New programs in place for revenues, brackets Posted: Thursday, June 7, 2012 7:00 pm
BRENTWOOD — The Ohio Valley Conference concluded its annual conference Spring Meetings Friday in Nashville.
Items of business that highlighted the meeting included a basketball enhancement incentive plan, approval of access and seeding models for the OVC men’s and women’s basketball, softball and volleyball tournaments, the adoption of an OVC Fan Code of Conduct and a contract extension for the commissioner.
The OVC Board of Presidents approved an extension to commissioner Beth DeBauche’s contract.
A four-year contract that runs through June 30, 2016, was approved.
The OVC Board of Presidents approved a basketball enhancement plan that was formulated by a sub-group that included athletic directors and coaches.
The league will distribute revenue earned (up to $500,000) through victories in the NCAA men’s championship back to schools for use to enhance the sport of men’s basketball.
OVC schools can earn the money based on (1) overall team RPI, (2) increase in number of Division I wins from the previous year (a 3-year rolling average), (3) Division I non-conference wins (3-year rolling average), (4) OVC Tournament or regular season championship in the past four years, (5) improvement in RPI (3-year rolling average) and (6) 40 percent of non-conference games being played at home or neutral sites.
With the addition of Belmont on July 1 and with SIUE gaining full Division I status and becoming eligible for postseason competition, the OVC will feature 12 schools in the sports of men’s and women’s basketball, softball and volleyball for the first time this coming year.
The league announced in February its intention to use a divisional scheduling model for the sports that featured 12 members.
The East Division will include Belmont, Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville State, Morehead State, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech while the West Division will include Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois, Murray State, Southeast Missouri State, SIUE and UT Martin.
In men’s and women’s basketball, the top team in each division based on conference winning percentage automatically earns a berth into the OVC championship. The next six teams with the highest conference winning percentage will also earn a bid, regardless of division.
The No. 1 seed will go to the divisional winner with the top conference winning percentage, while the No. 2 seed will automatically go to the other divisional winner. The remaining six teams will be seeded 3-8 by conference winning percentage, regardless of division.
Published in The Messenger 6.7.12 , | 
