ST. LOUIS - Gateway Football Conference officials will discuss a possible name change to the Missouri Valley Conference at a February meeting. The change would apparently be in name only. The Missouri Valley sponsored football until 1985. Illinois State has been part of the Gateway since the league's inception that same year.

"This is something Illinois State is wholeheartedly in favor of," Redbird athletics director Sheahon Zenger said Tuesday. "It would simply be a name brand change only. It would reflect well on the football playing schools of the Valley as well as the other members of the Gateway. It would bring something substantial to each and every institution."

Five of the nine Gateway schools for the 2008 season are already in the Valley: ISU, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, Missouri State and Indiana State. The other four (Western Illinois, Youngstown State, South Dakota State, North Dakota State) would be football-only Valley members.

"The thought is we'd have access to leveraging in both television and marketing that we haven't had in the past," said Patty Viverito, commissioner of the Gateway since the league's founding. "So if we can make it work, we'll make it work. Preliminary discussions said if all we're talking about is re-branding, there's value and we can all live with that."

The 100-year-old Missouri Valley is the second oldest NCAA Division I conference. According to Viverito, the MVC based many of its decisions on what was best for football, and that became divisive among members. After football was dropped, the Valley then focused on becoming a mid-major power in men's basketball.

"There might be some opportunities for football to benefit from that, and the current membership is much more consolidated," Viverito said.

Zenger calls the possible change "a win-win situation for Gateway members and the Valley as a whole."

While the switch in names will be discussed at the February meeting, Zenger called a vote "possible" on that day as well.

"That is something we're working through right now," he said.

The Gateway and Missouri Valley already share headquarters in St. Louis.