Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 24, 2021 16:01:15 GMT -5
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lafan
Iyapo Montgomery
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Post by lafan on Sept 24, 2021 17:36:22 GMT -5
Murray State has a football team that they likely want to move up at some point. Would be a good fit with MAC.
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Post by Rogobob77 on Sept 24, 2021 19:46:25 GMT -5
I remember going 15 rounds on the DetroitTitans.com board debating some guy who was convinced that it would be worth it to spend $2 million in transition expenses for Detroit Mercy to leave the Horizon League to join the OVC.
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Post by happy on Sept 26, 2021 4:39:58 GMT -5
More dominoes start to fall. Appears that as soon as next week the Southland Conference is replacing the 4 Texas teams that left for the WAC.
Lone Star Conference charter member since 1931 East Texas State (now Texas A&M–Commerce) after 90 years in the same Conference feels it's the right time to make a change. Could Angelo State from the LSC be following them? Could the OVC be losing two more FCS schools? SE Missouri State and Tennessee Tech. I am hearing that Texas Southern and Prairie View are going to go to the Southland Conference, if true the OVC can go after Western Illinois for Football. Would WIU be willing to leave the Summit League since there a better mid major then OVC?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2021 15:46:38 GMT -5
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Post by happy on Sept 27, 2021 15:53:55 GMT -5
Blake Sandlin (@blakesandlin) Tweeted: Per USI President Ron Rochon, the University of Southern Indiana will begin to explore a move into Division I athletics. t.co/W6vNE7dEsw
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Post by happy on Sept 27, 2021 16:16:36 GMT -5
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 27, 2021 17:11:59 GMT -5
I don't have any deep attachment to the OVC, but still seems a shame if it falls apart.
The OVC is a relatively old conference, dating back to 1948. That makes it the 8th oldest of the 32 current D-1 basketball Conferences. 18 conferences have gone defunct since the OVC was formed. The OVC--which years ago I heard described as "the little conference the big conferences fear," a description that stuck with me--has also had remarkably stable membership. Three of its original 6 members (Murray State, Eastern Kentucky, and Morehead State) were still in the conference through last season (the other three were Louisville, Evansville, and Western Kentucky). Tennessee Tech joined in the conference's second year, 1949, and has been a member ever since. Austin Peay has been in the conference for 60 years. Only 20 schools have been full members--by comparison, the Horizon has none of its original 6 members left, and has had 25 schools as full members since being formed 31 years after the OVC.
OVC basketball was integrated in 1958 when Morehead State signed a player named Marshall Banks. Other Southern conferences then in existence were integrated considerably later--the Southern Conference in 1963; then the ACC (1965); the old Southwest Conference (1966); and finally the SEC (1967).
Can the OVC survive? They'll be down to 8 schools after this year, but that keeps their automatic bid (they'll be down to 6 for I-AA football). They have expansion options--Southern Indiana is making plans to jump to D-1; Western Illinois may find the OVC a better geographic fit than the Summit, whose locus keeps moving west. East Tennessee State, an OVC member from its D-1 debut in 1959 through 1978, could be interested, although they may consider it risky to leave the Southern Conference, where they've been for 7 years. Same for Chattanooga, a Southern Conference member since joining D-1 in 1978. Kentucky State, an HBCU, is considering the move to D-1 and the MEAC wants them if they decide to move, but they're a natural OVC geographic fit. And there's always Chicago State. As the WAC showed, any port in a storm.
Speaking of the MEAC, that league is also in some trouble. It's lost 5 members in recent years--Savannah State (back to D-2), Hampton (Big South), NC A&T (to Big South this year), and Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman (to SWAC this year). (They also lost Winston-Salem State back to D-2 in 2011). That shrinks the MEAC to 8 teams--and FAMU had its best attendance. More could go--Delaware State is in talks with the Northeast Conference.
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Post by titantarheel on Sept 28, 2021 9:17:19 GMT -5
I was just looking into the OVC the past few days. Their history is interesting, as Commish points out, but so also is their geographic compactness. In this day and age, its impressive the conference is fully within a 4-5 hours drive of each other.
On the Dan Wetzel Yahoo Sports podcast (Great listen for college football talk, plus NCAA issues) they had pie-in-the-sky floated the idea to just start all over Conference wise so that they all make much more sense geographically and not the Syracuse women's tennis flies to Florida State to play arrangements (much less the West Virginia to Big 12 Texas schools arrangement). Of course it'd never happen due to the various egos and competing issues (and the money grab of it all) but its a fair thought that many of the existing conferences really don't make any sense if you blank slated it at this point.
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Post by Rogobob77 on Sept 28, 2021 9:56:29 GMT -5
I was just looking into the OVC the past few days. Their history is interesting, as Commish points out, but so also is their geographic compactness. In this day and age, its impressive the conference is fully within a 4-5 hours drive of each other. On the Dan Wetzel Yahoo Sports podcast (Great listen for college football talk, plus NCAA issues) they had pie-in-the-sky floated the idea to just start all over Conference wise so that they all make much more sense geographically and not the Syracuse women's tennis flies to Florida State to play arrangements (much less the West Virginia to Big 12 Texas schools arrangement). Of course it'd never happen due to the various egos and competing issues (and the money grab of it all) but its a fair thought that many of the existing conferences really don't make any sense if you blank slated it at this point. As a start, the NCAA could modify its rules for a couple years to allow conferences to significantly reshuffle without losing eligibility for an automatic bid to the basketball tournament.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2021 11:50:17 GMT -5
I wish we would/could join the MVC......
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2021 11:53:58 GMT -5
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Post by Rogobob77 on Sept 28, 2021 12:01:21 GMT -5
I wish we would/could join the MVC...... My guess is if the MVC was interested in entry to the Detroit area market, they would be more likely to pluck Oakland than Detroit Mercy. They seem to generally covet a public/private school balance, so after adding Loyola, Valpo and Belmont, the 12th school (if that is to happen) might be more likely a public institution. I recall reading a couple years ago that OU reached out to the MVC for some very preliminary talks about joining that league.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2021 13:00:58 GMT -5
"Davis did address scheduling and said he was trying to get a couple of our road commitments this year to get delayed until next year so that we could have more home games. Talked about trying to play some area MAC teams. He also said he was committed to leaving the Horizon League."
The above was quoted from upbasketballfan from the May Virtual event with Coach Davis. My question is, if not the MVC, then where? The A10? I'm assuming he's committed to moving up and not down to the Summit or the MAAC (and the MAC, although a move up, isn't a fit with it's focus on football)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2021 13:33:35 GMT -5
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