OVC Expansion

Athletics Department, Facilities, etc.
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ST_Lawson
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may wrote:Thu Jan 01, 1970 3:21 am
WIU2DC wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:44 pm Rumor is Austin Peay is leaving the OVC for the ASUN. I have a feeling OVC is gonna come calling sooner rather than later. I’d be totally on board with the move if Illinois State and SIU came with. Get all the Illinois FCS teams in one conference would be cool.


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There is 0% possibility ISU and SIU are moving from the MVC to the OVC. Not even 0.1%. It's straight up 0.0%.

I think it's only a matter of months before it's announced we are moving to the OVC. 
 


 
This is correct, Illinois State and SIU would never move to the OVC for their olympic sports.

The other possibility that I could see is the OVC completely falling apart:
Austin Peay - most likely joining the ASun
Belmont (no football) and Murray State - have had interest from the MVC, with MSU's football probably joining the MVFC.
Tennessee State - probably getting interest from the MEAC who's desperate for teams and TSU is a HBCU.

That leaves EIU, Morehead State (football in the Pioneer), SEMO, SIU-E, Tennessee Tech, and UT-Martin.

What if the MVFC/Summit Grabs EIU and SIU-E, and possibly SEMO?
We'd probably have to go to some kind of "pod" scheduling or something because the MVFC would be at 14 teams and Summit League would be at 13.
 
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The ASUN has this verbal rule that they won't poach a league below AQ status. The question is that if WIU joins the OVC, does the ASUN try to poach another OVC school? With the instability of the league I'm not really sure WIU should try to join. 
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Sycamorefan96 wrote: Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:04 pm The ASUN has this verbal rule that they won't poach a league below AQ status. The question is that if WIU joins the OVC, does the ASUN try to poach another OVC school? With the instability of the league I'm not really sure WIU should try to join. 

 
I agree. At one point I was ok with the possibility of us joining the OVC, but that was before the loss of EKU, JSU, and now APU. The league looks much less stable than it did a year or two ago, and I don't think it would be in our best interests to go that direction. I'm not the one making that decision though.
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Putting this here because it's somewhat more relevant to the thread topic...
meganeck wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:34 pmAs much as I wanted to get out of the Summit League as it seems to favor the Dakota schools, I don't know what other good options there are. I once wished they would leave for the OVC, but that seems like a dying conference. MVC would make the most sense, geographically but I agree they wouldn't accept WIU and we probably couldn't compete in many sports.
 
Just for reference, the impression that I've received when I check out other school message boards and talk to people who are MVC team fans/alumni is that it would mostly be the private schools that would block a potential invite. We'd have to step things up a bit, but schools like SIU, UNI, the ISUs, MSU...they wouldn't be that much against it if we're willing to invest a bit more in our programs. It's the schools like Drake, Bradley, Evansville, probably Belmont once they're in, that we'd have to win over. They generally have a much higher opinion of themselves as compared the the public schools.

I don't know if it would ever happen, but I've even seen people say that they wouldn't be opposed to splitting from the private schools and going in on an all-sports conference that very much resembles the MVFC.
ILSU, INSU, MSU, UNI, SIU, plus WIU and the Dakota schools...UND, USD, NDSU, SDSU. Possibly also adding in Murray State...maybe Northern Kentucky...schools like that. All-public midwestern league. I'd love that, and it seems highly unlikely, but there's a lot of conference switching going on, so who knows.
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ST_Lawson wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:46 pm Putting this here because it's somewhat more relevant to the thread topic...
meganeck wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:34 pmAs much as I wanted to get out of the Summit League as it seems to favor the Dakota schools, I don't know what other good options there are. I once wished they would leave for the OVC, but that seems like a dying conference. MVC would make the most sense, geographically but I agree they wouldn't accept WIU and we probably couldn't compete in many sports.

 
Just for reference, the impression that I've received when I check out other school message boards and talk to people who are MVC team fans/alumni is that it would mostly be the private schools that would block a potential invite. We'd have to step things up a bit, but schools like SIU, UNI, the ISUs, MSU...they wouldn't be that much against it if we're willing to invest a bit more in our programs. It's the schools like Drake, Bradley, Evansville, probably Belmont once they're in, that we'd have to win over. They generally have a much higher opinion of themselves as compared the the public schools.

I don't know if it would ever happen, but I've even seen people say that they wouldn't be opposed to splitting from the private schools and going in on an all-sports conference that very much resembles the MVFC.
ILSU, INSU, MSU, UNI, SIU, plus WIU and the Dakota schools...UND, USD, NDSU, SDSU. Possibly also adding in Murray State...maybe Northern Kentucky...schools like that. All-public midwestern league. I'd love that, and it seems highly unlikely, but there's a lot of conference switching going on, so who knows.

