Ark. Little Rock to the Ohio Valley

[Maroon Eagle]

[FONT="]A new era in our athletic program is about to begin as Little Rock receives board approval to join the Ohio Valley Conference, effective July 1, 2022.A formal press conference will be held Thursday at 3 p.m. : https://t.co/db0LzALPh0#LittleRocksTeam | @OVCSports— Little Rock Trojans (@LRTrojans) December 8, 2021 [/FONT]

 

[Maroon Eagle]

This follows the many reports about Southern Miss, Old Dominion, and Marshall leaving CUSA this year.

UT Arlington has been in communication with the Missouri Valley for the past several months and a move there for the Mavericks won’t be too surprising. Murray State and Mo. - Kansas City have also been rumored to move there.

Belmont previously announced their move to the Valley. Loyola of Chicago is leaving the MVC for the A10.

 

[Dawgg]

Why would UTA leave the Sun Belt? The money has to be a lot better there.

 

[Duke Humphrey]

They don’t offer football, and Sun Belt is going to football centric league

 

[Dawgg]

They don’t offer football, and Sun Belt is going to football centric league

But is that any different than it is today? I don't think adding Southern Miss suddenly turned them into a Football juggernaut.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Look at where the Sun Belt earns their money.

Sun Belt schools receive significant income, reportedly around $18 million in 2019, from their share of College Football Playoff money, plus football-driven ESPN multimedia rights payouts.

“All of this landscape discussion, and how we are ‘measured’ as conferences – it’s all football-success predicated,” Maggard said.

That's from the Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Link.

"Five years ago at this time, Sun Belt schools were getting less than $100,000 per year from their membership in the Sun Belt," Commissioner Karl Benson said in announcing a record distribution of funds to league members for a fifth straight year. "In a couple of weeks, they will each get a check from the conference that will at least be 10 times that."

That represents an increase of 17 percent in the last 12-month period. Over five years, payouts to league members increased by 104 percent in 2013-14, 77 percent in 2014-15, 23 percent in 2015-16 and 34 percent last year along with this year’s improvement.

That's from a Sun Belt press release three years ago: Link.

And here's the Sun Belt's 990s from ProPublica: Link.

 

[patdog]

I think what he’s saying is the Sunbelt is going to require football for membership going forward. UTA & UALR options were add football or find a new conference.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Yeah. It appears they're definitely encouraged to find new conferences ASAP (there's a letter between the Sun Belt commish's and UTA's interim president circulating on twitter that goes into detail about this-- deadline of June 2023) and it looks like they're also waiving exit fees.

 

[Dawgg]

I think what he’s saying is the Sunbelt is going to require football for membership going forward. UTA & UALR options were add football or find a new conference.

Ok that makes sense.

 

[Dawgg]

Yeah. It appears they're definitely encouraged to find new conferences ASAP (there's a letter between the Sun Belt commish's and UTA's interim president circulating on twitter that goes into detail about this-- deadline of June 2023) and it looks like they're also waiving exit fees.

I'm a little surprised that UTA hasn't reinstated football. They have a huge enrollment of about 44,000 students (4th largest in Texas) and would have an existing FBS Conference tie, so they wouldn't have to do the tier up dance (Div II -> FCS -> FBS). Arlington has tried putting literally anything including football inside Choctaw Stadium (the "old" Rangers ballpark), which is not far from their campus, so it seems like a no brainer, especially with the Sun Belt levelling up a bit in terms of quality, but I'm sure there are reasons.

Feels like they could make a living being an OOC FBS opponent for Big 12, SEC, and AAC teams until they get a fanbase built.