Southeast Missouri State wins OVC Commissioner’s Cup

For the second time in three years, Southeast Missouri State has won the OVC Commissioner's Cup.

The Redhawks won eight Ohio Valley Conference championships during the 2022-23 school year. The football team took a share of the championship after defeating rival Murray State 52-22. The Redhawks won the coin flip that determined whether SEMO or UT Martin would receive the automatic berth to the NCAA FCS Playoffs.

The men’s basketball team entered the OVC Tournament as the fifth seed. The Redhawks defeated Lindenwood, Tennessee State, Morehead State, and Tennessee Tech in overtime to become the first fifth seed to win the event.

“Obviously just a really cool accomplishment that I think speaks to the success that all of our programs collectively have had,” SEMO athletic director Brady Barke said. “I think when we talked about trying to be the premier athletics program in the OVC, we recognize that meant that it had to be everybody having success.”

Aquan Smart and Phillip Russell celebrate with the OVC Championship trophy on selection day. Megan Burke ~ Southeast Missourian

Those two sports take a majority of the attention, but the strength of SEMO has been in the other sports. The track & field team swept the outdoor track championships and the women took the indoor title. The softball team won the regular season championship after going undefeated at home. The women’s tennis team won the OVC regular season and tournament title, sweeping the conference for the first time in program history.

Barke takes immense pride in the fact that since 2019, every SEMO sport has won a conference championship.

"I think our philosophy and our approach is a little different," Barke said. "The spotlight on those programs is sometimes brighter, but we still have opportunities to be successful across all of our programs. I think we've done a pretty good job of spreading out our resources across all of those programs to give them all the chance to be able to be successful, and I think to be honest, we owe that to our student-athletes. We want every student-athlete to come knowing that they're going to be supported and have a chance to be successful."

The OVC Commissioner's Cup is a symbol of overall athletic excellence in Conference-sponsored championships and is awarded annually to one member institution. The Redhawks totaled 102 points defeating Tennessee Tech (90.5) by a +11.5 margin to win the cup.

Players dump ice water on head coach Mark Redburn after winning the championship. Megan Burke ~ Southeast Missourian