(12-07-2021 07:17 PM)RBL Wrote:  Looks like OVC does not have a mirror schedule. Good news for road fans


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It works for me since my oldest son and his family recently moved to Lexington, Ky. There are several OVC schools located between here and Lexington, and Morehead State is in Tennessee.

(12-07-2021 07:06 PM)SkoEagles Wrote:  If true, happy to have y’all in the OVC. I think UALR is a great add for the conference. Hopefully this breaks the ice and we can get some other quality programs to join as well.


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Thanks. I thought we might wait to see what happens before making the jump. But, like you said, I am now hopeful that our taking the plunge might motivate other schools to jump to the OVC or, at least, not leave the conference.

(12-07-2021 07:37 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(12-07-2021 07:17 PM)RBL Wrote:  Looks like OVC does not have a mirror schedule. Good news for road fans


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It works for me since my oldest son and his family recently moved to Lexington, Ky. There are several OVC schools located between here and Lexington, and Morehead State is in Tennessee.

Morehead State is in Kentucky, but is the closest in the OVC to Lexington now that EKU has departed.

Mass exodus for baseball. Gonna kill UALR as we know it. The portal will be hot at years end.

(12-08-2021 12:21 AM)Dumdumditty Wrote:  Mass exodus for baseball. Gonna kill UALR as we know it. The portal will be hot at years end.

All the schools in the OVC, except Tenn State, play baseball. I assume you are saying that the quality of baseball team is much better in the Belt. At least, the majority of schools are in the South, unlike the Summit League and most of the MoValley. I would also assume that we could be one of best baseball programs in the OVC. As I've said before, I wouldn't support voluntarily moving to a lesser conference just to "win" more. However, since it is the hand we have been dealt, I will try and look at the bright side.

(12-08-2021 12:30 AM)mjs Wrote:  

(12-08-2021 12:21 AM)Dumdumditty Wrote:  Mass exodus for baseball. Gonna kill UALR as we know it. The portal will be hot at years end.

All the schools in the OVC, except Tenn State, play baseball. I assume you are saying that the quality of baseball team is much better in the Belt. At least, the majority of schools are in the South, unlike the Summit League and most of the MoValley. I would also assume that we could be one of best baseball programs in the OVC. As I've said before, I wouldn't support voluntarily moving to a lesser conference just to "win" more. However, since it is the hand we have been dealt, I will try and look at the bright side.

The team today would likely win or finish second in the OVC. Easily. But we will lose half the team to the portal. And many recruits. Then we will right back down to the OVC level of play.

While that is an unfortunate side effect of our move, I'm not sure what another option would be. Is the Southland significantly better than the OVC in baseball?

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(12-08-2021 10:48 AM)mjs Wrote:  While that is an unfortunate side effect of our move, I'm not sure what another option would be. Is the Southland significantly better than the OVC in baseball?

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I think we are in one of those situations where if given lemons, you make the best lemonade that you can!

While I liked the idea of being in top flight baseball conference, as a casual fan I doubt I will notice the difference. Kind of like Oaklawn bringing in better quality horses. Makes absolutely no difference to me.

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In the paper today
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021...ts-college

RIP, Sun Belt! After 3 decades' worth of wins, losses, heartbreaks and memories, it's time for a change.

https://twitter.com/mpgladstone/status/1...86826?s=21

(12-08-2021 11:05 AM)mjs Wrote:  While I liked the idea of being in top flight baseball conference, as a casual fan I doubt I will notice the difference. Kind of like Oaklawn bringing in better quality horses. Makes absolutely no difference to me.

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After 40 years of hanging around with you watching Little Rock Trojan Athletics, I can without reservation affirmatively swear that you are anything but a “casual fan”!!! Go Trojans!

Thanks. I just meant I am not an expert in assessing baseball talent level or the quality of horses.

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Warren Nolan has the Sun Belt ranked 10th. OVC is 17th. Not as bad as I thought.

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For what it's worth, UALR's 310 NET rank is dead last in the SBC.
If we were healthy it would probably be different. With the addition of Gordon that makes 4 scholarship players who may be out for the season. Don't know when Nikola will be cleared to play. Regardless, we need Nikola to come back for his Covid year next year.

The news saddened my 31 year old son- "Being in the Sun Belt is all I have known". He also expressed concern that with ASU and UCA now in "better" conferences than us, they will inevitably become better athletic programs. Not sure it is inevitable, but certainly quite likely. Hopefully, being in the capital city will still give us the edge with some kids who want to be in a more metropolitan environment.

https://lrtrojans.com/news/2021/12/8/lit...etics.aspx
Announcement made


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Some of the OVC programs are better than ours, so I see no reason why we cannot prosper there.

I’m piggy backing off my post from the belt board…

Current OVC athletic budgets (with LR and UAPB)

Got these numbers from collegefactual.com)

EIU-$12.4 million dollar budget
Morehead-$9 million dollar budget
SEMO-$12.9 million dollar budget
Murray State-$15.5 million
SIUE-$9.6 million
UT Martin-$12.5 million
Tennessee State-$11.5 million
Tennessee Tech-$13.7 million

UAPB is listed as $8.6 million; LR is $13 million