Ohio Valley Conference

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 in July 2018 when Hampton University joined the Big South Conference.

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 have brought the Ohio Valley Conference membership to twelve schools, the most in its history.

In August 2012, the OVC announced that it had launched the OVC Digital Network as a replacement for and improvement over the conference's former efforts to provide streaming video coverage of many athletic events that had been in place since 2006.[3] This website carried live, student-produced coverage of most conference games and some non-conference games in baseball, men's and women's basketball, football, soccer, softball, and volleyball as well as some coaches' shows, special presentations, and archived game-casts available for later viewing.

In its first two years, the network provided well over 600,000 viewings of streamed live video of more than 1400 events.[4]

In the 2018-19 school year the coverage previously carried on the OVC Digital Network was switched over to ESPN+.

Starting with the 2012–13 school year, the twelve member schools divided into two divisions for those sports where all schools compete. In the 2014–15 season, women's sports with twelve teams returned to a single league table, while continuing to play a divisional schedule. Men's basketball moved to an 18-game schedule in 2017-18, and they continue to play home-and-home versus the former divisional rivals, and they play home-and-home versus two teams from the other division, with those opponents on a rotation that sets up different pairs from year-to-year.

The Ohio Valley Conference currently offers championship competition in 19 NCAA sanctioned sports, with eight for men, 10 for women, and rifle for men's, women's, and coed teams.[5]

Men's sponsored sports by school

School	Baseball	Basketball	Cross Country	Football	Golf	Rifle[lower-alpha 1]	Tennis	Track & Field (Indoor)	Track & Field (Outdoor)	Total OVC Sports
Austin Peay	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	6
Belmont	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	7
Eastern Illinois	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	8
Eastern Kentucky	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	7
Jacksonville State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y[lower-alpha 2]	Y	N	N	7
Morehead State	Y	Y	Y	N[lower-alpha 3]	Y	Y[lower-alpha 2]	N	N	Y	6
Murray State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y[lower-alpha 2]	N	N	N	6
Southeast Missouri	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	Y	Y	6
SIU Edwardsville	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	N	N	Y	Y	6
Tennessee State	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	7
Tennessee Tech	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	N	N	6
UT Martin	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y[lower-alpha 4]	N	N	N	6
Totals	11	12	12	9	11	4	6	6	7	78+1

Notes

1. Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other.
2. Fields a single coed rifle team.
3. Morehead State football competes at the non-scholarship FCS level in the Pioneer Football League.
4. Fields two separate rifle teams—one coed, and one women-only.

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Ohio Valley Conference which are played by OVC schools

School	Soccer	Swimming & Diving	Rodeo[lower-alpha 1]	Wrestling
Belmont	Southern Conference	---	---	---
Eastern Illinois	Summit League	Summit League	---	---
Murray State	---	---	NIRA[lower-alpha 2]	---
SIU Edwardsville	MAC	---	---	MAC
UT Martin	---	---	NIRA[lower-alpha 2]	---

Notes

1. Rodeo is sanctioned by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), not the NCAA.
2. UT-Martin considers rodeo to be a varsity sport; Murray State operates their rodeo teams as club sports within the Hutson School of Agriculture.

Women's sponsored sports by school

School	Basketball	Beach Volleyball	Cross Country	Golf	Rifle [lower-alpha 1]	Soccer	Softball	Tennis	Track & Field (Indoor)	Track & Field (Outdoor)	Volleyball (Indoor)	Total OVC Sports
Austin Peay	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
Belmont	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Eastern Illinois	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Eastern Kentucky	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	9
Jacksonville State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y†	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	11
Morehead State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y†	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	10
Murray State	Y	N	Y	Y	Y†	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	10
Southeast Missouri	Y	N	Y	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
SIU Edwardsville	Y	N	Y	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Tennessee State	Y	N	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Tennessee Tech	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	8
UT Martin	Y	Y	Y	N	Yx2†	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	8
Totals	12	5+1[lower-alpha 2]	12	9	5	11	12	9	11	11	12	109+1

1. Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. All competing OVC schools have coed teams, and UT Martin has both a women's and a coed team.
2. Associate member Chattanooga.

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Ohio Valley Conference which are played by OVC schools

School	Swimming & Diving	Rodeo‡	Gymnastics	Equestrian
Eastern Illinois	Summit League	---	---	---
Murray State	---	NIRA‡	---	---
Southeast Missouri	---	---	MIC	---
UT Martin	---	NIRA‡	---	United Equestrian Conference

• ^‡ = Rodeo is sanctioned by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), not the NCAA. While UT-Martin considers rodeo to be a varsity sport, Murray State operates their rodeo teams a club sport within the Hutson School of Agriculture.

Departing members in red.

[8]

• Official website