THE LATEST LINE: SOUTHEAST FOOTBALL CUTS DOWN ON GAP

While doing research for a story on gender equity regarding Southeast Missouri State University athletics, I came across some intriguing figures about scholarships that will no doubt be of interest to readers -- and also just might surprise some folks.

First, a few notes of interest based on a Grant-In-Aid Report for the 2000-2001 school year that the Ohio Valley Conference provides.

Among the nine Ohio Valley Conference schools, SEMO ranks second in total equivalency awards -- or scholarships -- given out with 172.08 (which includes both men's and women's sports). That figure puts SEMO a close second to Eastern Illinois' 175.63, but Eastern offers 22 sports to 16 for SEMO.

In total men's scholarships, SEMO ranks third in the OVC with 102.51, putting it behind only Eastern Illinois (109.00) and Eastern Kentucky (102.68).

SEMO leads the way in OVC women's scholarships with 69.57.

Now, for the part that could be a bit surprising.

SEMO's football program, which for years lagged behind the rest of the OVC, has finally just about caught up in scholarships.

The OVC Grant-In-Aid-Report lists the football Indians as having allocated 62.69 scholarships for the 2000-2001 school year, which is just a hair below the NCAA Division I-AA maximum of 63.

Among the other six OVC schools that field a football team within the league, only Eastern Kentucky is listed as having allocated more scholarships at 62.70.

Here are the other five: Murray State 58.50; Eastern Illinois 57.18; Tennessee Tech 51.35; Tennessee State 49.56; Tennessee-Martin 41.49.

Of course, scholarships are just one of many things that contribute to building a strong football program -- or any kind of strong program for that matter.

And SEMO football is still way behind just about every OVC school --save for perhaps lowly Tennessee-Martin -- in overall facilities, which is generally what football coaches cite as being the single biggest factor in recruiting quality athletes.

SEMO football coach Tim Billings has been quick to point out how much better things have gotten in the scholarship department since he took over the struggling program before the 2000 season. He's highly appreciative of that, and let's face it: Billings probably would have never accepted the job if he had not been promised improvements in that area.

Billings has also made it known how much of an uphill battle SEMO's coaches face in trying to convince high-quality athletes to play in antiquated Houck Stadium, which looks like it was built in the gladiator age. And the Rosengarten Athletic Complex, while quite an improvement over the football complex the program had before, is still not exactly a showcase when compared to other league schools.

Recruiting to those facilities can't be easy. A losing season by the football Indians every year since 1994 seems to indicate as much.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.