Brett Rojo/USA TODAY Sports
University of Arkansas System Votes to Move Little Rock to Ohio Valley Conference
The University of Arkansas System board met by Zoom today to quickly ratify a decision to move Arkansas-Little Rock from the Sun Belt to the Ohio Valley Conference.
An official press conference will be held at the Jack Stephens Center in LIttle Rock Thursday at 3 p.m.
The OVC is currently made up of teams from Murray State, Morehead State, Austin Peay, Southeast Missouri, UT-Martin, Tennessee Tech, Eastern Illinois, Tennessee State, and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.
The Trojans joined the conference in 1991. Twenty years later, in 2011, Little Rock had its strongest year when it claimed championships in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and baseball.
The men’s team, which lost to Arkansas in its first-ever match-up last Saturday, is the defending Sun Belt champion.
The men won championships in 1996, 2011, 2016 and the aforementioned 2020 season with perhaps the most celebrated and well-known team was the 1996 Trojans.
Future NBA guard Derek Fisher, who two years earlier kept the players from walking out on the basketball program all together amid seemingly insurmountable problems with coach Jimm Platt, led the Trojans to a win over No. 8 Mississippi State.
Under the tutelage of the infamous Wimp Sanderson, Fisher became the first player in Arkansas-Little Rock history to be chosen in the first round.
The women’s basketball program took off with the arrival of coach Joe Foley in the early 2000s. By 2010 the program was dominating the Sun Belt as the Trojans claimed championships in 2010-13 and 2015.
The women’s basketball program took off with the arrival of coach Joe Foley in the early 2000s. By 2010 the program was dominating the Sun Belt as the Trojans claimed championships in 2010-13 and 2015.
Reports indicate a moving partner for the Trojans to the OVC will be announced in the near future.
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