of joining the OVC while it was transitioning from NAIA to NCAA Division I, but could not at the time because the OVC then required all members to sponsor football. This rule does not exist today—two other then-current OVC members did not play football in the conference, with Morehead State playing non-scholarship football in the Pioneer Football League and SIU Edwardsville not sponsoring the sport. (While Belmont eventually left the OVC in 2022, Morehead State and SIUE remain in the OVC today, and the OVC now has two other non-football members in Little Rock and Southern Indiana.) Belmont president Dr. Robert C. Fisher unequivocally denied any interest in starting a football program, stating "Football is not on the back burner. It's not on any burner." Belmont had to pay a $200,000 exit fee to the Atlantic Sun. However, Belmont AD Mike Strickland said, "...ballpark, I think it is going to be well over $250,000 a year in savings because we fly a lot in the Atlantic Sun. Half the places in the OVC we won't spend the night, so it will be a great savings and hopefully we can reinvest that in our programs." Fisher shared that sentiment, adding, "We will more than make that up in travel costs the first year. We don't have to get on an airplane. The longest trip we have to take in the OVC is about the same distance as our shortest trip outside of Nashville to play an A-Sun team." Although Belmont left behind an in-city rival in Lipscomb, all involved with the move wished that rivalry to continue. Ultimately, both Belmont and Lipscomb announced their basketball series would continue with home-and-home games each season, unusual among non-conference rivalries. Belmont also became the first private school in the OVC since Samford University left for the Southern Conference in 2008, and only the third ever to compete in the conference (the University of Evansville was the first). Southland Conference On October 25, 2011, the conference announced Oral Roberts University would join in 2012 from The Summit League. Nearly a month later, on November 21, the Southland added Houston Baptist University (renamed Houston Christian University in 2022) as a member to join one year later, in 2013. Houston Baptist also announced intentions to start a football program, which would begin play in the Southland in 2014. The conference was not done with expansion; on August