USI to join Ohio Valley Conference for Division I sports
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — When the University of Southern Indiana announced a move to Division I, plenty of potential conference homes were brought up.
But the one that made most sense geographically and logistically became the choice: USI will join the Ohio Valley Conference. The announcement is coming Wednesday morning at an on-campus event.
More:USI is now a D1 school. The decision was 57 years in the making
This will be just the second conference USI has ever been a part of. They were a founding member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the Division II league they have belonged to since 1979.
Evansville residents are already familiar with the OVC. The league has held its end-of-season men’s and women’s basketball conference tournaments at the Ford Center since 2018.
Still, the OVC has gone through significant changes over the past six months. Murray State and Belmont are both leaving after this season to join the Missouri Valley Conference, while Austin Peay is heading to the Atlantic Sun. This opened a spot for USI in a conference that’s practically in its backyard.
USI won’t be the only newcomer to the OVC in 2022-23. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will join after leaving the Sun Belt.
Who else is in the Ohio Valley Conference?
The other full-time members in the Ohio Valley Conference next year will be:
- Eastern Illinois University
- Morehead State University
- Southeast Missouri State University
- Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
- Tennessee State University
- Tennessee Tech University
- University of Tennessee at Martin
More:What to know about USI moving to NCAA Division I sports
Most of these universities are within a three-and-a-half hour drive from USI’s campus. The outlier is Arkansas-Little Rock, about six and a half hours away.
The conference currently sponsors championships in 19 NCAA sanctioned sports, including football which USI does not offer. The Screaming Eagles would have to find affiliate conferences for swimming & diving as well as men’s soccer, two sports the OVC doesn’t sponsor.
USI would be eligible to compete for conference championships in the OVC but would not be eligible for NCAA Tournament bids until the four-year transition process is completed.
This story will be updated.
Contact Courier & Press sports reporter Hendrix Magley via email at [email protected] or via Twitter @TweetsOfHendrix.
Read More: USI to join Ohio Valley Conference for Division I sports