Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes YSU senior running back Tyshon King participates in a drill during spring practice back in March.

The Missouri Valley Football Conference’s 40th season will be commissioner Patty Viverito’s last.

Viverito, who has spearheaded the MVFC since its inception, officially announced Tuesday during MVFC Media Days that this season would be her final as commissioner of the FCS’s top football conference and that she would be retiring after the season.

“I’m very much looking forward to my last official visits to each of the campuses,” Viverito said Tuesday during her address. “But I’m getting old and I have granddaughters, so it was time.”

Viverito became the conference’s first commissioner in September 1985, and Youngstown State joined in 1997.

Under Viverito’s leadership, the MVFC has grown to widely be regarded as the deepest and strongest conference in the FCS. The conference has won each of the past three FCS national championships and 11 of the past 13 with South Dakota State and North Dakota State dominating the way.

“Our presidents decided decades ago that we were going to compete at the highest level that the NCAA offered for championship opportunities for Division I,” Viverito said. “We didn’t care what they called it, we didn’t care what the scholarship limits were — we were going to be committed to being the best at this level and we’ve settled quite nicely into that mission and message statement.”

Regarding the current state of college athletics, Viverito mentioned the recent House v. NCAA lawsuit settlement, which would allow schools to directly pay student-athletes, particularly at the Power 5, now Power 4 level.

“The good news is that it doesn’t impact us directly in any way because we don’t get our revenue from NCAA distributions, not directly, so it really didn’t impact our budget planning for next year,” Viverito said. “However, it is going to impact multi-sport leagues and institutions and how they manage things. I can’t speak for how institutions are going to manage how they find that money to pay that debt over the next 10 years. It is significant, but I haven’t gotten any indications that it’s going to result in any direct negative impact on our football programs.”

Viverito also announced the conference had extended its deal with ESPN to continue broadcasting games on ESPN’s platforms for the next six years.

As part of that, two MVFC regular season games have been selected for national broadcast distribution for the first time in the league’s 40-year history. Two-time defending national champion South Dakota State will feature in back-to-back weeks, while North Dakota State and South Dakota will each be featured as well. The network and game times will be announced at a later time.

“We love being a part of ESPN. We think it gives us great visibility and really solidifies our place with the FCS and the premier nature of our league,” Viverito said.

Also, ESPN’s new agreement puts the FCS national championship game in Frisco, Texas on a Monday night in early January, which means it will no longer coincide with the NFL or CFP games like it did last season.

“I think it’s a real positive development. Frisco continues to be a huge success,” Viverito said. “Our fans are there and love it, and I expect that will be the home for that championship game for some years to come.”

Earlier this summer, Missouri State accepted an invitation to leave the MVFC and move up to the FBS level and join Conference USA. This season will be the Bears’ final year in the conference before the move on July 1, 2025.

“It gives us a schedule that approaches the full round robin, or just one game shy of that,” Viverito said. “So we consider that a positive the more MVFC rivalries that we can create through a full schedule.”

With the departure of Western Illinois from the conference this past offseason, along with Missouri State’s looming departure, that means the MVFC would enter the 2025 season with 10 teams — an ideal number according to Viverito, especially with the prospects for FCS realignment being “minimal,” she said.

“We are committed to being the strongest FCS conference in the Midwest. I don’t think we want to get too far afield from our timezone,” Viverito said. “I thought 10 was the perfect number for a whole lot of years. The only reason we expanded beyond 10 was to accommodate our multi-sport athlete needs to accommodate their membership. So we grew beyond nine to get to the point where we got 12 because outside forces really dicated that it was the right thing to do, not because we were enamored with the number 12.”

PRESEASON PICKS

Before the start of Tuesday’s press conferences, the MVFC released the conference’s preseason poll.

After finishing tied for third last season, Youngstown State was projected to finish seventh in the 11-team conference. Two-time defending national champion SDSU received 42 of 44 total first-place votes, with NDSU and Missouri State each receiving one.

“We have a chip on our shoulder every year,” Penguins head coach Doug Phillips said during his media availability. “Being picked ninth two years ago, then seventh — guess what? You still gotta go play football games. Nothing against the media, but what do they really know about offensive or defensive linemen? What we’ve tried to do is focus on building a team.

“We know how difficult it is to win games in this league. We lost two road games by three points last year, and those are probably home playoff games if you do win. But then the games that you do win, every game is going to come down to the last second. So you gotta ignore all that preseason stuff. What players are here, I told them nobody knows who you are. That’s fine. Let’s make sure they know who we are after game 12.”

Along with the poll, the conference also released its All-MVFC Preseason Teams. Just five YSU players were selected, the third fewest of any team in the conference.

After rushing for 1,011 yards and nine touchdowns last season, senior tailback Tyshon King earned All-MVFC Preseason First-Team honors, while senior veteran offensive lineman Jaison Williams also picked up a First-Team nod.

Junior receiver Max Tomczak was an All-MVFC Preseason Second-Team honoree after hauling in 56 receptions for 669 yards and a touchdown last season.

Finally, two specialists earned All-MVFC Preseason Honorable Mentions in sophomore long snapper Sam Merryman and sophomore placekicker Andrew Lastovka, who was 17-for-20 on field goals last season.

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.