OVC Basketball outlook in 2021-22 after shakeup of members

By Chris Smith | Aug 1, 2021

The Morehead State Eagles celebrate their victory over the Belmont Bruins in the Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Championship at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., Saturday, March 6, 2021. The Eagles defeated the Bruins 86-71 to win the championship title and a bid to the 2021 NCAA tournament.Ovc Mens Championship 8 /

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Belmont’s OVC Basketball Hpt Austin Peay Belmont Basketball 28 /

The Ohio Valley Conference will look a lot different than the conference did this past season. While OVC Basketball returns their automatic bid team from the NCAA Tournament last year in Morehead State, the league is set to be different.

The conference lost Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State at the conclusion of the 20-21 campaign. The two schools left the conference to join the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Atlantic Sun is a new conference at the football FCS level and these two schools are part of the new football conference. While it seemed to be a football-based move for the two schools, the two programs will also join the Atlantic Sun in basketball, which is already an established conference in college hoops.

The OVC will be hoping other schools will be able to make up for the wins that EKU and JSU are taking with them from the past season. Eastern Kentucky finished with a record of 22-7 overall and a 15-5 record inside the OVC. Jacksonville State collected 18 wins, finishing 18-9 overall while registering a 13-6 record in the OVC.

So with those two schools leaving, what does that leave the Ohio Valley Conference?

The conference members for the OVC for the 21-22 season are Austin Peay, Belmont, Eastern Illinois, Murray State, Morehead State, Southern Illinois (Edwardsville), Southeast Missouri, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, and UT Martin.

Let’s take a quick look at the 10 teams in the OVC for this upcoming season.