On Tuesday, the Ohio Valley Conference and the Big South Conference announced the conference slate for the 2023 football season.  This coming fall will be the first year of the joint association of the league's football member institutions.
 
In February of 2022, the two conferences agreed to a letter of intent to ensure NCAA championship access in the sport of football.  It will provide the football member institutions a schedule of games against all the teams in their multisport conference and additional games against schools from the other conference. This new model for FCS football also creates more stability for the multisport conferences.
 
The 10 combined teams (6 – OVC, 4 – Big South) will play a six-game conference schedule in 2023, as prior scheduling commitments prevented opportunities for additional Big South-OVC games in the first year.
 
Lindenwood will take on Southeast Missouri in the first game of OVC action.  The Lions will head to Cape Girardeau, Mo. on September 9 for the second-annual Game Ball Brawl.  On October 7, Lindenwood will host Tennessee Tech in St. Charles, Mo.  The following week on October 14, the Lions will play its first of two Big South opponents in Charleston Southern in South Carolina.  On October 28, Lindenwood will take on Tennessee State for the first time, before hosting Eastern Illinois on November 4.  The Lions end the conference slate with a game inside Hunter Stadium, as they host Bryant on November 11.
 
More details of the association's administration, including tiebreakers for the automatic bid to the playoffs, will be announced at a later date.
 
ABOUT THE BIG SOUTH-OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE ASSOCIATION
In February 2022 the Big South Conference and Ohio Valley Conference announced the creation of an association of their football member institutions, to begin with the 2023 NCAA Division I football season and have an initial term of at least four years.  The unique agreement combines the two conferences' football membership to ensure NCAA championship access and stability for the multisport conferences.   In creating the association, presidents from each of the multisport conferences pointed to the similarities of the OVC and the Big South, with their complementary geographies and intercollegiate athletic philosophies, as key to making this association possible.
 
This year the conferences combined for 13 finalists for the 2022 FCS National awards (Walter Payton, Buck Buchanan, Jerry Rice, Eddie Robinson and Doris Robinson), with four individuals finishing in the Top 10 of voting.
 
Schools included in the association include Bryant University (Smithfield, R.I.), Charleston Southern University (Charleston, S.C.), Eastern Illinois University (Charleston, Ill.), Gardner-Webb University (Boiling Springs, N.C), Lindenwood University (St. Charles, Mo.), Robert Morris University (Moon Township, Pa.), Southeast Missouri State University (Cape Girardeau, Mo.), Tennessee State University (Nashville, Tenn.), Tennessee Technological University (Cookeville, Tenn.) and University of Tennessee at Martin (Martin, Tenn.).