Preseason rankings indicate OVC is gaining respect

~ The conference is gaining more respect around the FCS and in the world of football

Three little letters can mean a lot when it comes to football.

FBS and FCS -- Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision -- separate the level Division I football teams compete on.

People easily recognize SEC as the Southeastern Conference, the premier FBS conference in football.

So what do people think when they see the letters OVC emblazoned on a field or the back of a jersey signaling a team competes in the Ohio Valley Conference?

Southeast Missouri players sack quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo during the 2010 season. Garoppolo was the FCS National Player of the Year in 2013. (Charleston Times-Courier file)

The conference, which Southeast Missouri State competes in, could be on the way to becoming one of the top FCS conferences based on the success members within the conference have had in recent years.

"I think it's just something to be proud of, that we're in a really good football conference, and if you compete at a high level, you're going to compete with some of the best teams in [the] FCS," Southeast first-year coach Tom Matukewicz said following a preseason practice. "We're going to have five opponents in the preseason FCS Top 25, three out of our own league, so it kind of puts you on point all preseason to be ready to go for your conference."

The OVC had three teams ranked in the FCS coaches preseason poll as well as the Sports Network's Preseason FCS Top 25, which is something that had not happened in the last 10 years.

Jacksonville State was ranked No. 6 -- the highest preseason ranking of an OVC team in the last decade -- in the Sports Network poll and No. 8 in the coaches poll.

Tennessee State was ranked 15th in the Sports Network poll and 17th in the coaches poll, while two-time defending conference champion Eastern Illinois came in at No. 16 and No. 11 on the same polls, respectively.

Eastern Kentucky received votes in both polls but did not make the top 25.

JSU, TSU and EIU all made the FCS playoffs last season, which was the first time the conference had more than two teams selected for the playoffs.

The OVC had a 19-game losing streak in the playoffs that dated back to 2000 that was snapped last season. All three teams won their first game in the playoffs.

The Gamecocks and Tigers won their respective first-round games. EIU knocked TSU out of the playoffs in the second round and Jacksonville State defeated McNeese State to advance to the quarterfinals. It had been 22 years, since 1991, that two OVC teams reached the quarterfinals in the same year, and the four playoff wins between the three teams combined was a conference record.

The success of the conference translated to the 2014 NFL Draft where the OVC had four players selected -- EIU's Jimmy Garoppolo, TSU's Kadeem Edwards and Demetrius Rhaney and Murray State's Walter Powell -- which was the most of any conference in the FCS. The Big South Conference, Southern Conference and Missouri Valley Conference each had three players selected.

It was also the most the conference had drafted since 1996.

Garoppolo, the 2013 Walter Payton Award winner for the FCS National Player of the Year, was the first FCS player selected when he was taken in the second round by the New England Patriots. He joins another well-known EIU alum in the NFL in Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.

Eastern Illinois first-year coach Kim Dameron said that the OVC is more easily recognized by recruits in Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois, and that Garopollo's time in the spotlight surrounding the draft and now preseason games has benefited the Panthers.

"Sometimes when we're in Texas or maybe down in Georgia and some places like that, they might not recognize the OVC as much until you educate them on it," Dameron said. "But we were lucky this past year in the fact that you had Jimmy Garopollo's face all over the place. You know, we would go into homes and there he is on ESPN. The fact of what he did in the combine and the whole deal, especially him getting drafted, and even more so now that he's played in his first preseason game, the whole Jimmy Garapollo thing helped us as far as name recognition this past year."

Garopollo's alma mater isn't the only OVC school that's been able to draw potential players based on the success of EIU and Garopollo.

"Even the success that Eastern Illinois had, and obviously their great quarterback that was drafted -- we play off that, too," Matukewicz said. "Because [it shows] if you put good film out there people are going to look at you in the National Football League."

The recent playoff success, NFL draftees and preseason recognition for teams and players within the conference has shown that it might not be too far off before OVC football becomes much more well-known.

"I think that says that we're able to compete at the highest level with anybody in the FCS," Dameron said, "and I don't think it'll be too long before a national champion comes out of this league."