Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association

The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) was a former college athletic conference and the second college conference formed upon its foundation on January 12, 1907.[1] The conference was initially formed by an agreement among representatives of five schools, the University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, University of Iowa, and Washington University of St. Louis. Iowa State College and Drake University, both joined the conference together in March 1907. The University of Iowa, who had only took part in football, left after the 1908 season and remained a member of the Big Ten Conference, but the other schools joined the MVIAA, including Kansas State University, Grinnell College, the University of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma A&M.[1]

In 1928, the conference split apart, with two conferences formed, both of whom claimed to be the legitimate heir to the MVIAA history. Six of the seven state schools–all except Oklahoma A&M–reorganized under the MVIAA name. This conference would eventually evolve into the Big Eight Conference. Drake, Grinnell, Washington, and Oklahoma A&M formed the Missouri Valley Conference, which retained the same administrative staff. For the remainder of the Big Eight's run, both conferences claimed 1907 as their founding date, and the same history through 1927. To this day, it has never been definitively established which conference was the original.