![]() ![]() The OVC will be the third conference with which the Trojans have been affiliated since moving to Division I in 1976. "If seemed right to the institution, it sure seemed right to the Ohio Valley Conference." "With each proceeding call, there was a sense that there a just a whole lot of similarities," DeBauche said. He made calls to the OVC, the Missouri Valley Conference, the Summit League, the Southland Conference and the Southern Conference.īut both he and DeBauche recognized quickly that they shared many of the same values in running their respective organizations, which spurred further conversation over the following weeks and months. Once Texas and Oklahoma ignited the latest round of realignment in late July, Lee began to seriously kick the tires on potential landing spots for UALR. "The Ohio Valley allows us to come in, have some success and start drawing more fans - because it's hard to draw fans if you're not winning." Those things kind of go together with the Ohio Valley," Lee said. "We have to figure out how to look at what's best for our students we have to raise more money for our programs. The Trojans will become an official OVC member on June 1 and will compete in the conference starting with the 2022-23 academic year. Also in attendance were numerous coaches from the Trojans' 15 teams, several members of UALR's administration - both within athletics and the university as a whole - and boosters, filling the Legends Club as the school begins a new era following three decades in the Sun Belt Conference. UALR formally accepted its invitation to join the Ohio Valley Conference on Thursday afternoon inside the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock with a news conference featuring Lee, Chancellor Christina Drale and OVC Commissioner Beth DeBauche. Lee, who'd returned to his alma mater as an athletics administrator almost a decade after his graduation, didn't hesitate to ask questions of Turner, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's swimming & diving and water polo coach as well as the athletic department's compliance officer.Įvery time, Turner had the same response to Lee: "What is best for the student-athlete?"Īnd while cliché, it was the thought that stuck with the Trojans' now-athletic director throughout his exploration of conference realignment. ![]() A young George Lee spent many days in Richard Turner's office in the late 1990s.
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