The 2020 Missouri Valley Football Conference season was the 35th season of

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

play for the

Missouri Valley Football Conference The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivis ...

and part of the

2020-21 NCAA Division I FCS football season The hyphen-minus is the most commonly used type of hyphen, widely used in digital documents. It is the only character that looks like a minus sign or a dash in many character sets such as ASCII or on most keyboards, so it is also used as such. ...

. This was the MVFC's first season with 11 teams, as they added

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

in the offseason. Although, the conference technically only had 10 of their members play the season, since

Indiana State Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...

opted out of the Spring season.

South Dakota State South Dakota State University is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest and most comprehensive university and the oldest continually ...

made it to their first ever

National Championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

as the number 1 seed, but lost to

Sam Houston State Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...

. SDSU was one of three teams to be a conference co-champion, including

Missouri State Missouri State University (MSU or MO State), formerly Southwest Missouri State University, is a public university in Springfield, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, it is the state's second largest university by enr ...

and

. North Dakota beat Missouri State in the first round of the playoffs, but lost to

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

in the quarterfinals.

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as th ...

and

Southern Illinois Southern Illinois, also known as Little Egypt, is the southern third of Illinois, principally along and south of Interstate 64. Although part of a Midwestern United States, Midwestern state, this region is aligned in culture more with that of th ...

also made the playoffs. North Dakota State beat

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...

in the first round, but lost to eventual champion Sam Houston State in the quarterfinals to be eliminated before the semifinals for the first time since 2010. Southern Illinois beat

Weber State Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

in the first round, but lost to South Dakota State in the quarterfinals.

Previous season

In 2019,

won the conference and received the automatic bid to the 2019 playoffs. They would go on to win the

for their 8th in 9 years. Besides NDSU;

Illinois State Illinois State University (ISU) is a Public university, public university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is reco ...

, and

Northern Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

made the playoffs as well. South Dakota State was the 7 seed, and lost to Northern Iowa in the second round. Illinois State was unseeded and beat

Southeast Missouri State Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) is a public university in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In addition to the main campus, the university has four regional campuses offering full degree programs and a secondary campus housing the Holland Col ...

in the first round, beat

Central Arkansas Central Arkansas, also known as the Little Rock metro, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of ...

in the second round, before losing to North Dakota State in the quarterfinals. Northern Iowa was unseeded as well, and beat

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

in the first round, beat South Dakota State in the second round, but lost to

in the quarterfinals.

Offseason

Over the offseason, the conference welcomed in their 11th league member,

. The Fighting Hawks arrive to the Valley from being a FCS Independent. Before that, they were a part of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

Coaching changes

Missouri State

On January 16, 2020,

Bobby Petrino Robert Patrick Petrino (born March 10, 1961) is an American football coach. He currently serves as the Offensive Coordinator for the Texas A&M Aggies. He is the former head coach for the Missouri State Bears. Previously, he served as the head coa ...

was named the new head coach at Missouri State. Petrino replaces former coach

Dave Steckel David Steckel (born March 15, 1982) is an American former professional ice hockey center. He played in the National Hockey League for the Washington Capitals, the New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs and Anaheim Ducks, before finishing his ...

after he was bought out on January 9, 2020.

Youngstown State

On February 7, 2020, Doug Phillips was named the new head coach at Youngstown State. Phillips replaces former coach

Bo Pelini Mark Anthony "Bo" Pelini (born December 13, 1967) is a former American football coach and former player. He was most recently the defensive coordinator for the Louisiana State University Tigers football team. He is the younger brother of forme ...

who stepped down to take a defensive coordinator position at

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

Preseason

MVFC Media Day

Preseason Poll

The annual preseason poll; voted on by conference coaches, athletic directors, and media members.

Preseason Awards

Individual awards

Rankings

Schedule

All times Central time. † denotes Homecoming game
^ denotes

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

ranking for FBS teams

Regular season schedule

Fall 2020 Games

Some teams played a couple games in the Fall, even though the MVFC schedule was moved to the Spring.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Postseason

In 2020, five teams made the FCS playoffs. South Dakota State (No. 1) was the only seeded team. Missouri State, North Dakota, North Dakota State, and Southern Illinois were all unseeded. Below are the games in which they played. All times Central time. Tournament seedings in parentheses

First round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

National Championship

MVFC records vs other conferences

2020-21 records against non-conference foes: Post Season

Awards and honors

Player of the week honors

Players of the Year

On April 22, 2021, the Missouri Valley Football Conference released their Players of the Year and All-Conference Honors. Offensive Player of the Year * Mark Gronowski, QB (Fr,

) Defensive Player of the Year * Jared Brinkman, DL (Sr,

) Newcomer of the Year * Mark Gronowski, QB (Fr, South Dakota State) Freshman of the Year * Mark Gronowski, QB (South Dakota State) Coach of the Year *

, (

)

All-Conference Teams

All-Newcomer Team

Source:

National Awards

On April 28, 2021, STATS Perform released their list of finalists for the Walter Payton Award, Buck Buchanan Award, and the Jerry Rice Award, respectively. Walter Payton Award
The Walter Payton Award is given to the best FCS offensive player. Here are the MVFC finalists: * Pierre Strong Jr. (RB -

) * Otis Weah (RB -

) There were no MVFC finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award. Jerry Rice Award
The Jerry Rice Award is given to the best FCS freshman player. Here are the MVFC finalists: * Mark Gronowski (QB -

) * Tommy Schuster (QB -

)

All-Americans

Home attendance

Bold - Exceed capacity
†Season High
‡FCS Playoff Game
Given the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, attendance in all venues were severely limited. FCS Playoffs games were limited to 25% capacity as determined by the NCAA.

2021 NFL Draft

The following list includes all MVFC players who were drafted in the

2021 NFL Draft The 2021 NFL Draft was the 86th National Football League Draft, the annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2021 NFL season. The draft was held in Cleveland from April 29 to May 1, 2021 ...

Undrafted Free Agents

Source:

Head coaches

''Through May 16, 2021''

References

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