The National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA ) is divided into three divisions based on scholarship allocation. Each division is made up of several conferences for regional league competition. Unless otherwise noted, changes in conference affiliation will occur on July 1 of the given year.
49-785: The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply " The Valley ") is the fourth-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwest though with substantial extension into the South in states like Kentucky , Tennessee , and Arkansas . The MVC was established in 1907 (its charter member schools: the University of Kansas , University of Missouri , University of Nebraska , and Washington University in St. Louis ) as
98-611: A BCS conference for the second consecutive year, while also garnering multiple NCAA bids for the ninth straight year and 12th of 14. The MVC has not sponsored football since 1985, when it was a hybrid I-A/I-AA (now FBS and FCS, respectively) conference. However, five members have football programs in the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) (known as the Gateway from 1985 to 2008) of Division I FCS, and two others compete in another FCS conference,
147-657: 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
196-657: A presence in the city was seen as a major priority. On January 22, 2022, Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com reported that UIC's July entry to the MVC was "a done deal", with his sources indicating that the MVC wanted to announce the move before the Conference Commissioners Association held its annual meeting in Naples, Florida in early February. UIC's entry was officially announced on January 26. On May 10, 2024, Missouri State announced they would leave
245-498: A second such sport in 2025. Unlike the other two divisions, Division III institutions cannot offer athletic scholarships. Among the other NCAA Division III requirements, schools have sports sponsorship requirements set by the NCAA. All institutions, regardless of enrollment, must sponsor at least three team sports for each sex/gender, and each playing season represented by each sex/gender. A sports sponsorship rule unique to Division III
294-403: Is a list of the champions since 2010. For the complete history, see List of Ohio Valley Conference football champions . This is a list of the champions since 2010. For the complete men's history, see List of Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball champions . This is a list of the champions since 2010. This is a list of the champions since 2010. Men's soccer was first sponsored by
343-658: Is currently promoted as Hoops in the Heartland. NB: Missouri State was known as Southwest Missouri State until August 2005. School – Number – NCAA championships NCAA Championships as of March 2013 (*-Titles won by schools in Division II/College Division prior to their moving to Division I in the late 1960s or early 1970s) Football poll, Helms and AIAW titles are not included in the NCAA Championship count. Sources: The Valley
392-592: Is that the total number of sports that must be sponsored differs by a school's full-time undergraduate enrollment. Schools with an enrollment of 1,000 or fewer must sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women; those with larger enrollments must sponsor six men's and six women's sports. As in the other divisions, teams that include both men and women are treated as men's sports for the purpose of these regulations. Conferences that sponsor football highlighted in yellow. These all-sports conferences sponsor sports which do not have D-III championships. In addition to
441-438: Is well known for having some of the most dedicated fanbases in all of college basketball, with several members regularly selling out their large arenas on a nightly basis throughout the year. Former member (Creighton) had the sixth highest attendance for Division I in 2012–13 while Bradley, Illinois State, Missouri State, and Indiana State were all among the NCAA's top 100 teams in home attendance. In 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13,
490-478: The 2020–21 season , these telecasts also aired on Fox College Sports . Outside of regional networks these telecasts were also available on ESPN3 until the 2018–19 season . These telecasts are now available on ESPN+ . The MVC Network is home to the first two rounds of Arch Madness , the nickname for the MVC men's basketball tournament. List of NCAA conferences Under NCAA regulations, all Division I conferences defined as "multisport conferences" must meet
539-524: The Big 12 Conference in 1996. The smaller MVIAA schools (Drake, Grinnell and Washington University in St. Louis), plus Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University–Stillwater , which joined the Big Eight in 1957), were joined by Creighton to form the MVC, which retained the old MVIAA's administrative staff. To this day, it has never been definitively established which conference was the original and which
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#1732801160414588-625: 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
637-937: The Midwestern and Southeastern United States . It participates in Division I of the NCAA ; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with the Big South Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS; formerly known as Division I-AA), the lower of two levels of Division I football competition. The OVC has 11 members, seven of which compete in football in the conference. Primary source: 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
686-481: The Missouri Valley Conference . 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. In a separate statement, Murray State's president indicated that
735-741: The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association or MVIAA , 12 years after the Big Ten Conference , the only Division I conference that is older. It is the fourth-oldest college athletic conference in the United States, after the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA Division III 's Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) and Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC). The MVIAA split in 1928, with most of
