Leaving the conference
Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 1:23 pm
Fling out the Purple and the Gold, We're Marching On.
http://www.leathernecknation.net/forum/
Yeah, I hate to see us leave for football, but it needed to happen.may wrote:Thu Jan 01, 1970 4:52 am Needed to be done. Can't spend so much of budget on travel and be in over our heads budget-wise. We can compete in the OVC where everyone has similar budgets. It'll stink to lose MVFC games though.
That would make sense to me. For football, I'd love to see fairly regular H&H series with ILSU, UNI, and SIU. In basketball, we don't have as much of an attachment to any teams as we do in football. However, while the Summit League has moved to the point where we were well out of the footprint, it makes more sense for occasional H&H series with some of them rather than having to travel there every year.HoosierNeck13 wrote: ↑Fri May 12, 2023 2:12 pm Maybe we can use some of the old opponents from football/basketball as Non-conference games.
So their tournament is in Evansville every year? How do they do it are the men's and women's done at the same time like summit or held separatelyST_Lawson wrote: ↑Fri May 12, 2023 2:34 pm Ok, so just a few things to think about now off the top of my head...
The sports that WIU sponsors currently as compared with what the OVC has is mostly the same, with a few exceptions:
Rifle is sponsored by the OVC, but not WIU (technically a "men's" sport, but men's, women's and co-ed teams all compete against each other)
Women's Beach Volleyball is sponsored by the OVC, but not WIU.
I don't see us starting up a beach volleyball team, but rifle (rifling?) is a definate possibility.
OVC Basketball Tournament is located in Evansville, IN. Sioux Falls is a pretty exceptional venue, and with the South Dakota schools nearby, often has amazing attendance for a mid-major conference tournament. That being said, Macomb to Sioux Falls is a 495 mile, 7 1/2 hour drive. Macomb to Evansville is 315 miles and just over 5 hours. It's a little easier to make that work for some people wanting to attend.
Last December, the OVC and Big South announced a football partnership for the 2023 season since at that time, they had a total of 10 football playing members between both conferences: https://bigsouthsports.com/news/2022/12 ... edule.aspx
Now that we're joining, it brings football up to 7 members for the OVC (the Big South will have 4 teams in 2023 since Campbell and NC A&T are joining the CAA this summer). Looking ahead to 2024, does that partnership continue with the 11 teams, or now that the OVC is up to 7 football members, do they "go it alone"?
The Summit League will be down to 5 teams for men's soccer. The OVC didn't previously sponsor men's soccer because there were only a few teams playing it, so EIU, Lindenwood, and Southern Indiana were playing as associates in the Summit League. Starting this fall though, the OVC is officially sponsoring men's soccer, with regular members EIU, Lindenwood, SIU-Edwardsville, and Southern Indiana, plus associate members Chicago State, Houston Christian, Incarnate Word, and Liberty. Now with our addition (assuming we don't drop men's soccer), the OVC will be at 9 soccer teams. Do we see some of the remaining Summit League teams drop men's soccer and the few reamaining ones join the OVC as associates?
The Summit League just announced a scheduling agreement in basketball with the Big Sky. Will we keep the currently-scheduled games for that and just schedule around it? It's pretty short notice to be changing up the schedule that significantly.