The MVC has its roots in the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA), a league formed in 1907 by several schools in the Midwestern United States. The MVIAA split into two leagues in 1928. One league, made up mostly of large schools, kept the MVIAA name and years later became the Big Eight Conference. The smaller schools formed the MVC. Both groups claimed a 1907 founding date, and the same history up to the 1928 split. However, the Big Eight merged in 1996 with several schools from the collapsing Southwest Conference to form today's Big 12 Conference, which does not claim any of the Big Eight's history. Because of this, only the MVC now has a claim to any of the MVIAA's history.