Ohio Valley Conference

History

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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. Today, the OVC is unique among NCAA Division I conferences in that it includes one historically black university, Tennessee State University, in a conference that otherwise consists of institutions that are not traditionally black. All other HBCUs in NCAA Division I are members of either the MEAC or SWAC, conferences made up entirely of HBCUs.

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.

Athletic rivalries, 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.

OVC Digital Network

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. This website carries 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.

Full members

1. Morehead State's football team competes in the Pioneer Football League, a Division I FCS football-only conference whose members choose not to offer athletic scholarships for football.

Former members

Former affiliate members

Membership timeline

Purple = Full member
Magenta = Full member except football
Orange = Associate member for football only
Green = Associate for sport other than football

Comments

Conference divisions

Starting with the 2012–13 school year, the twelve member schools divided into two divisions for those sports in which all schools compete. In the 2014–15 season, women's sports with twelve teams returned to a 12 team ranking, while continuing to play a divisional schedule.

Sports offered

The Ohio Valley Conference currently offers championship competition in eighteen NCAA sanctioned sports, eight for men, nine for women, and rifle for men's, women's, and coed teams.

Men's sponsored sports by school

Women's sponsored sports by school

Football conference champions

This is a list of the champions since 2000. For the complete history, see List of Ohio Valley Conference football champions.

$ – Jacksonville State (6–1) had the best record in the conference, but was ineligible for the championship due to Academic Progress Rate sanctions.

$$ – Tennessee Tech won the tie-breaker and received the automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.

Basketball

This is list of the champions since 2000. For the complete men's history, see List of Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball champions.

Baseball

This is list of the champions since 2000.

Softball

This is list of the champions since 2000.

Women's soccer

This is a list of Champions since 2000.