Leaving the conference

Athletics Department, Facilities, etc.
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bignecks
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GIVE ME WRESTLING
meganeck
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leatherneckcountry wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 10:49 am

 
I'm not against adding sports but with our budget situation seems odd that we would add sports, granted they are all on the women's side. I guess some of that money we are saving on travel will go here.
wiu712
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Welcome to the Neighborhood: OVC Commissioner Welcomes WIU Athletics to the Fold.
From KHQA-TV-7:
https://khqa.com/sports/content/welcome ... o-the-fold
 
 
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ST_Lawson wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 4:22 pm
screamingeaglepride wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 3:31 pm 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.

 
That is to bad the GLVC would have been a good fit for Western Illinois women's bowling. You are right about the best route will be independent for women's bowling. I wish some day USI will get beach volleyball.
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meganeck wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 5:58 pm I'm not against adding sports but with our budget situation seems odd that we would add sports, granted they are all on the women's side. I guess some of that money we are saving on travel will go here.

 
Bubb did say that it was to get us into compliance with Title IX, so it was probably either add some women's sports or do something like drop men's soccer.
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Miscellaneous articles:
https://www.wgem.com/2023/05/19/western ... ce-july-1/
https://iowacollegehoops.com/2023/05/19 ... etter-fit/
https://www.pencitycurrent.com/stories/ ... ence,48817

From the second article...
Behind Gravina as he spoke was a map showing all of the locations of the OVC schools in relation to Western Illinois. Every trip in the new conference will be by bus.

In the Summit League, the Leathernecks would have to take commercial flights to the North Dakota schools, as well as Denver. That’s a lot of time spent on buses and in airports, and that’s a lot of money that could be used elsewhere.
https://prairiestatepigskin.com/2023/05 ... -illinois/
Over the past five full seasons in the MVFC, Western has logged 7,064 miles. By comparison, Eastern Illinois – which has been an OVC member since 1996 – has traveled 950 fewer miles.
 
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screamingeaglepride wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 3:24 pm 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.

 
After thinking about things a bit more, I think something similar would really be my "dream scenario".
The Dakota schools start up Summit League Football, MVFC disbands...but then all the MVC teams in the MVFC (both ISUs, SIU, MO State, Murray State, and UNI) become football-only associate members of the OVC. OVC drops the Big South football partnership and looks like this: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/edit? ... sp=sharing

The MVC teams keep all their other sports in the MVC like they always have, but the OVC immediately is quite secure on the football front. WIU gets to regularly play ILSU, SIU, EIU, UNI...all teams we have long histories with...as well as nearby Lindenwood.

13 teams (12 if Missouri State ends up going FBS as is strongly rumored) playing OVC football in a nice tight footprint. The vast majority of games are driveable, lots of rivalry games can be set up to be permanent/protected rivalries...like SIU and SEMO, ILSU and EIU, hopefully ILSU and WIU also. I think Missouri State and SEMO used to have a rivalry as well (back when it would have been Southwest MO State vs Southeast MO State).
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ST_Lawson wrote: Fri May 19, 2023 10:02 am
screamingeaglepride wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 3:24 pm 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.





 
After thinking about things a bit more, I think something similar would really be my "dream scenario".
The Dakota schools start up Summit League Football, MVFC disbands...but then all the MVC teams in the MVFC (both ISUs, SIU, MO State, Murray State, and UNI) become football-only associate members of the OVC. OVC drops the Big South football partnership and looks like this: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/edit? ... sp=sharing

The MVC teams keep all their other sports in the MVC like they always have, but the OVC immediately is quite secure on the football front. WIU gets to regularly play ILSU, SIU, EIU, UNI...all teams we have long histories with...as well as nearby Lindenwood.

13 teams (12 if Missouri State ends up going FBS as is strongly rumored) playing OVC football in a nice tight footprint. The vast majority of games are driveable, lots of rivalry games can be set up to be permanent/protected rivalries...like SIU and SEMO, ILSU and EIU, hopefully ILSU and WIU also. I think Missouri State and SEMO used to have a rivalry as well (back when it would have been Southwest MO State vs Southeast MO State).




 
Maybe its just me, but I hate conferences where you dont play each team every year.  You get into that funny business where you skip certain schools but always play your rivals like in the MVFC.  8 to 10 schools is about right size for me.  Same thing in basketball.  Always home and away games with each school.

While I am ranting, let me voice my displeasure at the format of the OVC hoops tournaments as well.  Eight teams in but not a balanced single elimination bracket.  5-8 seeds have to play more days than the others with the #1 and #2 seeds basically starting at the semifinals.  That sucks.
 
The only logical reason I can come up with for doing it this way is if there is limited hotels rooms in Evansville.
 
 
Embrace the pace of the race.
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sealhall74 wrote: Fri May 19, 2023 10:07 am While I am ranting, let me voice my displeasure at the format of the OVC hoops tournaments as well.  Eight teams in but not a balanced single elimination bracket.  5-8 seeds have to play more days than the others with the #1 and #2 seeds basically starting at the semifinals.  That sucks.
 
The only logical reason I can come up with for doing it this way is if there is limited hotels rooms in Evansville.
 
Or maybe they changed it after they had a few occurrances of #7 and #8 seeds knocking out the #1 or #2 seeds in the first round?

Like, maybe they had something like what happened with us against SDSU back in 2019. SDSU was #1 and regular season champ, we were #8, and ended up beating them in the first round of the tournament. Because of that, #4 NDSU eventually won the conference tournament and got to play in the NCAA tournament. SDSU, who was 24-7 going into the tournament got relegated to playing in the NIT.

Exciting for us and for NDSU, but heartbreaking for SDSU, and honestly, possibly ended up with the Summit League not getting as much money from the NCAA "pot", because SDSU would have been a higher seed and had a much easier matchup than the #16 seed NDSU did against #1 Duke that year.
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The teams who worked all year to finish on top of the conference should have an easier road but look at the two teams who won the conference tournament last year it was the 3 on the women side and the 5 on the men side.
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