South Dakota State and North Dakota State have not been invited to join the Gateway Football Conference, but they have been asked to attend league meetings on Feb. 19 in St. Louis, commissioner Patty Viverito said Wednesday.

SDSU athletic director Fred Oien confirmed the invitation and said that he and university president David Chicoine plan to accept.

Typically, the Gateway meetings are attended by athletic directors, football coaches and faculty representatives, according to Viverito, and in this case, six of the league’s seven school presidents will attend, as well.

They won’t be required to vote on expansion, but they won’t be precluded from doing so, either.

“I think our intention from the Gateway side of things is to listen, to learn more about them and gauge a level of mutual interest,” said Viverito, whose league consists of Northern Iowa, Western Illinois, Southern Illinois, Indiana State, Illinois State, Missouri State and Youngstown State. “And depending how those discussions go, (we want) to get a timeline on what we would do to make a decision, what additional information or what additional time people would need to a make a final decision.”

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