OVC, Big South make football scheduling pact for 2023

Southeast Missouri State running back Geno Hess runs for yardage against Tennessee Tech during the 2021 spring season at Houck Stadium.

Southeast Missourian file

Following the formation of a scheduling alliance formed with the Southland Conference in December, which will be enacted in the fall, the Ohio Valley Conference and the Big South Conference have created an association of the football-playing schools that will begin in the fall of 2023.

Dr. J. Bradley Creed, Chair of the Big South Council of Football Members, Chair of the Council of Chief Executive Officers, and President of Campbell University, and Dr. David Glassman, President of Eastern Illinois University and Chair of the OVC Board of Presidents, made the announcement on Tuesday.

“The Big South – Ohio Valley Conference football association will strengthen the efforts of both conferences to provide greater opportunities for our student-athletes,” Dr. Creed said in a release. “This move has the unanimous support of the CEOs of the football schools in the Big South Conference, and we look forward to enlarging and enlivening the field of competition for our teams. I commend President Glassman and his colleagues in the OVC for their role in establishing this collaboration.”

The agreement combines the two conferences’ football membership to ensure NCAA championship access.

It will provide the football member institutions a schedule of games against all the teams in their multisport conference (for SEMO, this means the OVC), and additional games against schools from the other conference (Big South).

This new model for FCS football also creates more stability for the multisport conferences.

Details of the association’s overall structure and administration have been outlined and are expected to be finalized, along with the 2023 schedule, in the coming months.

“The OVC is pleased to come together with the Big South to establish a new FCS football model, aimed at ensuring outstanding competition and championship access for our student-athletes,” said Dr. Glassman. “The world of intercollegiate athletics is changing, and all of the OVC members are looking forward to working with Dr. Creed and the rest of the Big South presidents to establish a new paradigm for FCS football across our region. In addition, we welcome the participation of other leagues interested in working together for the betterment of intercollegiate athletics.”

The Big South Conference includes football-playing institutions of Kennesaw State, Monmouth, North Alabama, Robert Morris, North Carolina A&T, Charleston Southern, Hampton, Campbell, and Gardner-Webb.

As part of the agreement with the Southland Conference, Southeast Missouri State will play the following games this fall.

- Nicholls at Southeast Missouri (Sept. 17)

- Southeast Missouri at Northwestern State (Oct. 22)

The Southland Conference football members include Houston Baptist, McNeese State, Nicholls State, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana, and Texas A&M University-Commerce.