EKU TAKES LONE POSSESSION OF 1ST

The balance of power toward the top of the Ohio Valley Conference might not be as clear-cut as was originally thought a short while ago.

Two results from last weekend caused a logjam in the upper half of the OVC standings and also put Eastern Kentucky's Colonels in first place by themselves.

Heading into the latter stages of the season, Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois looked decisively like the top two teams in the OVC, with Murray State and Tennessee Tech pretty clearly right behind the Easterns.

But look what happened last weekend. Murray State handed Eastern Illinois its first loss with a 24-17 home victory and Tennessee State -- thought to be an OVC also-ran -- stunned visiting Tennessee Tech 28-21.

So now Eastern Kentucky is all alone at the top of the league standings with a 5-0 record, just ahead of Eastern Illinois' 5-1.

Murray State is 4-2, with Tennessee State now in fourth place at 3-2 and Tennessee Tech fifth at 3-3.

Middle Tennessee is sixth at 2-3, followed by 1-5 Southeast Missouri and 0-7 Tennessee-Martin.

Despite what happened over the weekend, the OVC championship will still be decided when the two Easterns square off Nov. 22 in Charleston, Ill., on the final date of the regular season.

That Nov. 22 game is the last OVC contest for Eastern Illinois while Eastern Kentucky still has to face dangerous Middle Tennessee State this Saturday.

The only way Eastern Illinois could win an outright OVC title is for Eastern Kentucky to lose to Middle Tennessee. If that doesn't happen, then the Panthers will only be able to tie the Colonels for first place on the final date of the season.

* Other OVC results from last weekend saw Eastern Kentucky slip past stubborn Southeast Missouri 20-10, Middle Tennessee rout Austin Peay 59-10 and Tennessee-Martin lose to Samford 14-7.

* Saturday's schedule around the league looks like this:

Middle Tennessee at Eastern Kentucky, Southern Illinois at Southeast Missouri, Tennessee Tech at Alabama-Birmingham, Murray State at Tennessee State and Tennessee-Martin at Austin Peay.

* Something will have to give during Saturday's game between Tennessee-Martin and Austin Peay, which until this season had been an OVC member (the Governors continue to compete in the league in all other sports).

Tennessee-Martin's Skyhawks are 0-10 while Austin Peay's Governors are 0-9.

The winner will at least have some kind of a decent taste to carry into next season. The loser will have to continue living with a totally miserable feeling.