The OVC has reaped the benefits from these two programs. On the women’s side, Belmont has the 4th most OVC titles in conference history with five despite having been in the OVC for only 9 seasons. Since Belmont joined the OVC in the 2012-13 season, either Belmont or Murray State have won the NCAA Tournament bid 5 of the 9 tournaments while both teams have been mainstays atop the regular season standings over that time. Men’s basketball has been dominated by two schools – Belmont and Murray State. Let’s start with the state of affairs in basketball. Who else might be thinking of bolting? Basketball For the OVC, they saw a founding member in EKU and a football power in JSU leave for greener pastures. There has to be a worry for the remaining membership any time they see a school leave. We are simply speculating here as we typically do. You’re probably wondering, “Great but what does this have to with the OVC?” Let’s start with a disclaimer: This is not based on any report or rumor. Finally, conferences also have to ensure the current membership is not looking elsewhere for a new home, which can set off a whole unintended set of realignment dominoes forcing more changes by the conference. That’s not always an easy task with the inevitable politicking that goes on behind the scenes. Furthermore, the conference then has to sell whichever schools or schools it selects to the current membership and hope they see the same vision. You have to identify a set number of schools that you think would fit those criteria while also making sure they align with the academic values of the conference. In all seriousness, this is not an easy feat. One has to wonder why conferences struggle so much to understand this concept. Well look at that, the answer to every conference’s realignment riddle. We alluded to one of the major challenges in the preceding paragraph: the OVC needs to strike a balance between finding an 8th football member but a school that can also raise the overall profile of the league in other sports such as basketball. Nevertheless, it will not hurt to consider adding schools to maintain that buffer for AQ status in football but also improve other sports that are below the minimum level for AQ status. They still have a healthy membership in most sports and the seven in football is one eligible member above the minimum of six needed to retain automatic qualifier status for the FCS Playoffs. While losing two full members is never a good thing, the situation for the OVC is not dire. Schoolįootball is a member of the Pioneer Football League The basketball column refers to both men’s and women’s basketball. Below is a table showing a list of full member schools and whether they all sponsor basketball and football. The OVC will also completely scrap the divisional system it had implemented when the full complement of 12 teams starting was available for its various sports. The departures of Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State left the OVC with 10 full members and 7 football-playing members. The Ohio Valley Conference had a comparatively better realignment turnover with only two schools – Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State – joining a new conference. Some conferences were particularly hit hard with losses such as the Southland (5 schools left) and the MEAC (4 teams left). The 2021-22 academic year started on July 1 and with it were a slew of schools changing conferences. #Belmont Bruins, #Chattanooga Mocs, #College Sports Realignment, #Eastern Kentucky Colonels, #Jacksonville State Gamecocks, #Murray State Racers, #Northern Kentucky Norse, #Realignment, #Western Illinois Leathernecks, #Youngstown State Penguins
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