the second round of Big Sky expansion. Both UND and USD were seeking a stable home for their respective football programs. USD had accepted an invitation to join The Summit League in 2011, and UND was seeking membership in that conference as well. There had been speculation for several months that The Summit League would merge with the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), which would have provided both schools a football home alongside their respective in-state rivals, North Dakota State and South Dakota State. However, no momentum had developed for such a move in fall 2010, which led both UND and USD to reevaluate their options. In the end, USD turned down the Big Sky offer (see below). The Big Sky's next move came in October 2012, when one of its charter members, the University of Idaho, announced its return to the conference in July 2014. Idaho had been one of the six original members of the Big Sky in 1963, and remained in the conference until 1996. The Vandals joined for all sports except football, which it was planning to play as an FBS independent before rejoining the Sun Belt football conference. By returning to the Big Sky, Idaho rejoined a conference with numerous regional rivals, most notably cross-state rival Idaho State. Another Big Sky rivalry, against Eastern Washington, dates to 1905, and rivalries with two other Big Sky members, Montana and Montana State, were then more than 90 years old. Missouri Valley Football Conference Ultimately, South Dakota decided to turn down the offer of Big Sky membership after receiving an invitation to join the MVFC on November 3, 2010. Their acceptance, which was officially announced the following day, took effect in 2012, when USD became fully eligible for Division I postseason competition. This move also meant that USD followed through with its announced plans to join The Summit League in 2011. Ohio Valley Conference On May 13, 2011, the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) and Belmont University jointly announced that Belmont would leave the non-football Atlantic Sun Conference to become the 12th member of the OVC in July 2012. Belmont became the second OVC member in Nashville, joining Tennessee State; the OVC headquarters are in the suburb of Brentwood. Three other member schools are located in Tennessee (Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech, and UT–Martin), and a fourth (Murray State) is in a Kentucky county that borders Tennessee. Belmont had aspirations