784-777: The Pioneer Football League . The Missouri Valley Conference shares its name with the MVFC, and all three conferences operate from the same headquarters complex in St. Louis ; however, the three are separate administratively. After weeks of speculation, Wichita State announced on April 7, 2017, that it would leave the conference to join the American Athletic Conference starting with the 2017–18 season. The conference announced it extended an invitation to Valparaiso University on May 9, 2017; and on May 25,
833-766: The Summit League before joining the OVC in 2024. 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 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,
882-773: The University of Southern Indiana , which started a transition from NCAA Division II , plus a new football-sponsoring member in Lindenwood University , also transitioning from D-II. 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 . On February 22, 2022,
931-535: 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. Murray State would eventually be accepted by the MVFC effective in 2023. Also in July 2022, the OVC added two non-football members in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock , athletically known as Little Rock, and
980-450: The 2012–13 school year, the twelve member schools were split into two divisions for those sports where all schools competed. 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 continued to play home-and-home versus the former divisional rivals, and they play home-and-home versus two teams from
1029-719: 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). At that time, the OVC was searching for teams to replace both. 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. Non-football Belmont left for
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#17328011604141078-553: The Incarnate Word , and Liberty University . Chicago State was also announced as an incoming men's and women's golf associate on that day. Chicago State's OVC teams left the conference at the end of the 2023–24 school year when the university joined the Northeast Conference , which sponsors all sports that CSU housed in the OVC. On May 12, 2023, it was announced that Western Illinois University would join
1127-493: The MVC announced that Valparaiso would officially join the following July 1. The most recent changes to the core MVC membership were announced during the 2021–22 school year. On September 28, 2021, the MVC and Belmont University jointly announced that the school would leave the Ohio Valley Conference for the MVC effective July 1, 2022. Then, on November 16, Loyola University Chicago announced it would leave
1176-461: The MVC at the same time, joining the Atlantic 10 Conference . On the same day Loyola announced its departure, CBS Sports reported that the MVC was actively pursuing further expansion, having entered into talks with the University of Missouri–Kansas City (known athletically as Kansas City), Murray State University , and the University of Texas at Arlington (UT Arlington). The report indicated that
1225-863: The MVC for the 2000 fall season (2000–01 school year), and the Beacons, then known as the Crusaders, played women's soccer in the MVC from the 1996 to 1998 fall seasons (1996–97 to 1998–99 school years). Full members Full members (non-football) Assoc. members (football only) Assoc. member (other sports) Other Conference Other Conference The Missouri Valley Conference sponsors championship competition in eight men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Ball State (men), Little Rock (women), and Miami (OH) (men) are affiliates in swimming and diving, and Bowling Green , Northern Illinois , and Western Michigan are affiliates in men's soccer. The most recent change to
1274-596: The MVC to transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and join Conference USA , effective for the 2025–26 season. ( Christian ) ( UMC ) ( Lutheran ) Note: In the case of spring sports, the year of joining is the calendar year before the start of competition. This list does not include current full members Belmont and Valparaiso. As noted above, the Bruins played men's soccer in
1323-573: The Missouri Valley Conference which are played by Valley schools: Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Missouri Valley Conference which are played by Valley schools: The Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball tournament is often referred to as Arch Madness, in reference to the Gateway Arch at the tournament's present location of St. Louis , Missouri, and a play on " March Madness ". The women's tournament
1372-640: The NCAA sponsors separate championships for men and women are officially treated by the NCAA as two separate sports. Among the NCAA regulations, Division II institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women (or four for men and six for women), with two team sports for each sex, and each playing season represented by each sex. Teams that consist of both men and women are counted as men's teams for sports sponsorship purposes. Conferences that sponsor football are highlighted in yellow. These all-sports conferences sponsor sports which do not have D-II championships. One of these conferences will add
1421-608: 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. 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
1470-415: 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. Western later announced its men's soccer team would also play the 2023 season in its former all-sports home of
1519-522: The Valley maintained its position as the eighth ranked conference in average attendance. The Valley made history in March 2007 with record attendance for four days at St. Louis' Scottrade Center as 85,074 fans turned out to watch the five sessions of the tournament. The two sellout crowds of 22,612 for the semifinals and final of the 2007 State Farm Tournament set an all-time attendance record for basketball at
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1568-548: The above limits, as long as that sport competes in another Division I conference. The men's and women's sports so counted need not be the same sport. In addition to competing in football, multisport conferences in the Football Championship Subdivision must still meet the general NCAA Division I requirements regarding the minimum number of men's and women's sports ( see above ). Multisport conferences that do not compete in football must still meet
