VALLEY CITY, ND  (NewsDakota.com)  One step forward, one step back in stabilizing small-college football in the upper midwest.

The NAIA has approved an expanded football playoff format, to be in use starting this fall.

The field will expand from 16 teams to 20 teams.  Previously, qualifying for the playoffs automatically required two standards; winning a team’s conference championship and being ranked in the top 20 in the national poll.  Conference champions that were ranked 17-20, if any, would displace a top-16 team in the playoffs.

Starting this year, all 13 conference champions will receive and automatic bid, no matter their national ranking.  The seven highest nationally ranked teams to not win a conference title will fill out the field.

However, Valley City State and their colleagues in the North Start Athletic Association (NSAA) will now need to find a new member in two years, or they will lose their automatic qualifier.

Iowa Wesleyan has announced it will close after 181 years of operation in Mount Pleasant, IA.  The Tigers were a member of the NSAA for football.

Earlier this year, Presentation College in Aberdeen, SD, announced it’s closure, leaving the league with just five football playing schools; the Vikings, Mayville State, Dickinson State, Dakota State, and Waldorf University.  The conference requires six teams to be members in a conference to make that conference eligible for an automatic qualifier.

The Vikings will now play a double-round robin within the league, featuring two games with the other four conference schools, along with non-conference games against the University of Jamestown and South Dakota Mines, in 2023.