What is Ohio Valley Conference?
The '''Ohio Valley Conference''' (OVC) is an [[United States|American]] [[:Category:College athletics conferences|college sports conference]] that plays in the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] [[NCAA Division I|Division I]]. In [[American football|football]], the OVC is part of Division I FCS, the lower of two levels of Division I football. The member [[universities]] and [[college]]s are in [[Arkansas]], [[Illinois]], [[Indiana]], [[Kentucky]], [[Missouri]], and [[Tennessee]]. The OVC has its offices in the [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] [[suburb]] of [[Brentwood, Tennessee]]. ==History== The OVC grew out of talks between officials at three Kentucky schools—Eastern Kentucky, Murray State, and Western Kentucky—in 1941. America's entry into [[World War II]] [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|later that year]] put these talks on hold for several years. Later, in 1948, the three original schools joined with two other Kentucky schools, plus one in [[Indiana]], to form the conference. It was one of the first conferences with a presence in the [[Southern United States|South]] to accept [[African American|black]] athletes at historically [[White American|white]]-only schools, with Morehead State being the first OVC member to do so in 1958. The OVC was long notable as being the only conference made up of traditionally white schools to have a historically black university ([[Tennessee State University|Tennessee State]]) as a member. That changed when Hampton and North Carolina A&T left the [[Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference]] for the [[Big South Conference]], respectively in 2018 and 2021. (Both moved together to the [[Colonial Athletic Association]] in 2022.) The OVC has had major membership changes in recent years. In 2021, it lost founding member [[Eastern Kentucky University|Eastern Kentucky]], plus [[Jacksonville State]], to the [[Atlantic Sun Conference|ASUN Conference]].<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://asunsports.org/general/2020-21/releases/20210126nthmsg |title=ASUN Conference Announces Three N