Topic: SHR - - News on other Conference moves . . .

[coalherd]

 . . .  that are occurring outside of the "Big Boy" leagues.

It seems that the OVC, a conference that plays FCS football, is losing a lot of its members, if not on the verge of breaking up, perhaps.  This conference is more known, perhaps, for the caliber of its D1 basketball, and includes Herd foe, EKU, coached by former Herd player, and alum, A. W. Hamilton.  Well, at least three schools, EKU, Austin Peay, Jacksonville State, in Alabama, have already left, or are in the process of leaving the OVC and joining, apparently, the Atlantic Sun Conference.  Now word is just out that Belmont, one of perennial top mid major round ball programs, located in Nashville, has indicated that it is leaving the OVC and joining the Missouri Valley Conference next season (22-23) as its 11th member.  Hopes in the League are that the move will make it a annual two bid league when it comes to the Big Dance.  Since becoming a D1 program around the turn of the Century, Belmont has been to 7 or 8 NCAA tourneys, and has about 10 or 11 consecutive 20 win or more seasons, along with the likes of Kansas, Gonzaga and Oregon.  They have garnered, in the last couple of decades, about 20 regular season and/or conference tourney titles.

The unsettled state of conference membership changes, movements, etc., is obviously not just confined to the "upper" levels in conference athletics!