West Liberty University and Wheeling Jesuit University have announced that they're part of a new Division-II athletic conference -- the Mountain East Conference.

According to conference spokesperson Reid Amos, this is good news for sports fans, since separate conferences could have meant the rivalry between the two universities would end.

"I think that's thrilling for a lot of people," Amos said. "I know that everybody I've spoken to at West Liberty is thrilled about it. Through all of this, one of the greatest disappointments that I had consistently been hearing in the Ohio Valley was that it could bring an end to the rivalry between West Liberty and Wheeling Jesuit."

The conference has been being discussed for months after members of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference became concerned that they could lose football-playing members, Amos said.

Now, WJU has signed on, something Amos said was not part of the original plan, since the school does not have a football team. However, after speaking with consultants, they decided that WJU would be a good for for the 12th slot.

"Our consultants that we've worked with helped us realize that either 11 or 12 football institutions is a really good number, and 12 is an ideal number for your overall makeup as a conference, and that being the case, it led us to consider an institution that might consider football down the road," Amos said.

While WJU officials said it is not in their plans to create a football program within the next four years, they said the new conference could mean big moves for them and all universities involved.

"We think it will end up being one of the top Division II conferences in the county, said WJU Athletic Director Danny Sancomb. "Our athletes always compete at a national level, and our goal here is to win national championships, and we feel by joining this league, we'll have opportunities to do that."

The Mountain East Conference will go into effect during the 2013-2014 academic year. The upcoming season's schedules will not be affected.