapsing Southwest Conference to form today's Big 12 Conference, which does not claim any of the Big Eight's history. Because of this, only the MVC now has a claim to any of the MVIAA's history.

Members

Following the departure of one school and the arrival of three in July 2022, the MVC has 12 members. Missouri State will leave for Conference USA in July 2025.

School	Location	Founded	Type	Nickname	Joined MVC
Belmont University	Nashville, Tennessee	1890	Private	Bruins	2022
Bradley University	Peoria, Illinois	1897	Private	Braves	1948, 1955^[a]
Drake University	Des Moines, Iowa	1881	Private	Bulldogs	1907, 1956^[a]
University of Evansville	Evansville, Indiana	1854	Private	Purple Aces	1994
Illinois State University	Normal, Illinois	1857	Public	Redbirds	1981
Indiana State University	Terre Haute, Indiana	1865	Public	Sycamores	1977
Missouri State University	Springfield, Missouri	1905	Public	Bears	1990
Murray State University	Murray, Kentucky	1922	Public	Racers	2022
University of Northern Iowa	Cedar Falls, Iowa	1890	Public	Panthers	1979
Southern Illinois University Carbondale	Carbondale, Illinois	1869	Public	Salukis	1975
University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)	Chicago, Illinois	1859	Public	Flames	2022
Valparaiso University	Valparaiso, Indiana	1859	Private	Beacons	2017

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 During the 1951–52 school year, Bradley and Drake left the MVC. This followed a race-related attack against black Drake football player Johnny Bright by a white Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) player during a 1951 game. Bradley came back to the MVC in 1955, and Drake did so a year later.

Associate members

The MVC has six "associate members", each of which plays one sport in the conference.

School	Location	Founded	Type	Joined	Sport	Current main conference	Nickname
Ball State University	Muncie. Indiana	1918	Public	2024	Men's swimming & diving	MAC	Cardinals
Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green)	Bowling Green, Ohio	1910	Public	2023	Men's soccer	MAC	Falcons
University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Little Rock)	Little Rock, Arkansas	1927	Public	2013	Women's swimming & diving	Ohio Valley	Trojans
Miami University	Oxford, Ohio	1809	Public	2024	Men's swimming & diving	MAC	RedHawks
Northern Illinois University	DeKalb, Illinois	1895	Public	2023	Men's soccer	MAC	Huskies
Western Michigan University	Kalamazoo, Michigan	1903	Public	2023	Men's soccer	MAC	Broncos

References

"Missouri Valley Conference". mvc-sports.com. Retrieved 2014-06-02.

[Bright-1] 1.0 ^1.1 During the 1951–52 school year, Bradley and Drake left the MVC. This followed a race-related attack against black Drake football player Johnny Bright by a white Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) player during a 1951 game. Bradley came back to the MVC in 1955, and Drake did so a year later.

[a]