The Southland Conference and the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) have officially announced their football scheduling alliance matchups for the 2022 season.
Due to realignment in college football that has affected both conferences, the Southland and OVC announced a scheduling alliance in October in order to strengthen “…not only both football leagues, but the FCS overall with quality non-conference matchups.”
Below are the Southland-Ohio Valley football matchups for the 2022 season:
Sept. 10 – Texas A&M-Commerce at Tennessee Tech
Sept. 17 – Nicholls at Southeast Missouri
Oct. 1 – Murray State at Southeastern Louisiana
Oct. 8 – Northwestern State at Eastern Illinois
Oct. 22 – Southeast Missouri at Northwestern State
Oct. 29 – UT Martin at Houston Baptist
Nov. 5 – Eastern Illinois at McNeese
Nov. 19 – Tennessee State at Texas A&M-Commerce
“We are really happy to announce more details regarding the previously released Southland-OVC scheduling alliance,” said Southland Commissioner Tom Burnett. “We look forward to building some great FCS-specific competition that will build rivalries and assist in determining NCAA postseason opportunities for teams and student-athletes in both leagues.”
“With the changing landscape of Division I, partnerships are going to be more important than ever to build quality schedules,” said OVC Commissioner Beth DeBauche. “This is the first step of things to come and we are looking forward to building this relationship with the Southland Conference.”
The Southland-OVC football scheduling alliance currently extends through the 2023 season. Matchups for that season will be announced at a later date.
Football Schedules
It will be interesting to see how the A-Sun, OVC, and Southland handle their future football schedules, as each league will be hovering around 6 teams, which is the minimum. In 2023, the A-Sun will only have 5 football teams (as of now), the OVC 6 (as of now), and the Southland 6 (as of now). I wonder if there will be an OVC/A-Sun Alliance, or maybe a Southland/A-Sun Alliance like we saw with the WAC/A-Sun this year.
The A-Sun will have six, now that Austin Peay has left the Ohio Valley Conference for them.
I am for this move. Both of these conferences could use this to improve their standing in the FCS playoffs and possibly birth some future rivalries.