BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The Ohio Valley Conference concluded its annual Conference Spring Meetings last Friday in Nashville. The event ran May 29 through June 1.
After a comprehensive and thorough examination, the meetings marked the first under a reorganized governance structure, which is intended to allow more collaboration and engagement among the membership, enhanced efficiencies and the development of a more strategic agenda. The model includes more visible participation by the student-athletes and a stronger voice. The new governance structure includes four cabinets: (1) Student-Athlete Experience and Academics, (2) Competition, (3) Championships and (4) Governance and Administration, with each cabinet including Directors of Athletics, Senior Woman Administrators, Faculty Athletics Representative and student-athletes.
Beginning in the 2019-20 academic year, for the first time a portion of Division I revenue will be distributed based on the academic achievement of student-athletes. Distribution models for the revenue will be determined by each of the 32 Division I Conferences. The OVC Board of Presidents’ Working Group developed a distribution model that will help acknowledge the academic success of qualifying schools, seek to assist all institutions and focus attention to the provision of academic services league-wide.
In keeping with national dialogue involving transfers, the OVC Board of Presidents amended the OVC transfer bylaw to eliminate the provision that an intraconference transfer student-athlete who does not receive permission to transfer, shall not be able to receive athletically-related aid in his/her first year of residency.
Discussion was held on sportsmanship and its importance to the OVC, which in 1995 implemented a first-of-its-kind “Sportsmanship Statement” policy promoting principles of fair play, ethical conduct and respect for one’s opponent. The Council of Directors of Athletics and OVC Board of Presidents identified strategies for expanding and enhancing the existing program, including placing important leadership roles not only in the hands of administrators but also coaches and the parents of student-athletes.
The 2019 and 2020 OVC Baseball Championships will be held at Rent One Park in Marion, Illinois. Rent One Park is the home of the Southern Illinois Miners, a professional baseball team playing in the Frontier League. It marks the fourth different neutral site venue to host the event, following Brooks Stadium in Paducah, Kentucky (2001-09), The Ballpark at Jackson in Jackson, Tennessee (2010-16) and Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama (2017-18).
The 2019, 2020 and 2021 OVC Indoor Track & Field Championships will be held at the Birmingham CrossPlex, which is the site of the 2019 and 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships. The world-class venue houses one of the fastest indoor hydraulic tracks in the world and marks the first time the OVC Indoor Championship has been held at a neutral site.
A modification was made to the OVC Softball Championship bracket beginning in 2019, as the first two games of the championship (involving seeds five through eight) will be single elimination, with the winners advancing to the double elimination portion of the bracket.
The OVC Council of Directors of Athletics reviewed the OVC Branding Policy, that was originally adopted in 2012, and amended it to require the OVC logo to be placed on football fields beginning with the 2019 season.
The OVC Board of Presidents adopted seven pieces of legislation, focusing primarily on student-athlete benefits, previously approved by the Autonomy Conferences.
The Board also approved a recommendation to contribute to the Jacksonville State University Tornado Relief Effort. The JSU campus was hit by an EF-3 tornado on March 19.
The OVC Board of Presidents approved an extension to Commissioner DeBauche’s contract which is now a five-year rolling contract that runs from the 2023-24 academic year. DeBauche was named the seventh full-time OVC Commissioner on July 29, 2009.
Spring Meeting attendees heard from OVC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) members Ellie Ivancich (Belmont), Cole Manion (Murray State) and Sage Stockton (Tennessee Tech) regarding issues impacting student-athletes. The group also listened to presentations from Dr. Dianne Murphy (The PICTOR Group), Binh T. Nguyen (Director of Academic and Membership Affairs at the NCAA), Emily Capehart (Associate Director of Academics and Membership Affairs at the NCAA), Jennifer Hudson (Managing Director of Academic and Membership Affairs at the NCAA) and Donald Remy (NCAA Chief Legal Officer).
It was also announced that next year’s Chair of the Board of Presidents will be Dr. Randall Pembrook from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, while the Chair of the Board of Directors of Athletics for 2018-19 with be Tennessee State University’s Teresa Phillips. The Vice-Chairs will be Tennessee State President Dr. Glenda Glover and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Director of Athletics Dr. Brad Hewitt.
The week concluded with the League’s annual Honors Brunch, which honored the OVC Male and Female Athletes of the Year (Murray State’s Jonathan Stark and Eastern Kentucky’s Paige Murphy), the Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award winner (Belmont’s Sally McCabe), and inducted former Austin Peay men’s basketball coach and Director of Athletics Dave Loos and former Morehead State President Dr. Wayne Andrews into the Conference’s Hall of Fame.