The MVFC has a confusing history that is closely tied to that of two other existing conferences: the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) and the Association of Mid-Continent Universities (AMCU), now known as The Summit League. In the 1984 season, the last in which both of these conferences played football, all of the AMCU football schools were members of NCAA Division I-AA, now known as FCS. The MVC had schools that played in both DIvision I-A (today's Football Bowl Subdivision) and Division I-AA. The AMCU dropped football after the 1984 season, and the MVC announced it would do the same after the 1985 season. Beginning with the 1985 season, all of the remaining AMCU football teams, plus the MVC's I-AA teams, joined the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (Gateway), which had sponsored only women's sports. Most of the schools in the Gateway were also MVC members. The MVC's I-AA football teams had membership in the MVC and Gateway in the 1985 season.