Ohio Valley Conference

The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a college athletic conference which operates in the midwestern and southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS; formerly known as Division I-AA), the lower of two levels of Division I football competition. The OVC has 12 members, 9 of which compete in football in the conference.

History
Primary source :

The Ohio Valley Conference can trace its roots to 1941 when Murray State athletic director Roy Stewart, Eastern Kentucky athletic director Charles "Turkey" Hughes, and Western Kentucky public relations director Kelly Thompson first formulated the idea of establishing a regional athletics conference. The plan was put on hold due to World War II, but it was resurrected after the conclusion of the war. In 1948, the three schools joined with Louisville, Morehead State, and Evansville to form the Ohio Valley Conference. While many collegiate conferences are struggling today with the question of whether their policies and rules should be determined by the athletic departments or by the institutional heads, from the very beginning, the OVC has been run by the presidents of its member schools.

Historically, the OVC was a pioneer in racial desegregation with Morehead State signing the conference's first black athlete, Marshall Banks, in 1958. The rest of the OVC soon followed in Morehead State's wake. Today, the OVC is unique among NCAA Division I conferences in that it includes one historically black university, Tennessee State University, in a conference that otherwise consists of institutions that are not traditionally black. All other HBCUs in NCAA Division I are members of either the MEAC or SWAC, conferences made up entirely of HBCUs.

The OVC has also been a leader in advancement of sports opportunities fore women. The conference began adding championship competitions for women in 1977 several years after the AIAW began sponsoring national championships for women, but seven years before the NCAA was ready to move into the field. Since 2009, the OVC has been led by Commissioner Beth DeBauche, one of only five female commissioners for the twenty-four Division I conferences.

Athletic rivalries, especially when competitors are in relatively close proximity, can generate problems with fan behavior, and the conference leadership struggled with controlling the issue for many years. When the national debate on the problem reached its apex in the mid-1990s, the OVC unveiled the national first of its kind "Sportsmanship Statement” in 1995, stating the conference's policy on, "... principles of fair play, ethical conduct and respect for one's opponent." Since then, the OVC has also introduced individual, team (for each sport), and institutional sportsmanship awards.

Founded by six schools, the expansions of 2007 and 2011 have brought the Ohio Valley Conference membership to twelve schools, the most in its history.

OVC Digital Network
In August, 2012, the OVC announced that it had launched the OVC Digital Network as a replacement for and improvement over the conference's former efforts to provide streaming video coverage of many athletic events that it had been in place since 2006.

Full members
Note = Morehead State's football team competes in the Pioneer Football League, a Division I FCS football-only conference whose members choose not to offer athletic scholarships for football.

Former members

 * Notes
 * 1) Western Kentucky rejoined the OVC for football only from the 1999–2000 to the 2000–01 academic seasons.
 * 2) Marshall left the OVC to become an Independent for 1 year prior to joining the Mid-American Conference (MAC).

Membership timeline
Purple = Full member Magenta = Full member except football Orange = Associate member for football only Green = Associate for sport other than football

Comments:

 * Morehead State's football team competes in the Pioneer Football League], a Division I FCS football-only conference whose members choose not to offer athletic scholarships for football.
 * Austin Peay's football team left the OVC after the 1996 season to compete as an independent. After four seasons as an independent, the team joined the Pioneer Football League in 2001, and remained there through the 2005 season. Austin Peay then returned to scholarship football, spending the 2006 season as an independent before reentering OVC football competition in 2007.

Sports offered
The Ohio Valley Conference currently offers championship competition in eighteen NCAA sanctioned sports, eight for men, nine for women, and rifle for men's, women's, and coed teams. Columbus State is an Associate member for rifle.

Men's sponsored sports by school:

 * * = Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. All competing OVC schools have coed teams, and Tennessee-Martin has both a women's and a coed team.

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Ohio Valley Conference which are played by OVC schools:
 * * = Rodeo is sanctioned by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), not the NCAA.

Women's sponsored sports by school:

 * * = Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. All competing OVC schools have coed teams, and Tennessee-Martin has both a women's and a coed team.

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Ohio Valley Conference which are played by OVC schools:
 * * = Rodeo is sanctioned by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), not the NCAA.

Football conference champions
''This is a list of the champions since 2000. For the complete history, see List of Ohio Valley Conference football champions.''

$ – Jacksonville State (6–1) had the best record in the conference, but was ineligible for the championship due to Academic Progress Rate sanctions.

$$ – Tennessee Tech won the tie-breaker and received the automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.

Men's basketball
''This is list of the champions since 2000. For the complete history, see List of Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball champions.''