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BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The Ohio Valley Conference hosted its 2021 Virtual Spring Meetings last week to cap an unprecedented year.
 
In addition to meetings and guest speakers, the League also celebrated successes from the past year. That including completing more combined men's and women's Conference basketball games that any Conference in the country (119 of 120 scheduled men's games and 116 of 120 scheduled women's contests). Overall the OVC played 96 percent of its scheduled Conference contests across all sports in 2020-21. Additionally, the league had success in the NCAA postseason in women's basketball (the first win for the league since 1990), volleyball (the first win for the league since 2009) and football (a quarterfinal appearance for the third time in six years).
 
"While this year had its challenges and adversity, we can look back on it with a sense of immense pride for all that the OVC and its student-athletes accomplished and how we did it," said OVC Commissioner Beth DeBauche. "We began the 2020-21 academic year committed to ensuring our students-athletes would have a rich and memorable Division I competitive experience in a safe and nurturing environment."
 
"Thanks to the shared dedication and tireless work of our committed leaders and the dedication and fortitude of our coaches and student-athletes, we not only achieved that goal but became stronger as a conference in the process. I am heartened by the sense of unity within the OVC community and the members' loyalty to the Conference as we look to the future with a well-deserved sense of pride and accomplishment."
 
A change was made to the OVC governance structure, which was changed in 2018 to allow more collaboration and engagement among the membership, enhanced efficiencies and the development of a more strategic agenda. The revised structure now includes combining the Governance and Administration Cabinet and the Student-Athlete Experience and Academic Cabinet into one cabinet to work alongside the other two existing Competition cabinet and Championships cabinet. This change to intended to allow for a balanced distribution of work and more satisfying service opportunities for the membership.
 
As part of its on-going work, the Athletics Directors from the OVC football-playing institutions have met regularly since March to identify strategies for future enhancement. As part of that work they presented several recommendations to the OVC Board of Presidents, including an amendment the OVC bylaws to state "Football teams in the Conference shall not schedule a non-Division I contest in any academic year."  That proposal was adopted by the Board beginning with the 2022 season. Additionally they recommended continuing the OVC Football Playoff Hosting Pool (which helps schools financially with bids for home playoff games) and to set a goal that each Conference athletics department shall have an assigned mental health professional to assist with its student-athletes.
 
The OVC Board of Presidents approved an extension to Commissioner DeBauche's contract which is now a five-year rolling contract that runs from the 2025-26 academic year. DeBauche was named the seventh full-time OVC Commissioner on July 29, 2009.
 
Spring Meeting attendees heard from NCAA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Hainline, Jennifer Fraser, NCAA Managing Director, and Dr. Derrick Gragg, the NCAA Senior Vice-President for Inclusion, Education and Community Engagement, The group also heard from OVC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) members Amani Taylor (Tennessee State), Jocelyne Mendoza (Eastern Illinois) and Quinn Eaton (Murray State) regarding issues impacting student-athletes.
 
It was also announced that next year's Chair of the Board of Presidents will be Dr. David Glassman of Eastern Illinois University, while the Chair of the Council of Directors of Athletics for 2021-22 will be Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Director of Athletics Tim Hall.