EIU, MURRAY STATE MOVING UP IN DIVISION I-AA RANKINGS

Lopsided victories over the weekend allowed Ohio Valley Conference members Eastern Illinois and Murray State to each move up five spots in the weekly NCAA Division I-AA football poll.

Eastern Illinois, which rolled past Southeast Missouri State 32-7 to improve to 5-1, is now ranked 10th.

Murray State, which destroyed hapless Tennessee-Martin 45-7 to improve to 4-2, is rated 20th this week.

The OVC now has had at least one team ranked in the top 25 of the national poll for 215 straight weeks. During that stretch, the OVC has had two teams ranked 171 times, three teams ranked 48 times and four teams ranked four times.

* In other games involving OVC teams from last weekend, Middle Tennessee State notched its first victory of the season by beating Jacksonville State 27-16, Tennessee Tech routed Austin Peay 36-3 and Tennessee State dropped a 49-37 shootout to North Carolina A&T.

* Although the OVC race is still extremely early, two of the teams expected to be primary contenders for the championship are heading up the pack.

Eastern Illinois, the preseason favorite according to most polls, and two-time defending champion Murray State are both 3-0 and looking strong.

Eastern Kentucky, the squad expected to be the other main contender, has not yet played an OVC game but the Colonels have an interesting league opener Saturday when they travel to Tennessee State, which has won its only conference game so far.

The four other OVC teams all have losing conference records: Southeast Missouri 1-2, Tennessee Tech 0-1, Middle Tennessee 0-2 and Tennessee-Martin 0-3.

Tennessee Tech's only OVC game to date, although ending in a defeat, still might have been one of the more impressive performances to date. The Eagles outplayed powerhouse Eastern Illinois, having about a 100-yard edge in total offense, but several missed field goals led to a 10-7 setback.

* Saturday's schedule, in addition to Eastern Kentucky at Tennessee State, features Tennessee Tech at Southeast Missouri, Middle Tennessee at Tennessee-Martin and Austin Peay at Murray State in a non-league game.

* Tennessee State has played in front of 161,475 fans in the last three games, including 61,171 against Jackson State in the Memphis Liberty Bowl and 59,011 last weekend against North Carolina A&T in the Indianapolis RCA Dome.

* Middle Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Quinn and Eastern Illinois safety Ed Jackson earned the OVC's offensive and defensive player of the week honors.

Quinn completed 17 of 23 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown against Jacksonville State as the Raiders earned their first win. He also ran for a TD.

Jackson intercepted three passes for 109 return yards against Southeast Missouri.

Tennessee-Martin's Darriel Ruffin was named special teams player of the week as he had an OVC-record 215 kickoff return yards against Murray State, including a 100-yard TD return in the fourth quarter.

Murray State quarterback Dan Loyd was the newcomer of the week after completing 16 of 25 passes for 253 yards and two TDs against Tennessee-Martin.