Ohio Valley Conference

History[edit]

Primary source:^[1]
The Ohio Valley Conference can trace its roots to 1941 when Murray State athletic director Roy Stewart, Eastern Kentucky athletic director Charles "Turkey" Hughes, and Western Kentucky public relations director Kelly Thompson first formulated the idea of establishing a regional athletics conference. The plan was put on hold due to World War II, but it was resurrected after the conclusion of the war. In 1948, the three schools joined with Louisville, Morehead State, and Evansville to form the Ohio Valley Conference. While many collegiate conferences are struggling today with the question of whether their policies and rules should be determined by the athletic departments or by the institutional heads, from the very beginning, the OVC has been run by the presidents of its member schools.


Historically, the OVC was a pioneer in racial desegregation, with Morehead State signing the conference's first Black athlete, Marshall Banks, in 1958. The rest of the OVC soon followed in Morehead State's wake. From 1986 to 2018, the OVC was unique among NCAA Division I conferences in that it included one historically Black university, Tennessee State University, in a conference that otherwise consists of institutions that are not traditionally Black. During this period, every other HBCU in NCAA Division I belonged to either the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference or Southwestern Athletic Conference. That distinction changed when both Hampton University and North Carolina A&T State University joined the Big South Conference in 2018 and 2021, respectively; both schools have since joined the Coastal Athletic Association.


The OVC has also been a leader in advancement of sports opportunities for women. The conference began adding championship competitions for women in 1977 several years after the AIAW began sponsoring national championships for women, but seven years before the NCAA was ready to move into the field. Since 2009, the OVC has been led by Commissioner Beth DeBauche, one of only six female commissioners for the thirty-two Division I conferences.^[2]


Athletic rivalries, really close colleges and especially when competitors are in relatively close proximity, can generate problems with fan behavior, and the conference leadership struggled with controlling the issue for many years. When the national debate on the problem reached its apex in the mid-1990s, the OVC unveiled the national first of its kind "Sportsmanship Statement" in 1995, stating the conference's policy on, "... principles of fair play, ethical conduct and respect for one's opponent." Since then, the OVC has also introduced individual, team (for each sport), and institutional sportsmanship awards.


Founded by six schools, the expansions of 2007 and 2011 brought the Ohio Valley Conference membership to twelve schools, the most in its history. The OVC dropped to 10 members after the 2020–21 school year, when founding member Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State left for the Atlantic Sun Conference (then branded as the ASUN Conference; "ASUN" is still the official abbreviation).^[3] At that time, the OVC was searching for teams to replace both.^[4]


The OVC lost three more members after the 2021–22 school year. Football-sponsoring Austin Peay left for the ASUN, which ultimately launched its own football league in 2022.^[5] Non-football Belmont left for the Missouri Valley Conference.^[6] Another football school, founding member Murray State, left for the MVC. When announcing its move to the MVC, Murray State announced that it was seeking membership in the football-only Missouri Valley Football Conference, and also announced that it would continue to house its rifle team in the OVC.^[7] In a separate statement, Murray State's president indicated that the football team would remain in the OVC in the 2022 season, ensuring that the OVC would retain its automatic bid to the FCS playoffs in that season and giving the league more time to add new football members.^[8] Murray State would eventually be accepted by the MVFC effective in 2023.^[9]


Also in July 2022, the OVC added two non-football members in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, athletically known as Little Rock,^[10] and the University of Southern Indiana, which started a transition from NCAA Division II,^[11] plus a new football-sponsoring member in Lindenwood University, also transitioning from D-II.^[12]


According to a report from Matt Brown of the Extra Points college sports blog, the OVC expected to lose Murray State, and was considering multiple expansion candidates, with Southern Indiana among them. Other schools named by Brown's sources as possible candidates were FCS programs Arkansas–Pine Bluff and Western Illinois, plus potential Division II upgraders Grand Valley State, Hillsdale, and Lincoln Memorial.^[13]


On February 22, 2022, the conference announced its intent to combine its football membership with the Big South Conference beginning in 2023 and operate as the Big South–OVC Football Association. The alliance follows the model that the ASUN and Western Athletic Conference used in 2021 and 2022 before merging their football leagues in 2023 as the United Athletic Conference.^[14]


Shortly after the 2022 membership changes took effect, the OVC and the Horizon League jointly announced that they would merge their men's tennis leagues under the Horizon banner, effective immediately. All five OVC members that sponsored men's tennis became Horizon affiliates in that sport.^[15]


On March 28, 2023, the OVC announced it was adding men's soccer as its 19th championship sport. The four OVC members sponsoring the sport in other conferences were joined by Chicago State University, Houston Christian University, University of the Incarnate Word, and Liberty University.^[16] Chicago State was also announced as an incoming men's and women's golf associate on that day.^[17] Chicago State's OVC teams will leave the conference at the end of the 2023–24 school year when the university joins the Northeast Conference, which sponsors all of CSU's OVC sports.^[18]


On May 12, 2023, it was announced that Western Illinois University would join the OVC from the Summit League in most non-football sports beginning for the 2023 season. Western Illinois football, which was then a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference, played the 2023 season in that league before joining the university's other sports in the OVC for the 2024 season.^[19] Western later announced its men's soccer team would also play the 2023 season in its former all-sports home of the Summit League before joining the OVC in 2024.^[20]