RSC Communications
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — With the calendar turning to July 1, 2021, the River States Conference officially gained two new members — St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) College and Ohio Valley (W.Va.) University.
St. Mary-of-the-Woods was approved as a new NAIA and RSC member in October 2020. Official membership on the national and conference level took effect July 1. The Pomeroys compete in 14 RSC championship sports
Ohio Valley was approved as a provisional member of the RSC in February 2021. That was pending OVU’s reinstatement as an NAIA member later in the spring. The Fighting Scots, who compete in 15 RSC sports, earned NAIA membership in May and thus are officially in the RSC as of July 1.
Both SMWC and OVU will be fully postseason eligible in the RSC and NAIA in their first year in the conference of 2021-22. As a previous member of the NAIA, OVU was granted this status upon its reinstatment to the NAIA. Due to a change at the NAIA national meetings this past spring, SMWC will not have to wait a year to become playoff eligible as was the case in the past for brand new NAIA members. The Pomeroys can gain conference and national postseason bids right away, but their addition to the conference will not increase the RSC’s automatic bids to nationals in any sports.
The addition of these two schools comes at the same time as Asbury (Ky.) University leaving the conference. With the changes, the RSC now has 14 members going forward into the 2021-22 school year. The RSC is represented in five states with five schools in Indiana, three in Kentucky, two in Ohio, two in West Virginia and two in Pennsylvania.
RSC membership for the 2021-22 school year includes Alice Lloyd (Ky.) College, Brescia (Ky.) University, Carlow (Pa.) University, Indiana University East, Indiana University Kokomo, Indiana University Southeast, Midway (Ky.) University, Oakland City (Ind.) University, Ohio Christian University, Ohio Valley (W.Va.) University, Point Park (Pa.) University, University of Rio Grande (Ohio), St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) College and WVU Tech.