COLONELS, PANTHERS HOLD SHOWDOWN (OVC NOTES)

It's showdown week in the Ohio Valley Conference.

This is the week that will decide the OVC championship and the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

Eastern Illinois will play host to Eastern Kentucky Saturday afternoon with everything on the line as the OVC season comes to a close.

EKU's Colonels are 6-0 in OVC play (7-3 overall) and ranked 19th nationally. EIU's Panthers are 5-1 in the league (8-2 overall) and ranked 16th nationally.

The winner of the game will advance to the I-AA playoffs. An EKU victory gives it the league title outright while an EIU triumph would cause a deadlock and give the Panthers the tie-breaker over the Colonels because of the head-to-head matchup.

And what's putting even added importance on the game is that there is no guarantee the loser will gain an at-large berth into the I-AA playoffs. In recent years, the OVC has generally sent two teams to the playoffs but that might not necessarily be the case this time.

So, who looks like the favorite? On paper, probably EKU because the Colonels have been the league's dominant team, outscoring their six OVC opponents 208-58. EIU has outscored its six league foes 152-75.

But any advantage the Colonels might have going in could be negated by the Panthers' home-field advantage.

In other words, this OVC finale with everything on the line figures to be quite a battle.

* Murray State (7-4 overall, 5-2 OVC), which has concluded its season, will finish at least third in the league and could gain a second-place tie if EKU beats EIU.

Tennessee Tech (5-5, 3-3) and Tennessee State (3-7, 3-3) are tied for fourth heading into their final games, Tech hosting Middle Tennessee and State visiting Southeast Missouri.

Middle Tennessee (4-5, 2-4) is sixth but could still finish as high as a fourth-place tie if it beats Tech and State loses to Southeast Missouri (4-6, 1-5), which could still finish in a sixth-place tie.

Tennessee-Martin (1-10, 0-7) has wrapped up last place in the eight-team OVC, but the Skyhawks had some reason to celebrate last weekend. Their 36-26 win over Austin Peay snapped a 13-game losing streak and prevented them from going winless this year.

* Murray State's Anthony Downs became the OVC's first 1,000-yard rusher last weekend.

Downs had 133 yards on 29 carries in a 13-7 win over Tennessee State. He finished the season with 1,011 yards to become just the second back in Racers' history to run for over 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons.