MVFC Partners With Summit League, Names Jeff Jackson Commissioner

The Missouri Valley Football Conference made a pair of announcements on Monday: the conference will partner with the Summit League and Jeff Jackson will be the next commissioner.

The MVFC and Summit League partnership will see Jackson take over as commissioner of the MVFC on July 1, 2025, and name Josh Fenton as the Executive Advisor for the MVFC. There will be a new joint management model between the Missouri Valley Conference and the Summit League while keeping the MVFC as an independent entity. The partnership is likely to allow more input on membership changes to maintain the MVFC’s place atop the FCS landscape.

Jackson has large shoes to fill as he will replace Patty Viverito. Viverito was the first and only MVFC commissioner since it began sponsoring football in 1985 under the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (GCAC) name. The GCAC and Missouri Valley Conference merged in 1992 to form the Gateway Football Conference (GFC). The GFC was renamed to the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2008.

The then-Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference had six founding members in 1985: Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, and Western Illinois. It became seven the following year when Indiana State joined. Eastern Illinois left the then-Gateway Football Conference (GFC) in 1995. One of the more high-profile arrivals happened in 1997 when Youngstown State joined after winning Division I-AA National Championships in 1991, 1993, and 1994. The Penguins promptly won the 1997 I-AA title in their first season as a member of the GFC.

Western Kentucky joined in 2001, won the 2002 I-AA title, and then left for the FBS in 2007. The two biggest additions occurred the following year when Division II programs North Dakota State and South Dakota State joined the MVFC in 2008, although it was unknown at the time how dominant the two would become at the FCS level. NDSU won 10 titles between 2011 and 2024, while SDSU has won two in 2022 and 2023. The MVFC has also been runner-up four times since 2010 (Illinois State in 2014, Youngstown State in 2016, SDSU in 2020, and NDSU in 2022). The 2014 and 2022 FCS National Championship games are the only times the title game has featured two teams from the same conference.

The MVFC added South Dakota in 2012, North Dakota in 2020, and Murray State in 2023. Western Illinois left the MVFC for the Big South-OVC in 2024 while Missouri State will leave in 2025 to join the FBS and Conference USA. The MVFC will have 10 members for the 2025 season: Illinois State, Indiana State, Murray State, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, and Youngstown State.

Photo Credit to the Missouri Valley Football Conference