FARGO — One of the most often asked questions I have received since news broke last month that the Missouri Valley Football Conference and Summit League were going to partner up has been, why?

The answer is both a complicated and simple one for those that closely follow collegiate sports and the inner workings. This is meant as the best way to explain why this happened and what you could expect going forward from these leagues.

Those announcements created more questions. Jackson is currently the commissioner of the Missouri Valley Conference (a separate league than the MVFC); how can he do both jobs?

“The excellence that this league (MVFC) has had for an extended period of time would be exciting for everyone,” said Jackson. “It’s a sport that I love, having an opportunity to participate in this fashion is good to me.”

I interviewed Jackson on Hot Mic last week. Here is some of our exchange on the biggest questions surrounding the new partnership.

“This is a unique situation with a conference with four schools, another conference and Youngstown State which plays in the Horizon League,” Jackson said. “This seemed like a logical solution that the conferences would work together and manage the operations of this conference. Everyone has a stake here.”

“That will be the person to manage and operate the day to day. They will have a great relationship with our athletic directors and coaches. The AD’s will be the practitioners and make sure we’re serving their needs.”

“The particulars of that are personal to the conference. We see the MVFC as a vessel that can enhance those multi-sport conferences (Summit and MVC) and if the opportunity presents itself to take advantage of that. We don’t want to be in the position if one side of the street precludes someone on the other side of the street that can be beneficial to the multi-sport conference.”

This is an interesting answer. I have reported as have several other outlets that the Summit League is in the running to add some potential new members. Those range from Southern Utah, Utah Tech, Utah Valley and Dixie State, along with Tarleton State, UT Arlington and Abilene Christian.

Why this answer from Jackson is important is because it finally puts the Summit League in a position of strength. For a decade, the league has been on its heels, dealing with schools departing, with the biggest addition being the University of St. Thomas in July 2020. Now with this partnership, the Summit League can go to these schools and offer a sweetener for its football program: “Hey we would love to have you in the Summit League and by the way, your football teams can go play in the best league in the FCS?”

If the schools being reported on are accurate, that automatically makes the Texas schools way more appealing. Abilene Christian and Tarleton State each made the FCS Playoffs, both falling to MVFC schools, North Dakota State and South Dakota in the second round.

The one common denominator with the teams being mentioned for expansion are all housed in the Western Athletic Conference. Several sources have told me that no one wants to be the first to leave the league for fear of the league crumbling and missing out on potential money.

“What can we do to better brand and promote the MVFC? I know we’re having conversations about a media day, which would be in July, somewhere in the Dakotas, likely Sioux Falls.”

This may not be a big deal for the average fan, but look a little deeper. Each of the so-called power leagues in FCS football have held an in-person Media Day for several years. The Southland, Colonial and Big Sky have held their preseason press conferences in cities to generate attention for the upcoming season. For the last decade-plus, the MVFC has held a teleconference or video conference for its media day. While it may not be the biggest thing to fans, it also serves as the official kickoff for the football season. When fans are starving for football content in July, why not feed that appetite?

This also reinforces a point I’ve made for several years about the MVFC. Its social media presence is lacking. The last post made from its X account came in February, announcing its 40th anniversary team. Compare that to the Big Sky and CAA, where they have constant content each day.

The Summit League has done a great job of promoting its league, even when games aren’t happening. The Summit has held an in-person basketball media day each of the last two years in Sioux Falls, which has been well attended to get the season going.

You do one for football? You’ll have media from Fargo, Grand Forks, Sioux Falls, Cedar Rapids and other spots coming to get people ready for the new season.

For NFL and college football schedule nerds, this is a huge week. The NFL schedule will be announced on Wednesday, May 14. Each of the days leading up there will be slow drips of news coming on some highlight games for the upcoming fall.

This week in New York City the TV upfronts are being held, where TV networks tell advertising executives about the new shows they’re debuting. Live sports programming has become huge for this week, that’s why you’ll see the NFL, NBA and college football have a prominent place there.

Locally, we may start to see some game times and networks for the FCS-FBS games to start the season, ranging from North Dakota - Kansas State, Iowa State - South Dakota and several others.

College football scheduling nerds: We'll start to get some networks and times for early season games this week.

Those wondering on FCS games, I would expect in a couple of weeks, especially for Missouri Valley and Big Sky games picked up by ESPN.

ESPN is about to begin its second year of its six-year contract with the MVFC, where the network can select any game that they would like. Last year ESPN selected the NDSU - SDSU and USD -SDSU games to be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU in back to back weeks.

There are early indications to WDAY Sports that ESPN is looking at the Dakota Marker game on Oct. 25 to be one of the games that they would select. It’s worth noting what the other games that are happening on that particular weekend that could affect selection.

For example, NDSU hosts South Dakota on Sept. 27. That could very well be a preseason top five matchup between two teams that reached the semifinals last year and add on the fact that USD has beaten NDSU in the regular season in back-to-back years.

But that weekend alone are the following games that ESPN could select: BYU at Colorado, Alabama at Georgia, LSU at Mississippi and Notre Dame at Arkansas. Those games could push out the NDSU - USD game from being picked.

The last thing that either of those schools want is to be picked and be put on ESPNU. They want ESPN or ESPN2. Just looking ahead to the end of October there are some potential interesting games, highlighted by Alabama at South Carolina and BYU at Iowa State.

We will know by the end of the month what games ESPN will be selecting from the Missouri Valley. We’ll also know the Big Sky games, which doubles to four this year, as part of a new contract with the WorldWide Leader and the Big Sky.

That’s notable for a couple of reasons, the biggest being that the league will have a minimum of four regular-season games televised on a Friday or Saturday, with a minimum of two games being on ESPN or ESPN2.

If I’m Jeff Jackson, I’m looking right at that deal to enhance the visibility of my league. The Big Sky has an inherent advantage with its location and time zone, that teams can play later at night and be at normal times in those places. But in this day and age, thinking outside the box isn’t the worst thing.

Coaches and players may hate a Thursday or Friday game, but imagine the energy of a Friday night game in Brookings when there’s only a handful of other games happening that night. National television on ESPN or ESPN2? I was in the building last October for the Dakota Marker game in primetime. It was electric in the dome.

The Valley needs a jumpstart for its notoriety and recognition nationally beyond the actual games on the field. Expansion, social media and some creative TV could go a long ways to helping in that area.