OVC

[screamingeaglepride]

Now that Western Illinois winding down their first season in the OVC I was wondering how leatherneck fans feel about the OVC. What do leatherneck fans like about the OVC and what do leatherneck fans what to see changed in the OVC?

[ST_Lawson]

Now that Western Illinois winding down their first season in the OVC I was wondering how leatherneck fans feel about the OVC. What do leatherneck fans like about the OVC and what do leatherneck fans what to see changed in the OVC?

 

I would say mostly positive. Really the only downside that I've noticed so far is that we won't have regular conference football games against Illinois State, Northern Iowa, and Southern Illinois. Otherwise, I think it's been nearly entirely positive. All the rest of our sports teams seem to be doing either better or the same as they were in the Summit League (in some cases we sucked in the SL and we still suck in the OVC...but that's on us, not the conference), and we're saving quite a bit on travel costs. The conference basketball tournament was fun, even though there weren't many people in attendance compared to the SL tournament. On the plus side of that...we didn't have to play in an arena with 8k hostile fans if we happened to come up against one of the "local" teams. USI is in the same town and I'm sure they had a few more fans than most teams, but...no offense intended...they don't bring the numbers and level of intensity that playing South Dakota State in Sioux Falls, SD does.

How we'll fare in football is still TBD...but I don't think I can be any worse than the last couple of years in the MVFC.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the move. Now, if the Summit League ends up starting up football on its own, and the remaining MVFC teams are looking for a hope, I'd be happy to see them join the OVC as football-only affiliates...ILSU, INSU, SIU, UNI, YSU...all would be great additions and mostly within the footprint of the conference (except for maybe UNI and YSU...but they aren't any further away than the Big South teams we were going to be playing anyway).

[leatherneckcountry]

Now that Western Illinois winding down their first season in the OVC I was wondering how leatherneck fans feel about the OVC. What do leatherneck fans like about the OVC and what do leatherneck fans what to see changed in the OVC?


 

I would say mostly positive. Really the only downside that I've noticed so far is that we won't have regular conference football games against Illinois State, Northern Iowa, and Southern Illinois. Otherwise, I think it's been nearly entirely positive. All the rest of our sports teams seem to be doing either better or the same as they were in the Summit League (in some cases we sucked in the SL and we still suck in the OVC...but that's on us, not the conference), and we're saving quite a bit on travel costs. The conference basketball tournament was fun, even though there weren't many people in attendance compared to the SL tournament. On the plus side of that...we didn't have to play in an arena with 8k hostile fans if we happened to come up against one of the "local" teams. USI is in the same town and I'm sure they had a few more fans than most teams, but...no offense intended...they don't bring the numbers and level of intensity that playing South Dakota State in Sioux Falls, SD does.

How we'll fare in football is still TBD...but I don't think I can be any worse than the last couple of years in the MVFC.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the move. Now, if the Summit League ends up starting up football on its own, and the remaining MVFC teams are looking for a hope, I'd be happy to see them join the OVC as football-only affiliates...ILSU, INSU, SIU, UNI, YSU...all would be great additions and mostly within the footprint of the conference (except for maybe UNI and YSU...but they aren't any further away than the Big South teams we were going to be playing anyway).

 

I’ve enjoyed it I went to the basketball games at SIUE. Going to conference games in the summit really wasn’t possible. I’ve also seen more visiting fans at the sporting events I’ve gone to this year. Really the only thing I don’t like is how the baseball tournament bracket is set up. 
 

[ST_Lawson]

I’ve enjoyed it I went to the basketball games at SIUE. Going to conference games in the summit really wasn’t possible. I’ve also seen more visiting fans at the sporting events I’ve gone to this year.
 

Another positive about being closer to many of the teams. I'm hoping to get to some of the games at EIU and Lindenwood (for both football and bouncy ball) and at SIUE (for shooty-hoops).

[screamingeaglepride]

The one thing I do not like in the OVC is men's soccer with Liberty, Incarnate Word and Houston Christian being in the OVC does not appeal to me. I would have preferred to have the Summit League and the Ohio Valley Conference merged men's soccer into the Summit Valley Soccer League with Western Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, SIU-Edwardsville, Southern Indiana, Omaha, Oral Roberts, Kansas City, Saint Thomas and Denver. Also i have heard that Northern Colorado has shown some interest in joining the Summit League. If the Summit League starts football I could see the MVFC disbanded and Northern Iowa join the Summit League in football and Murray State, Indiana State, Southern Illinois and Illinois State join the OVC in football only.

[may know]

OVC has been a no-brainer. Only took 1 year for us to get our first nationally televised game at home. Better exposure than Summit with schools we care about and are culturally alike. Being able to compete or contend is huge for fan interest. 

 

[sealhall74]

Overall, looking at the whole spectrum of sports, OVC is the place to be for the Necks.  However, I will say that a few sports will be tougher to climb to the top in the OVC than in the Summit.  Baseball for one, maybe softball the other.  Take a look at the overal records for teams in both leagues this year.  In baseball, Summit has zero teams with an overall winning record.  OVC has 4.  Similar trend in softball.

As I said before here, the most direct path to a conference and then national championship lies in the rifle programs.  I wish we we had a shooter or two locking and loading and making some noise there.
 
 
 

[ST_Lawson]

I can't seem to find the 2022/2023 Summit League Commsioner's Cup standings, but in '21/'22 we were last in the Summit.
We finished 8th out of 11 in the OVC this year...not great, but better than we have been.

1. EIU and Little Rock tied
2. ---
3. Southeast Missouri
4. Tennesee Tech
5. Southern Indiana
6. UT Martin
7. Morehead State
8. WIU
9. SIUE
10. Tennessee State
11. Lindenwood

[sealhall74]

They have a weird way of scoring things to compute the Commissioners Cup.  I guess you have to incorporate the weirdness into things because teams do not all compete in the same sports.  In our case, we got to toss out our last place finishes in both baseball and softball as "no scores" to come up with our final score.  They only count your 13 highest finishes across all sports.  The top 2 finishers, EIU and Little Rock, compete in 19 sports and 13 sports, respectively.  EIU got to toss out 6 of their low finishing sports but they did really well in the others to finish tied for 1st.

Next year we get to add some more points for both men's soccer and football that were left out of the mix during this year because we played out of conference in them.