 
Without doubt, that conference lineup would be a dandy.  Bring back some rivalry games in ALL sports.
 
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Don't know if this subject matter belongs in this thread however:

https://semoredhawks.com/feature/houck

SEMO is making some BIG changes at Houck Field/Stadium. It won't be long and they will be bypassing Hanson Field in a big way. Western has been D-I FCS for 40 years but are still utilizing a mostly unchanged main West side from our NAIA days (press box is early 80's but also obsolete).


 
 
 
Apparently engineers were brought in and they condemned the stadium :shock:.  I've seen Houck up close, yeah it's old, but if that place is condemned so too should Hanson.  
  
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Western_101 wrote: Wed Dec 08, 2021 5:28 pm Don't know if this subject matter belongs in this thread however:

https://semoredhawks.com/feature/houck

SEMO is making some BIG changes at Houck Field/Stadium. It won't be long and they will be bypassing Hanson Field in a big way. Western has been D-I FCS for 40 years but are still utilizing a mostly unchanged main West side from our NAIA days (press box is early 80's but also obsolete).


 
 
 
Apparently engineers were brought in and they condemned the stadium :shock:.  I've seen Houck up close, yeah it's old, but if that place is condemned so too should Hanson.  
  







 
I really like the idea of 'loge" style seating under the pressbox/suite level.  Keeps some fans out of the weather elements and gives them a view of the overhead TVs for replays, etc.

Maybe someone knows the answer to this question.  In the very early days of Macomb before 1900, was the Hanson Field area of campus used for any non-athletic-related things?  With the sloping grassy areas along the south and west sides, it seems to me a lot of excavation may have been done during the construction.
 
 
Here is some early photos of the grandstand and athletic field and later Hanson Field.  The $64K question is was the new field located in roughly the same area as the old field.

https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/ ... on%20field
 
 
 
 
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sealhall74 wrote: Thu Dec 09, 2021 1:34 pm
Here is some early photos of the grandstand and athletic field and later Hanson Field.  The $64K question is was the new field located in roughly the same area as the old field.
https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/ ... on%20field
 
 
 Pictures #4 and #5 are not of Hanson Field.

They are photos of the football field and stadium that preceded Hanson Field.  That football field was located behind Sherman Hall in the area where Seal Hall now stands.

In photo #4, the building seen on the left side of the photo is the present day Art Gallery.

Hanson Field opened in 1950.
 




 
 
 
 
 
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I'm old enough to remember the "block house" or whatever other people called it, on the North side of the West stands. That miserable structure was probably insufficient the day it was built. It was gone by the time I graduated. However, it never occurred to anyone in charge that our flagship sport needs a Field house at the field. Really we are D-I and we have to walk a 1/4 mile to the basketball venue that is also an embarrassment from day one.  You know the Banterra Center at SIU that Lawson linked a pic to, yeah, that was built a year before the factory, airplane hanger, machine shed Western Hall. The ineptitude spans decades.
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ST_Lawson wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:46 pm Putting this here because it's somewhat more relevant to the thread topic...
meganeck wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:34 pmAs much as I wanted to get out of the Summit League as it seems to favor the Dakota schools, I don't know what other good options there are. I once wished they would leave for the OVC, but that seems like a dying conference. MVC would make the most sense, geographically but I agree they wouldn't accept WIU and we probably couldn't compete in many sports.

 
Just for reference, the impression that I've received when I check out other school message boards and talk to people who are MVC team fans/alumni is that it would mostly be the private schools that would block a potential invite. We'd have to step things up a bit, but schools like SIU, UNI, the ISUs, MSU...they wouldn't be that much against it if we're willing to invest a bit more in our programs. It's the schools like Drake, Bradley, Evansville, probably Belmont once they're in, that we'd have to win over. They generally have a much higher opinion of themselves as compared the the public schools.

I don't know if it would ever happen, but I've even seen people say that they wouldn't be opposed to splitting from the private schools and going in on an all-sports conference that very much resembles the MVFC.
ILSU, INSU, MSU, UNI, SIU, plus WIU and the Dakota schools...UND, USD, NDSU, SDSU. Possibly also adding in Murray State...maybe Northern Kentucky...schools like that. All-public midwestern league. I'd love that, and it seems highly unlikely, but there's a lot of conference switching going on, so who knows.

 
My preferred league would the 5 MVC publics, 4 Dakotas, and Murray State. I'd be perfectly happy with WIU being included in that league as well.

I'd be perfectly happy creating a league of the 5 MVC publics, WIU, EIU, SEMO, and Murray State too. Any all-sports conference trumps being with the private MVC schools in my view.

Personally I'd rather have WIU invited to the MVC than UIC, UTA, or UMKC. Those adds are all horrible. WIU has been in the Gateway since the beginning. It's too bad that the other public schools don't insist that the Leathernecks are invited for all sports.
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