Leaving the conference

[ST_Lawson]

Scott, do you see the OVC adding any others teams and what do you think the Summit will do. You think they will target other schools or you think there is a chance it could dissolve with other conferences looking to nab the Dakota schools.
 

Follow-up comments on possible OVC teams:

U of Indy was mentioned as a DII "move up", although their board of trustees just recently turned down the possibility of going DI. They could change their minds, but at least for now, they're not going anywhere.
I've seen some talk saying that some of the schools in the new United Athletic Conference aren't so happy about how things went down with some of the schools that are moving up for CUSA. I think that some schools thought there'd be something like a 10-year period where they could all work together to build up and try to move up "en masse" to FBS, but then Jacksonville State and Sam Houston, and shortly after, Kennesaw State, all got invites up to CUSA and said "see ya" to the UAC. Then you have Eastern Kentucky, who is frequently mentioned as another possible CUSA invite when there's more shakeup in the FBS ranks (which sounds like it's coming sooner rather than later), and Lamar, who joined the then WAC/ASUN for just long enough to look around and then "nope" on out of there back to the Southland.

Now that we have a vested interest in what happens in the OVC, what I'd really like to see happen is the UAC falls apart.
EKU moves up to CUSA (or maybe Sun Belt...depends on who needs teams at that point).
Southern Utah and Utah Tech join up with the UAC Texas teams (SFA, Tarleton, Abilene Christian, UTRGV) plus maybe Northern Arizona from the Big Sky (they're a pretty far outlier already), and possibly a few Southland members to form essentially a new, more stable WAC with FCS football.
Meanwhile, the remaining teams: Central Arkansas, North Alabama, and Austin Peay all move (or move back in APSU's case) to the OVC.

Think about that for a minute...
Austin Peay is right in the middle of the conference footprint and despite them leaving a few years ago, I don't know that they burned many bridges, plus the OVC is still probably wanting a few more football teams.
North Alabama is a bit further out, but not crazy far. It'd be a flight for us, but we're still pretty compact.
Then Central Arkansas...generally pretty good football team, not that far outside the footprint, and if you look at the "olympic sports"...a perfect travel partner for Little Rock (literally 35 minutes up the road).

If they pick up APSU, UNA, and UCA, then the OVC is at 10 football playing members and doesn't have to do the Big South football partnership anymore. If they do the schedule like the MVFC has been doing the last decade or so, 10 teams means you skip 1 conference member every pair of years, but play everyone else. 8 conference games, 3 OOC games (or 4 if in a 12-game season), and we're all set.

For basketball, they're at 14 teams. Pair up travel partners of UALR and UCA, Lindenwood and SIU-E, WIU and EIU, SEMO and UT-Martin, TN Tech and Austin Peay, TN State and UNA, and Morehead State and Southern Indiana.

I know the odds are against that happening, but it sounds like a pretty solid conference to me.

Barring that, another possibility that I think would be pretty decent would be for Indiana State to join the OVC for just football, then YSU and Robert Morris (pretty close to YSU and already plays some OVC teams in football due to the OVC+Big South partnership). It expands out the footprint a little, but YSU and RMU would be travel partners, so that would help with the "olympic sports".

The problem is, there's not a lot of great options that are really tight within the existing footprint of the OVC, so if you're adding anyone, you're probably going to have to look at expanding at least a little. INSU and Austin Peay are the closest ones to the middle of the conference, UNA and UCA aren't that far away, YSU and RMU are a bit further.

[may know]

That video was awesome. The slides at the end of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference from 100 years ago were fascinating. I noticed Carthage in there - from back when they were located in Carthage. There were schools in that map that went extinct 80 years ago. Fascinating stuff!

Also, it was before my time, but I didn't realize we sold out a game vs EIU with 6700 in 1983. 



 

He has a you tube channel called D1 360. On his defunct conferences section he goes in depth of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.


 

Thanks for that. Just got around to watching it. Really fascinating stuff from 100 years ago with old newspaper clippings. 


 

[sealhall74]

That video was awesome. The slides at the end of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference from 100 years ago were fascinating. I noticed Carthage in there - from back when they were located in Carthage. There were schools in that map that went extinct 80 years ago. Fascinating stuff!

Also, it was before my time, but I didn't realize we sold out a game vs EIU with 6700 in 1983. 


 

Two years before that we set the home attendance record of 8003 against EIU.  I was one of them.  Face painted, sitting in first row of east endzone under basket.  The concrete walls were reverberating on that night. Looked up in the rafters and there was a sign which read "We've got that Ole Jack Magic".  Crazy wild times you never forget. 
 
 

[leatherneckcountry]

[leatherneckcountry]

[ST_Lawson]

 

Whoah...that's kinda a big deal. Wonder where women's bowling is going to be practicing. College City? Or are they going to build a new bowling alley in the Union?

I'd imagine beach volleyball will maybe go in over by North Quad, where there are currently a couple of beach volleyball courts.

Video page for the press conference is live now:


 

[sealhall74]

Well done.  Even got the Commish to wear some lilac/purple.  
 

[screamingeaglepride]

Scott, do you see the OVC adding any others teams and what do you think the Summit will do. You think they will target other schools or you think there is a chance it could dissolve with other conferences looking to nab the Dakota schools.

