TOURNEY BID A BIG BOOST

Southeast Missouri basketball officials hope Murray State University, big Indian rivals on the court, find some favor from NCAA selectors this weekend.

The more teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament the better the bottom line for the Ohio Valley Conference.

That's not likely to happen in the 10-team conference, which qualifies one team for the NCAA's top 64-team tournament.

But, with Murray State's history the Racers have appeared in the Big Dance 17 times, and created a couple of big upsets and with the Racers' 23-win season, they could get a second look.

"It would be great to see another conference team in the NCAA," said Don Kaverman, director of athletics at Southeast. "We'd be talking more money for all the schools in the conference."

Money is a big plus for the smaller Division I schools, such as Southeast, Murray State, Middle Tennessee, Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois when men's basketball tournament time rolls around.

Last year, the 10 members of the conference received $41,000, except Murray State, which received $66,000.

"The team which plays in the conference receives and additional $25,000," said Kaverman.

Murray State was last year's winner, losing its first game.

Different conferences split their NCAA take in different ways.

"The OVC shares it with all the members," said Kaverman, minus the $25,000 which goes to the participating team.

Southeast, which defeated Murray twice, including the 67-56 OVC championship win to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA, will have the additional $25,000 this year.

Hopefully, said Kaverman, the amount will be as much, or more, than 1999.

"We budgeted about $40,000 from the NCAA in our budget," he said.

The OVC received about $435,000 of its share of NCAA money last year.

The annual totals are based on tournament appearances by teams in the conference over the past six years.

Each time a team plays a tournament game, it counts as one unit. The OVC had only six units -- the number of games conference teams played during the past six years.

The NCAA sent checks to 30 conferences totaling $55 million revenue generated form the tournament.

Entry into the NCAA tournament means more than just money to the school and the community, said Kaverman.

Player pictures and publicity is valuable.

"A lot of people have been reading about Southeast Missouri State this week," he said. "The response to our winning the OVC tournament has been overwhelming. It helps our athletic program, it helps the university and it helps the entire community."

And, it certainly won't hurt recruiting. Potential players will know the Indians are among the top 64 teams selected for the NCAA Division I tournament.

Financially, a few retail outlets will benefit from the conference championship.

Official "Ohio Valley Conference Championship" and "Road to the Final Four" T-shirts are available at three Cape Girardeau outlets the university bookstore, JCPenney and Howard's Athletic Goods.

B. Ray Owen may be reached at 335-6611 ext. 133 or by e-mail at rowenl@semissourian.com