Western Illinois and UT Martin opened last season against one another. (Photo by UTMSports.com)
By Dan Verdun
While Western Illinois football will not officially become a member of the Big South-Ohio Valley Conference Football Association until next season, many of the league’s coaches are already familiar with the Leathernecks.
WIU announced in May that it would play one final season in the Missouri Valley Football Conference before moving to the OVC. Western will compete in all other sports beginning this fall.
Second-year Eastern Illinois head coach Chris Wilkerson played against WIU during his days as a Panther defensive lineman from 1991-94.
“We are super excited about the commitment, the expansion, the future of the Big South/OVC,” Wilkerson said during Tuesday’s conference media day. “Certainly Western Illinois is going to add to that competitive balance in the league.
“I played against them every year as a player. Certainly (they were) one of our main rivalries. I think it’s great.”
WIU opened last season at the University of Tennessee at Martin. The Skyhawks toppled the Leathernecks, 42-25, in that Sept. 1 matchup.
UT Martin head coach Jason Simpson said he supports Western Illinois being added to the conference.
“That expands the footprint for the league,” Simpson said. “I don’t know all the repercussions of that, but I’m excited about it. We need to get our numbers back to solidify our playoff opportunities that come with having the right number (of league members).”
A minimum of six members is required for a conference to be eligible for an automatic playoff bid. In recent years, both the Big South and OVC have lost members for a variety of reasons.
The two conferences announced their alliance in December. The 10 combined teams (6 OVC, 4 Big South) will play a six-game conference schedule, as prior scheduling commitments prevented opportunities for additional Big South/OVC games in the first year.
“We needed to grow, so I appreciate Western Illinois and the conference office for making that happen,” Simpson said.
Lindenwood, based in suburban St. Louis, joined the OVC last fall. The Lions are scheduled to play Western Illinois in a non-conference game Sept. 16 in Macomb.
“It’s great for our conference to expand,” Lindenwood head coach Jed Stugart said. “Geographically, it’s a good fit. Adding a team like that into our conference is a positive thing.
“The difference (between us and WIU) is they’ve been an established FCS program for quite awhile. That transition will be a little smoother because they’ve been recruiting and playing at that level for quite some time.”
WIU moved to the then-named Division I-AA level in 1981, while Lindenwood elevated from D-2 a year ago.
In addition to Lindenwood, the OVC added the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Southern Indiana – neither of which plays football – in 2022.
“We’re looking for some football-playing schools. We’ve added a couple of basketball schools that didn’t play football, so I think it’s a great addition,” Tennessee Tech head coach Dewayne Alexander said of WIU.
Tennessee Tech and Western Illinois have played one another in recent years.
In 2017, WIU throttled TTU, 41-14, on the road. Two years later, the Golden Eagles knocked off the Leathernecks, 38-24, in Macomb.
“We went to Eastern Illinois, then back (home) to Cookeville, then to Western Illinois, back to Cookeville and then went to Southeast Missouri State, so we rode the state of Illinois and saw quite a bit of it there in the 2019 season,” Alexander said.
According to Google maps, it’s 532 miles and 8 hours, 32 minutes from TTU to Macomb.
“Or 72 corn fields or however you want to do it,” Alexander quipped.
Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.
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