1617-482: The above, two single-sport conferences that currently participate in NCAA National Collegiate sports (those whose championship events are open to members of more than one NCAA division) and previously operated both men's and women's divisions now operate as women-only leagues. Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference ( OVC ) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in
1666-596: The arena and also gave The Valley the distinction of having the largest championship crowd for any of the 30 NCAA conference tournaments in 2007. Since at least 1993, the MVC has produced an in-house package of sports as part of the MVC Network . Since 1996, these telecasts have been produced, in part, by Bally Sports Midwest (formerly Fox Sports Midwest). These games are distributed to regional sports networks including Bally Sports Midwest, Bally Sports Kansas City , Bally Sports Indiana and NBC Sports Chicago . Until
1715-582: 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
1764-574: 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 . Shortly after the 2022 membership changes took effect,
1813-481: 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
1862-781: The following criteria: Schools in all divisions that sponsor athletic programs for only one sex/gender need only meet the sports sponsorship requirements for that sex/gender. Conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision must meet a more stringent set of NCAA requirements than other conferences. Among these additional NCAA regulations, institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision must be "multisport conferences" and participate in conference play in at least six men's and eight women's sports, including football, men's and women's basketball, and at least two other women's team sports. Each school may count one men's and one women's sport not sponsored by its primary conference toward
1911-429: The general NCAA Division I requirements regarding the minimum number of men's and women's sports ( see above ). Division I ice hockey has a different conference structure than the above multisport conferences. These schools have memberships in other conferences for other sports. This list includes conferences in sports that the NCAA does not fully split into divisions, such as men's volleyball and rifle. Sports in which
1960-418: 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
2009-598: The larger schools (the University of Kansas , University of Missouri , University of Nebraska , Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University ), Kansas State University , and University of Oklahoma ) forming a conference that retained the MVIAA name; this conference evolved into the Big Eight Conference . The Big Eight merged with four Texas schools of the Southwest Conference to form
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2058-490: The latter two were considered the strongest candidates, but that all three were likely to receive invitations in the coming months. On January 7, 2022, the MVC announced that Murray State would officially join the conference on July 1 of that year. UT Arlington would soon remove itself from the list of candidates by announcing a 2022 move to the Western Athletic Conference . Shortly before Murray State
2107-636: The network provided well over 600,000 viewings of streamed live video of more than 1,400 events. In the 2018–19 school year, the coverage previously carried on the OVC Digital Network was switched over to ESPN+ . Years listed in this table are calendar years. For schools that play only spring sports (such as beach volleyball) in the OVC, the calendar year of arrival precedes the first season of competition. Full members (all sports) Full members (non-football) Associate members (football-only) Associate members (other) Other Conference Other Conference Starting with
2156-464: The other division, with those opponents on a rotation that sets up different pairs from year-to-year. The OVC returned to a single-table format after Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State left in 2021. 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. Departing members are displayed in red. Departing members in red. This
2205-541: The roster of sports came in the 2024–25 school year, when the MVC reinstated men's swimming & diving after a 22-year absence. The inaugural season of the relaunched league features 7 sponsoring members, with full members Evansville, UIC, Missouri State, Southern Illinois, and Valparaiso joined by new affiliates Ball State and Miami (OH) — previously, all these programs were housed in the Mid-American Conference . Men's varsity sports not sponsored by
2254-441: The thirty-two Division I conferences. 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
2303-474: Was likely. Brown noted that with the MVC losing Loyola, league officials believed that maintaining a presence in the city was a top priority, stating (emphasis in original): Throughout this process, multiple administrators at MVC institutions stressed the importance of getting access to new urban areas to recruit more students , not just athletes. With so many schools depending heavily on Chicago, and especially Chicago's suburbs, for enrollment, continuing to have
2352-415: Was officially announced as an incoming MVC member, Matt Brown of the Extra Points college sports blog reported that the MVC was also in membership discussions with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), then a member of the Horizon League . On the same weekend that Murray State's arrival was officially announced, MVC officials made a site visit to UIC. Brown's sources indicated that an invitation to UIC
2401-448: Was the spinoff, though the Big Eight would go on to become the more prestigious of the two. During the Big Eight's run, both conferences claimed 1907 as their founding date, and the same history through 1927. MVC teams held a 74–27 non-conference record during the 2006–07 college basketball season , including a record of 44–1 at home. The Valley finished in the top six of the RPI and ahead of
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