EASTERNS HOLD COLLISION COURSE (OVC NOTES)

Barring a surprise or two, it appears all but certain that the Ohio Valley Conference football championship will be decided on Nov. 22 when Eastern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky square off on the final date of the regular season.

Those two teams, picked to finish one-two in the preseason poll based on voting by the league's head coaches and sports information directors, have distinguished themselves as the class of the conference so far.

Particularly impressive has been the play of Eastern Kentucky, picked second in the preseason poll.

The Colonels lost their first three games of the season, all highly competitive defeats against nationally-ranked non-conference foes.

But ever since OVC play began, the Colonels have thrived, going 3-0 and owning two of the more impressive league wins to date. Eastern Kentucky broke Murray State's 19-game OVC winning streak two weeks ago with a dominating 29-8 road victory, then last weekend knocked off Tennessee Tech 26-7 at home.

Eastern Illinois, while not quite as impressive overall as the Colonels in league play so far, is still off to a 4-0 start. The Panthers, the OVC's preseason favorite, needed some big breaks to slip past Tennessee Tech 10-7 in late September.

Barring a pretty big upset by either Tennessee-Martin, Southeast Missouri or Middle Tennessee the next three weeks, Eastern Kentucky should still be undefeated in league play when it visits Eastern Illinois on Nov. 22.

Eastern Illinois still has an extremely dangerous game left at Murray State before meeting the Colonels.

Two-time defending OVC champion Murray State, at 3-1 in league play, is still very much alive for a third straight title but the Racers have some tough games left, including that home contest against Eastern Illinois and a road date at rugged Tennessee Tech.

Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State are both 2-2 in league play and still mathematically alive for the championship, but that's a real longshot. Tech, however, does have a strong team and realistically could finish as high as third and possibly even get a tie for second if some teams above the Eagles falter.

Rounding out the bottom portion of the league are Middle Tennessee (2-3), Southeast Missouri (1-4) and Tennessee-Martin (0-6).

* In addition to Eastern Kentucky's big win over Tennessee Tech, other OVC results from last weekend saw Middle Tennessee destroy Southeast Missouri 55-6, Tennessee State edge Tennessee-Martin 27-20 and Eastern Illinois rout Austin Peay 42-14.

* Saturday's OVC schedule looks like this:

Tennessee-Martin at Eastern Kentucky, Murray State at Tennessee Tech, Southeast Missouri at Austin Peay and Eastern Illinois at Indiana State.

* Defense has dominated the OVC for the most part this season, but the offense got some revenge last weekend.

Tennessee State piled up a season-high 542 yards, including 444 through the air; Middle Tennessee had a season-best 539 yards and scored its most points (55) since 1994; and Eastern Illinois piled up 494 yards and went over 40 points for the third time this year.

* Middle Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Quinn and Eastern Illinois quarterback Mike Simpson shared OVC offensive player of the week honors while Eastern Kentucky defensive tackle Jason Muchow was the league's defensive player of the week.

Quinn completed nine of 18 passes for 195 yards and a career-high four touchdowns against Southeast Missouri while Simpson was 18 of 20 for 219 yards and a career-high four TDs against Austin Peay.

Muchow had 10 tackles and 1.5 sacks in the Colonels' big win over Tennessee Tech.

* Simpson has completed an amazing 72.3 percent of his passes this year. His passing efficiency rating is an OVC-best 157.2 points.