Ohio Valley Conference facts for kids

The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is an American college sports conference. It is part of the NCAA Division I. For football, the OVC plays in Division I FCS. This is one of the two levels of Division I football. The schools in the OVC are located in Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee. The OVC has its main offices in Brentwood, Tennessee, a Nashville suburb.

History of the OVC

The OVC started with talks between three schools in Kentucky in 1941. These schools were Eastern Kentucky, Murray State, and Western Kentucky. World War II began later that year, which paused these discussions. In 1948, the three original schools joined with two other Kentucky schools. One school from Indiana also joined. This is how the conference officially began.

The OVC was one of the first conferences in the South to welcome black athletes. This happened at schools that were traditionally for white students only. Morehead State was the first OVC school to do this in 1958. Today, the OVC is special because it is the only conference of mostly white schools that includes a historically black university (HBCU). This school is Tennessee State. Tennessee State is also the only HBCU with a Division I sports program that is not in a conference made up only of HBCUs.

The OVC currently has 12 members. This is the largest number of schools it has ever had.

Teams in the OVC

The OVC has 12 full member schools. Nine of these schools play football within the OVC. One school plays football in a different conference. Two schools do not have football teams at all. Most OVC members are public schools. Belmont is the newest member and is a private school.

School	Location	Started	Type	Team Name	Joined	Plays OVC Football?
Austin Peay State University	Clarksville, Tennessee	1927	Public	Governors & Lady Govs	1962	Y
Belmont University	Nashville, Tennessee	1890	Private	Bruins	2012
Eastern Illinois University	Charleston, Illinois	1895	Public	Panthers	1996	Y
Eastern Kentucky University	Richmond, Kentucky	1906	Public	Colonels	1948	Y
Jacksonville State University	Jacksonville, Alabama	1883	Public	Gamecocks	2003	Y
Morehead State University	Morehead, Kentucky	1922	Public	Eagles	1948
Murray State University	Murray, Kentucky	1922	Public	Racers	1948	Y
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIU Edwardsville)	Edwardsville, Illinois	1966	Public	Cougars	2008
Southeast Missouri State University	Cape Girardeau, Missouri	1873	Public	Redhawks	1991	Y
Tennessee State University	Nashville, Tennessee	1912	Public	Tigers & Lady Tigers	1986	Y
Tennessee Technological University	Cookeville, Tennessee	1912	Public	Golden Eagles	1949	Y
University of Tennessee at Martin (UT Martin)	Martin, Tennessee	1927	Public	Skyhawks	1992	Y

Associate Members

The OVC also has one "associate" member. This means the school plays a sport in the OVC that its main conference does not offer.

Former Members

Nine schools used to be full members of the OVC but are no longer part of the league.