MVC changes format in determining football, volleyball champions

We didn't get the memo.

Last spring, Mississippi Valley Conference athletics directors tweaked the method in which divisional champions will be crowned in football and volleyball.

The change came to the media's attention Tuesday night, when league statistician Dennis Goettel e-mailed media of the change:

"Due to a change made by the Mississippi Valley Conference administrators, effective with this fall season in the sports of football and volleyball, only games within the division will count toward the  ... division championships," Goettel wrote.

Conference commissioner Randy Krejci said, "One reason (the change) got overshadowed was because in April, we were making the change of going to state bylaws instead of conference bylaws."

In the past, MVC divisional champions were determined by a nine-game conference schedule in football and an eight-match conference slate in volleyball. Now, they'll be determined in a six-contest format, against intradivisional opponents only.

"Football and volleyball are the only sports in which teams don't play every other school," said Iowa City West's Marv Reiland, the current chairman for MVC ADs. "So we changed the method of deciding divisional champions in those two sports."

A former AD at Cedar Rapids Washington, Goettel wasn't aware of last spring's action.

"He said, 'When did you do this?' " Reiland said.

MVC standings are updated to reflect divisional play at iowaprepsports.com, here:

Football: http://iowaprepsports.com/2011/09/28/football-standings/

Volleyball:

http://iowaprepsports.com/2011/09/28/mvc-volleyball-standings-2/