ROLE HAS CHANGED FOR TSU FOOTBALL

Tigers in unfamiliar position as OVC grid favorite.

The times have certainly changed as far as Ohio Valley Conference football is concerned.

Gone are the days when a team like perennial powerhouse Eastern Kentucky was virtually automatically penciled in for the top spot in the preseason poll.

There is a new bully on the block in Tennessee State and the Tigers are the team the other seven OVC squads will be gunning for this year.

When the 1999 OVC preseason poll was announced Thursday, the Tigers were at the top of the list. That's really no surprise, considering the fact Tennessee State won last year's conference title for the first time.

But the Tigers are the overwhelming preseason choice to repeat as league champion, receiving 12 first-place votes. That's pretty heady stuff for a team picked sixth in last year's preseason poll.

This year, Tennessee State will learn how it is to be the hunted instead of the hunter. It may be an unfamiliar role for the Tigers, although with 17 starters back, they should be well equipped to handle the challenge.

While the Tigers are probably the most talented squad in the OVC, several other teams look like contenders, although all seem to have some kind of deficiency, at least on paper.

Murray State, which has been no worse than second in the league the past four seasons, is the preseason No. 2 choice. The Racers have a high-powered offense but concerns on defense.

Third-ranked Eastern Kentucky, the OVC's primary power for the last two decades, lost plenty of starters from last year and must find a quarterback.

Fourth-ranked Eastern Illinois, which has had five straight winning seasons, has a high-powered offense but has major questions defensively.

Fifth-ranked Western Kentucky, the OVC's newest member for football, has won 24 games the past three seasons but lost many of its top players from a year ago.

As for the bottom three teams in the preseason poll, No. 6 Tennessee Tech has one of the league's top defenses but is suspect offensively; No. 7 Southeast Missouri State has won just 15 games the past four seasons; and No. 8 Tennessee-Martin, coming off a winless campaign, has only two victories in the past three years.

Based on all of the above, it's clear that Tennessee State certainly deserves to be ranked as the OVC favorite right now.

But, as the old saying goes, that's why they play the games.

And, considering that Tennessee State went from preseason No. 6 to league champion last year, the Tigers more than anybody should realize that rankings mean very little once the scoreboard is turned on.

* It appears that 7-foot-2 SEMO basketball recruit Kostas Avgerinos of Greece, who did not meet eligibility requirements, won't be attending SEMO this year after all.

SEMO's coaching staff had hoped Avgerinos would enroll in school, but he would have had to pay his own way and the young man is simply not financially well off enough to do so.

The Indian coaching staff is now looking into placing Avgerinos either in a prep school or junior college with the hopes of getting him back in a year or two.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian