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Post by indyvalpo on Mar 18, 2007 8:27:44 GMT -5
Samford announced this week that they are leaving the OVC for the Southern Conference which opens up a spot.
It will be curious to see if either Western Illinois or Oral Roberts are approached to join.
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Post by crusaderjoe on Mar 18, 2007 9:36:51 GMT -5
I don't think Oral Roberts has much of a chance, IMO. The OVC is a "football" conference. My guess is that the OVC would want to lure a school that has a football program for scheduling purposes.
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Post by indyvalpo on Mar 18, 2007 10:02:11 GMT -5
I just read Commissioner Steinbrecher's comments form the OVC website and he indicates they are not looking to replace Samford currently.
However, in their current make up of 10 schools, only 8 play football (Austin Peay and Morehead State play with us) that leads to uneven home games every year so I would agree they will look football first.
Adding one back to eleven doesn't make basketball scheduling sense (ask the HL or the Mid-Con how uneven numbers work). Maybe they can take Centenary off of the Mid Con's hands.
I think the OVC would be surprised to learn they are a "football" conference. At one time, basketball was their claim to fame.
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Post by crusaderjoe on Mar 18, 2007 11:24:42 GMT -5
Probably a poor choice of words on my part. I didn't mean to imply the OVC was a traditional "football" conference like the SEC--I meant that the league offered football as a sponsored sport (unlike the HL or Mid-Con for example).
It will be interesting to see what happens, if anything.
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Post by rlh on Mar 18, 2007 11:34:37 GMT -5
Austin Peay now offers football scholarships and is no longer in the Pioneer Football LEague
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Post by indyvalpo on Mar 18, 2007 11:35:28 GMT -5
There you go....No additions makes sense.....
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Post by milwvu04 on Mar 18, 2007 22:43:26 GMT -5
Austin Peay now offers football scholarships and is no longer in the Pioneer Football LEague Now they can recruit kids to "Go to Peay for free!" The Wikipedia entry even mentions some of their chants... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Peay_State_University |
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Post by jmill on Mar 26, 2007 21:02:44 GMT -5
OVC football is all I-AA scholarship (or whatever they call it now), except for Morehead State, which as mentioned before, is I-AA non Pioneer.
OVC is most definitely a hoops league, by far.
I remember when I was a proud Murray State Racer, we had some unbelivebale matchups with the likes of Tennessee State and Austin Peay.
What a great hoops league that is.
The football is competitive, and at times fun to watch. But no, there is nothing higher on the sports list in the OVC than hoops.
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vu75
Bench Warmer
Posts: 157
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Post by vu75 on Mar 27, 2007 17:59:36 GMT -5
SIU- Edwardsville would be a nice geographic fit for the OVC. They will be D-1 next year.
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Post by jmill on Apr 12, 2007 17:58:38 GMT -5
The OVC is a level or two above the Mid-Con and isn't much on bringing in fledgling D-I schools. It tried that 20 years ago with Tennessee-Martin and UTM has pretty much been lower level its entire life in the conference.
ORU wouldn't be that much of a stretch geographically. I don't think the drive would be much longer than from SEMO to Morehead or from Murray to Eastern.
Western would make more sense, though, what with Eastern already in the league (unless they left and I didn't realize it).
When I was a Racer, Missouri-Rolla was in the league. That didn't last too long.
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