In breaking news today from Brad Schlossman/Tom Miller of the Grand Forks Herald, UND will be announcing tomorrow that they are moving their football team to the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
UND is not set to join the Missouri Valley until 2020, however.
The rest of the sports will be joining the Summit League.
This move has been rumored for awhile now due to UND’s geographical location, mostly. NDSU, SDSU and USD all compete in the Summit/MVFC.
The Missouri Valley is considered the toughest FCS football conference in the country. They currently have 10 teams with UND bringing them to 11. Each team will not play two other conference mates each season.
In the meantime, UND will play in the Big Sky Conference. However, they will not be eligible to win the conference title/autobid for the 2018 & 2019 seasons. Not a huge deal as full resume is used in selecting teams for the playoffs.
It was speculated last spring that UND could save around 500K+ by joining the Summit/MVFC. With the ongoing budget issues happening across the state of North Dakota right now it only makes sense that UND tries to slash budget while joining two solid conference.