 

Follow-up comments on possible OVC teams:

U of Indy was mentioned as a DII "move up", although their board of trustees just recently turned down the possibility of going DI. They could change their minds, but at least for now, they're not going anywhere.
I've seen some talk saying that some of the schools in the new United Athletic Conference aren't so happy about how things went down with some of the schools that are moving up for CUSA. I think that some schools thought there'd be something like a 10-year period where they could all work together to build up and try to move up "en masse" to FBS, but then Jacksonville State and Sam Houston, and shortly after, Kennesaw State, all got invites up to CUSA and said "see ya" to the UAC. Then you have Eastern Kentucky, who is frequently mentioned as another possible CUSA invite when there's more shakeup in the FBS ranks (which sounds like it's coming sooner rather than later), and Lamar, who joined the then WAC/ASUN for just long enough to look around and then "nope" on out of there back to the Southland.

Now that we have a vested interest in what happens in the OVC, what I'd really like to see happen is the UAC falls apart.
EKU moves up to CUSA (or maybe Sun Belt...depends on who needs teams at that point).
Southern Utah and Utah Tech join up with the UAC Texas teams (SFA, Tarleton, Abilene Christian, UTRGV) plus maybe Northern Arizona from the Big Sky (they're a pretty far outlier already), and possibly a few Southland members to form essentially a new, more stable WAC with FCS football.
Meanwhile, the remaining teams: Central Arkansas, North Alabama, and Austin Peay all move (or move back in APSU's case) to the OVC.

Think about that for a minute...
Austin Peay is right in the middle of the conference footprint and despite them leaving a few years ago, I don't know that they burned many bridges, plus the OVC is still probably wanting a few more football teams.
North Alabama is a bit further out, but not crazy far. It'd be a flight for us, but we're still pretty compact.
Then Central Arkansas...generally pretty good football team, not that far outside the footprint, and if you look at the "olympic sports"...a perfect travel partner for Little Rock (literally 35 minutes up the road).

If they pick up APSU, UNA, and UCA, then the OVC is at 10 football playing members and doesn't have to do the Big South football partnership anymore. If they do the schedule like the MVFC has been doing the last decade or so, 10 teams means you skip 1 conference member every pair of years, but play everyone else. 8 conference games, 3 OOC games (or 4 if in a 12-game season), and we're all set.

For basketball, they're at 14 teams. Pair up travel partners of UALR and UCA, Lindenwood and SIU-E, WIU and EIU, SEMO and UT-Martin, TN Tech and Austin Peay, TN State and UNA, and Morehead State and Southern Indiana.

I know the odds are against that happening, but it sounds like a pretty solid conference to me.

Barring that, another possibility that I think would be pretty decent would be for Indiana State to join the OVC for just football, then YSU and Robert Morris (pretty close to YSU and already plays some OVC teams in football due to the OVC+Big South partnership). It expands out the footprint a little, but YSU and RMU would be travel partners, so that would help with the "olympic sports".

The problem is, there's not a lot of great options that are really tight within the existing footprint of the OVC, so if you're adding anyone, you're probably going to have to look at expanding at least a little. INSU and Austin Peay are the closest ones to the middle of the conference, UNA and UCA aren't that far away, YSU and RMU are a bit further.

 

I do not see North Alabama joining the OVC. North Alabama applied to the OVC around 10 years ago and the OVC turned them down. Austin Peay left the OVC on good terms so the door is open for Austin Peay. With 7 football schools in the OVC I believe that the OVC should ask the 4 Big South football schools to join the OVC in football only and then the OVC should wait to see if the MVFC disbands and go after Southern Illinois and Indiana State.

[screamingeaglepride]

Since there are no divisions in NCAA women's bowling I wonder if Western Illinois would join the Great Lakes Valley Conference in women's bowling. The 7 schools that are in GLVC women's bowling are McKendree, Newman, Maryville, Quincy, Central Missouri State, Lewis and Upper Iowa, 

[ST_Lawson]

Since there are no divisions in NCAA women's bowling I wonder if Western Illinois would join the Great Lakes Valley Conference in women's bowling. The 7 schools that are in GLVC women's bowling are McKendree, Newman, Maryville, Quincy, Central Missouri State, Lewis and Upper Iowa, 

 

I don't think that's quite accurate, at least not as near as I can tell. There are divisions, but all the divisions compete together. However, the conferences themselves are each one specific division. Also, I don't believe DI schools are allowed to have any of their sports actually play in a lower division. There are a few specific instances where lower division schools can have a sport at the DI level, most notably with some northern DII and DIII schools playing hockey in a DI hockey conference (DIII Colorado College, DII UM-Duluth, and DII St. Cloud State in the DI NCHC for example).
The GLVC is DII, CCIW is DIII, etc. and I don't think they can accept DI schools for any sport, even as an affiliate/associate.

The only DI conferences I was able to find that offer bowling are the MEAC, NEC, and SWAC. There was a Southland Bowling League, but it disbanded after this year with most of the teams being absorbed into CUSA bowling, which is slated to include Louisiana Tech, Jacksonville State, Tulane, Sam Houston, Arkansas State, Stephen F. Austin, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, and Youngstown State. DI institutions Nebraska and Mount St. Mary's both compete independently.

So, I think the better route for us would be to just be independent but try to play against the local GLVC and CCIW teams as well as relatively nearby DI schools like Valpo, Nebraska, and Vanderbilt.