The following is a list of schools in the OVC as of LAST year. A * means the play FCS football. A # means they are a non scholarship FCS football school and play that in the Pioneer FCS League.
1. SIU-E
2. E. ILLINOIS *
3. SEMO *
4. MURRAY ST. *
5. MOREHEAD ST. #
6. E. KENTUCKY *
7. AUSTIN PEAY *
8. BELMONT
9. TENN. ST. *
10. TENN. TECH. *
11. JACKSONVILLE ST. *
12. UT-MARTIN *
E. Kentucky and Jacksonville St. left the OVC this year for the A-SUN. The main reason was hoping they would eventually transition to FBS in football. JSU took care of that sooner rather than later as after this year they will move to C-USA along with Liberty, Sam Houston St. and N. Mexico St.
This year Austin Peay made the announcement that next year they will be moving to the A-SUN also. Then Belmont (a non football school) made the announcement that next year they will be moving to the MVC.
Those are moves that are over and done with. Then the MVC conference made the announcement that next year Loyola will be moving to the A-10. Then per CBS Sports news the MVC is ambitiously pursuing a plan to add multiple schools. The three schools in the mix are Murray St., UT-Arlington, and UMKC. It is expected they will eventually be issued an invite to join the MVC, with sources telling CBS Sports that Murray St. and UT-Arlington are considered the two strongest candidates.
It is also being rumored that Tenn. St. is considering moving to the SWAK.
If EITHER Murray or Tenn. St. leave that would only leave 5 OVC schools playing football. The reason that is huge is to receive an automatic bid in the FCS you must have 6 schools that play football in that conference.
The only schools I'm hearing any rumors about possible joining the OVC are W. Illinois and several DII schools that may be wanting to move up.
I'm 99% sure Murray is leaving. That will kill football unless something drastic is done. What it does to basketball? Right now with Belmont, Austin Peay and Murray still in the league, the OVC is ranked 28 or 29 (changes week to week) out of 32 conferences. Once those three schools leave the OVC will likely drop to the bottom #32. So even if you win the conference tournament and have 20+ wins you will still be a 16 seed.
There has also been a lot of movement in the Southland conference but I don't have enough time to go into that.