OVC Commissioner DeBauche

Western Illinois Joining and More

(St. Louis, MO) – Beth DeBauche is leading the Ohio Valley Conference to bigger and better days. The addition of Western Illinois to the league is just the latest in a string of superior moves by OVC commissioner DeBauche and the league administrators.

While some have written off the league after the losses of Austin Peay, Belmont, Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville State and Murray State, DeBauche has remained bullish and aggressive in rebuilding the 75-year-old conference. Certainly the programs that have replaced those departing schools lack the same pedigree, but they fit well, are growing programs and hold genuine promise for the future.

After last year’s additions of Lindenwood, Little Rock and Southern Indiana, the conference continues to expand its reach and footprint by adding the Leatherneck’s athletic program. Many were skeptical about adding transitioning Division 2 programs (Lindenwood and USI), but those programs proved competitive and the energy around those two campuses and communities is palpable and we believe their additions were uniquely positive.

We spoke with OVC Commissioner DeBauche while she was attending the OVC baseball tournament, which incidentally Little Rock was the second seeded team, on a number of topics, but specifically about the addition of Western Illinois.

The College Landscape

While we hear and read about constant program and player movement, all athletic conferences face huge challenges. The ACC is changing the way the individual programs are receiving NCAA Basketball Tournament financial distributions. Texas and Oklahoma are trying to speed their way to the Southeastern Conference and the Pac 12 is disintegrating before our very eyes.

Name, image and likeness and ‘free agency’ have created the ‘Portal Pandemic’ where this season over 1,700 male basketball players entered the transfer portal and roughly 5,000 have done so the past three years. This may be good for players, programs and the sport, or it may not be. The largest notion is this. Nothing is the same any more.

OVC Commissioner DeBauche says the landscape has changed, but her mission remains the same. Her desired goals relate to the student athletes’ experience and education.

 

 

Realignment hasn’t been easy. No conference in America seemingly is immune and certainly not the Ohio Valley Conference. However, DeBauche says recent transitions have actually been good for the league and she has enjoyed a fun, growing season.

OVC administrators and program leaders took the time to evaluate ‘the why’ behind ‘their what’ and the conference has become more homogenous, focused and unified.

 

 

Why Western Illinois?

OVC Commissioner DeBauche has held her post since 2009 and says Western Illinois joining the league simply made sense. She emphasized that WIU carried similar athletic mission and values as their new league-mates. The Leathernecks’ financial structure, geography and sport sponsorship aligns extremely well and there are existing rivalries that will be enhanced.

 

 

As noted in our previous piece on this ‘merger’ WIU plays several OVC teams in an assortment of sports and the Leathernecks went 1-and-1 in men’s basketball contests last year. WIU and Eastern Illinois have a long-standing rivalry and that will only reach a higher level with those programs competing for the same conference titles.

WIU Director of Athletics Paul H. Bubb has Murray State roots and that part of this conversation can’t be overlooked. While we are a basketball-oriented website, football was a very important part of these discussions and final decisions.

 

 

The Rest of the Conversation

Our conversation ranged to continued conference growth, the successes of Lindenwood, Little Rock and Southern Indiana during their first collective OVC seasons. Our site is beginning an expansion into covering the women’s basketball programs (see Amy Eagan interview) and DeBauche admits the women’s side of the OVC basketball programs is in something of a rebuilding mode.

Go here to hear our entire conversation with OVC Commissioner DeBauche.

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