Murray State Football To Join Missouri Valley Football Conference July of 2023

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Jason Svoboda

The Bird Level
Administrator
Found this post on Reddit:

So yesterday we had a pretty innocuous post on twitter noting that it'd been almost three months since Murray State had been accepted into the MVC and submitted their application to joining the MVFC as a football member (remember, the MVFC is a sperate conference from the MVC, and is made up of mainly Summit and MVC teams, along with the long Horizon League member Youngstown State).

Well that started off a bit of a conversation, including Sam Herder (a great FCS follow if you don't already) mentioning that not every MVFC school was supportive of Murray State joining and things were still a bit up in the air.

Well, we got some back channel news after the tweet from a couple of folks deep in the know on the situation, and boy is it a doozy! Our twitter thread here for the initial conversation.

But the highlights are a doozy!
  • Huge amount of discontent behind the scenes when Murray State was expected to just be written in to the MVFC as well. And not just from the Summit/MVC factions of the MVFC!
  • SIU and Missouri State both appeared to have been frustrated on the football front despite being ok with the MVC for other sports. Mainly around a perceived encroachment into the region south of St Louis. Allegedly a certain motorcycle enthusiast said, as was given to us as a direct quote, that it's “bad enough SEMO is sitting there, why should I compete with my own conference for recruits?”
  • Summit schools, with the Dakota schools in particular being the louder voices on the matter, are upset about the travel implications. This was sort of speculated on, but was good to get confirmation. Allegedly (again, going to be careful with this and not name names or anything) one of the Dakota ADs didn’t “buy” that Murray State should get a free entry in. Went as far as to say that Murray State is “too deep in the middle of nowhere” to be a viable member of the MVFC as it currently exists.
  • The whole thing is shaking the MVFC pretty significantly, and longtime Commissioner Patty Viverito has even mentioned to people that she's considering walking away from the MFVC to focus just on the Pioneer Football League (which she's the Commissioner of as well, for those that didn't know)
  • That seeming threat seems predicated on the MVC and Summit potentially splitting. Which is seeming more imminent by the moment. Which leads to big implications...
    • The first is with the Summit League. It appears the Summit is actively soliciting Northern Colorado to jump ship from the Big Sky, in hopes of having a 7 team football conference out the gate if they do split. It's assumed St. Thomas would add scholarships and join as a football member in that situation.
    • Likewise, the MVC has been back channel discussing how to hold YSU and try and pull in Robert Morris, with maybe the mild surprise being that they’re eying Duquesne.
    • MAYBE BIGGEST NEWS: the MVC is also actively discussing bringing on another school school without football currently. Which will blow everyone's mind: Chicago State!!!
So yeah, really interesting way to start off April and the depths of spring offseason tomfoolery, that's for sure.
 

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ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) Presidents Council voted to extend an offer of membership to Murray State University Friday, establishing the Racers Football program as the 12th member of the nation's preeminent FCS conference.

More...
 

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I'm also reading that the football schedule is going to be set up to where you play every team in the MVFC at least 4 times in a 6 year span.
 
From the story:

"Indiana State President Deborah Curtis did not attend the meeting at which the presidents voted, according to her chief of staff. A follow-up to see if Curtis voted was not immediately answered."
 
From the story:

"Indiana State President Deborah Curtis did not attend the meeting at which the presidents voted, according to her chief of staff. A follow-up to see if Curtis voted was not immediately answered."
Destroying a school takes a lot of your time. Andi Myers was super busy and she was only trying to destroy a football team.
 

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Destroying a school takes a lot of your time. Andi Myers was super busy and she was only trying to destroy a football team.
We're unique. How many alumni of a D-1 university can say their school purposefully tanked it's football program and then in the next decade blew up a winning basketball program....also on purpose? All the while cutting enrollment by 50%. Quite the achievement.
 
We're unique. How many alumni of a D-1 university can say their school purposefully tanked it's football program and then in the next decade blew up a winning basketball program....also on purpose? All the while cutting enrollment by 50%. Quite the achievement.

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They just didn't tell you what more was.
 
From the story:

"Indiana State President Deborah Curtis did not attend the meeting at which the presidents voted, according to her chief of staff. A follow-up to see if Curtis voted was not immediately answered."
That's pretty embarrassing. Absolutely pathetic if she didn't vote.
 
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