The Association of Mid-Continent Universities football was a part of the college athletic conference which operated in the midwestern United States. It participated in NCAA Division II until moving to NCAA Division I-AA (now known as Division I FCS) in 1981.[1]
The conference was founded as the Mid-Continent Athletic Association in 1977 and commenced official operations on July 1, 1978.[2] It was originally an NCAA Division II conference.[3] The founding members of the Mid-Continent Athletic Association football were Akron, Eastern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Northern Michigan, Western Illinois, and Youngstown State. Wayne State also expressed interest in joining the conference.[4] After the 1979 season, Akron and Youngstown State left. After the 1980 season, Northern Michigan left, then starting with the 1981 season Southwest Missouri State (now known as Missouri State) joined the conference. In 1982, the Association of Mid-Continent Universities started sponsoring football, but ceased in 1985. What is currently called The Summit League studied sponsoring football once more in 2010.[5]
Football was sponsored by the conference from 1978 to 1984. The final four members of the conference went on to join the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference, a women's sports conference that took on football as its only men's sport. After the women's side of the Gateway merged into the Missouri Valley Conference in 1992, the football side remained in operation as the Gateway Football Conference, which became the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2008.
Of the last four members, three (Missouri State, Northern Iowa, Western Illinois) are still in the MVFC; Eastern Illinois is now in the Ohio Valley Conference. Youngstown State, which left the Mid-Continent after the 1980 season, joined Gateway football in 1997, and remains in the MVFC.
