Summit League, Missouri Valley Football Conference partnership coming as is more FCS regular season games

FARGO — The Summit League and Missouri Valley Football Conference share four schools that have membership in both leagues. It appears that the two conferences may be sharing much more in the near future.

HERO Sports reported Sunday that the two leagues will go into a memorandum of agreement with the Summit League getting a larger say into the decision making of the MVFC.

This process has been long in the making, dating back to when MVFC commissioner Patty Viverito announced her retirement in July 2024. Since then, there’s been a committee meeting on what the next steps forward for the conference would be.

“We need to spend the next six months to determine the best model for the league going forward,” North Dakota State athletic director Matt Larsen said on Hot Mic in August 2024 in reference to a new Summit League commissioner. “Is it affiliated with one of the all-sport conferences or staying as a single-sport conference?”

Larsen was asked if it would be the Missouri Valley Football Conference under the Summit League umbrella?

“It would be separate operations. I could see where the value is if you’re affiliated with an all-sport conference is you have a seat at the table at the conference commissioner meetings, you have a vote, football is being regularly represented in an NCAA governance standpoint. There’s an opportunity for that league to invest in marketing, promotions, to have an in-person media day to kick off the season. As athletic directors and presidents, what do we want the league to look like going forward?”

The MVFC has largely lacked a social media presence and there’s a desire to restart an in-person media day that the league had 20 years ago. The Summit League has held an in-person media day for basketball each of the last two years, drumming up attention for the season before it has tipped off.

Leadership of the league has been a constant topic of discussion as well.

Mike McFeely and I have been reporting for the last year on Summit League commissioner Josh Fenton to potentially take over that same position for the Valley football side. Sources tell me that it’s likely the MVFC is moving in a different direction with a potential “deputy commissioner” that handles football 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As far as the league offices relocating, with a different concept of running the day-to-day operations, there’s no real plan as of now to have a new location for the league office.

Membership is the interesting component of this story. The report says that under the MOA, any Summit League school that’s added to the league that sponsors football will automatically be placed in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

The Summit League reportedly has been in discussions with Utah Valley, Southern Utah and Utah Tech about membership. UVU does not sponsor football, but they do have baseball, men’s soccer and softball, three sports sought after by the Summit League.

I asked several Summit League decision makers in March about Southern Utah and Utah Tech being added to the league, and they seemed cool on the subject about those schools being added at that time.

The HERO Sports report added that the Summit League may be looking at adding three Texas schools, Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and the University of Texas at Arlington. Arlington doesn’t sponsor football, while the other two schools made the FCS Playoffs, with ACU falling to NDSU in the second round of the tournament in Fargo.

Each of those schools play in the Western Athletic Conference, but the WAC is teetering on implosion. Grand Canyon University and Cal Baptist University have already announced they are leaving. GCU is heading to the Mountain West in 2026, with Cal Baptist going to the Big West. That leaves the WAC with seven schools, four that play football and three that do not.

The University of St. Thomas is the one school that sponsors football in the Summit League, but the Tommie football program plays in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League. Industry sources have repeatedly said that St. Thomas has “no interest in adding scholarships and joining the Missouri Valley.”

The Summit League is made up of North Dakota State, North Dakota, South Dakota State, South Dakota, Omaha, Denver, Oral Roberts, St. Thomas and Kansas City. The MVFC members are comprised of the Dakota schools along with Illinois State, Northern Iowa, Murray State (KY.), Indiana State, Southern Illinois and Youngstown State. YSU’s Olympic sports are housed in the Horizon League, the remaining schools are all in the Missouri Valley Conference.

MORE FCS GAMES COMING?

The amount of regular season football games North Dakota State and the University of North Dakota play could be increasing. Monday, the Football Championship Subdivision Oversight Committee is meeting on a proposal that would permit 12 regular season games every year starting in 2026.

FCS teams are allowed to play 11 games currently, unless the calendar falls where there are 12 Saturdays between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, which was the case for the 2024 season and this upcoming year.

This proposal would allow FCS teams to play their first game beginning two Thursdays before Labor Day. The Oversight Committee met in March and agreed to solicit feedback from their conferences and other key FCS stakeholders. The committee will then discuss whether to recommend changes for the 2026 season under the council’s expedited process.

David Samson/The Forum

Sources indicate to WDAY Sports that there is a desire among many FCS programs advocating for a 12th game. Bison head coach Tim Polasek said in March that he’s been told to prepare for an earlier start for the 2026 season. “The one thing I’ve started to plan for 2026 is we’ll be in fall camp on July 23,” Polasek said. “Everyone will essentially play 12 games and that stresses Todd Phelps out with the scheduling. That’s in the direction we’re moving with expansion of the College Football Playoff planned for 2026.”

NDSU athletic director Matt Larsen was on the FCS Oversight Committee, along with former Bison head coach Craig Bohl and former South Dakota head coach Bob Nielson.

“I have been pushing lately why can’t FCS have the option every year to play 12 games,” Larsen said on Hot Mic in August 2024. “Instead of having it how the calendar falls, just give the teams the option to play 12. They don’t have to play 12 games, but have the option or you could have two bye weeks during the season.”

Montana State athletic director Leon Costello voiced his support for it on Sam Herder’s FCS podcast last week. “I love it, I love the idea,” Costello said. “On one aspect to limit the games, why don’t we maximize the opportunities for the student-athletes. For us, scheduling is really tough. When we need to have six home games and find one non-conference game, we would love to have more home and home games.

Adding a week and a game adds flexibility for schools to schedule teams.”

The intriguing part of this recommendation is that the 12-game season is not required for all teams. If teams elect to not schedule a 12th game, those schools would have two bye weeks during the season.

Week 1 of the 2026 FCS season is slated for Saturday, Sept. 5. NDSU is scheduled to host East Tennessee State at the Fargodome that day. With this recommendation, the 2026 season could begin on Aug. 27. NDSU Deputy Athletic Director Todd Phelps, who is in charge of football scheduling, has already been reaching out to find a potential opponent. The Bison have six home games already scheduled for that season, with a non-conference road trip to Central Arkansas on Sept. 12.

Sources indicate to WDAY Sports that there was a desire to have the FBS and FCS schedule tethered to one another, but with the expansion of the FBS calendar with the College Football Playoff, that no longer exists.

If approved, Week Zero would become Week 1 for the FCS ranks. That could lead to some potentially attractive TV windows, with the majority of the FBS schedule kicking off the following week. There will be a handful of games in what is Week Zero for FBS, but the FCS could have that week mostly to itself.

The playoff schedule would remain the same with the first round beginning the week after Thanksgiving.