Ohio Valley Moves Football to the Spring

The Ohio Valley Conference is the latest and final FCS conference to postpone its conference schedule to the spring according to Pete Thamel. The OVC will allow up to four non-conference games followed by a seven game OVC schedule in the spring.

Source: The OVC Presidents voted that the schools can play four non-conference games in the fall. They plan to play a seven-game conference schedule in the spring.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 14, 2020

The Ohio Valley Conference confirmed the postponement on Friday evening.

The last week has seen a second wave of postponements on the FCS level though many conferences have allowed member institutions to pursue non-conference matchups if they wish. The OVC is the last FCS conference to move its conference schedule to the fall in the hopes of the championship also being pushed back.

Eastern Illinois, Murray State, Southeast Missouri State, Tennessee State, and Tennessee Tech do not have any scheduled games remaining. The Golden Eagles canceled its September 12 game against TCU on Friday. Tennessee Martin informed Memphis it will not play the game scheduled for Saturday, November 21.

Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, and Jacksonville State have non-conference games scheduled for 2020. Jacksonville State’s game against Florida International on Thursday, September 3 will not go as scheduled due to FIU delaying the start of competition until Friday, September 16.

An additional 53 games could be canceled or postponed by the Southland’s decision. 17 non-conference games, which are still eligible to be played, are marked with an asterisk while 36 conference games will be moved to the spring.

Date	Away	Home
8/29*	Austin Peay	Central Arkansas
9/3*	Western Carolina	Eastern Kentucky
9/3*	Jacksonville State	Florida International
9/3*	Murray State	Georgia State
9/3*	Tennessee Tech	Samford
9/12*	Jacksonville State	North Alabama
9/12	Tennessee Martin	Austin Peay
9/12*	Eastern Illinois	Illinois State
9/12*	Eastern Kentucky	West Virginia
9/12*	Tennessee Tech	TCU
9/19*	Austin Peay	Cincinnati
9/19*	Eastern Kentucky	Youngstown State
9/19*	Southeast Missouri State	Southern Illinois
9/19*	Southeastern Louisiana	Jacksonville State
9/19*	Tennessee Tech	Southern Miss
9/26*	East Tennessee State	Austin Peay
9/26	Eastern Illinois	Tennessee Martin
9/26	Eastern Kentucky	Tennessee Tech
9/26	Jacksonville State	Tennessee State
9/26	Murray State	Southeast Missouri State
10/3	Tennessee Tech	Jacksonville State
10/3	Tennessee State	Murray State
10/3	Austin Peay	Eastern Illinois
10/3	Tennessee Martin	Eastern Kentucky
10/10	Jacksonville State	Tennessee Martin
10/10	Eastern Kentucky	Austin Peay
10/10	Murray State	Tennessee Tech
10/10	Southeast Missouri State	Tennessee State
10/17	Austin Peay	Jacksonville State
10/17	Tennessee Tech	Southeast Missouri State
10/17	Eastern Illinois	Eastern Kentucky
10/17	Tennessee Martin	Murray State
10/24	Jacksonville State	Eastern Illinois
10/24	Southeast Missouri State	Tennessee Martin
10/24	Tennessee State	Tennessee Tech
10/31	Eastern Kentucky	Jacksonville State
10/31	Eastern Illinois	Murray State
10/31	Austin Peay	Southeast Missouri State
10/31	Tennessee Martin	Tennessee State
11/7	Southeast Missouri State	Eastern Illinois
11/7	Tennessee Tech	Tennessee Martin
11/7	Tennessee State	Austin Peay
11/7	Murray State	Eastern Kentucky
11/14	Austin Peay	Tennessee Tech
11/14	Eastern Illinois	Tennessee State
11/14	Eastern Kentucky	Southeast Missouri State
11/14	Jacksonville State	Murray State
11/21	Southeast Missouri State	Jacksonville State
11/21	Murray State	Austin Peay
11/21	Tennessee State	Eastern Kentucky
11/21	Tennessee Tech	Eastern Illinois
11/21*	Tennessee Martin	Memphis

Two non-conference game already impacted are Jacksonville State at Florida International and Austin Peay at Cincinnati. FIU announced they would delay the start of its season until September 16 while Austin Peay-Cincinnati has moved from Thursday, September 3 to Saturday, September 19.

To date, over 750 games featuring FCS teams have now been canceled or postponed for the 2020 season.

Photo courtesy of Jacksonville State University Athletics.