The Missouri Valley Football Conference announced late Friday (Aug. 7) that it will push its conference games to the spring of 2021 and still allow its 11 member schools to play non-conference football games this fall, if they choose to do so.
The action was approved by vote of the MVFC President’s Council in response to growing national concerns about the safety of college football within the landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even though game schedules and start dates have yet to be determined for a spring season, the new plan would still call for each team to play eight MVFC games with the spring season culminating with the FCS Playoffs..
“Now that we have some direction from the conference, it gives us an opportunity to start planning how we want to handle our non-conference opportunities this fall,” said Missouri State Director of Athletics Kyle Moats. “We look forward to competing within our conference for NCAA Championship bids in the spring.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes remains our top priority as we begin evaluating those short-term and long-term schedules.”
Montana was scheduled as the Bears’ opponent in MSU’s Sept. 12 home opener, however the Big Sky Conference also announced Friday it would be going to a spring-only schedule. That would leave FBS foe Oklahoma and FCS independent Tarleton State as MSU’s remaining contracted, non-conference games for the fall.
Moats noted that a decision on Missouri State’s non-conference dates will be made in the coming days.