TOUGH SCHEDULES RESULT IN ROUGH STARTS BY OVC TEAMS (OVC NOTEBOOK)

Call it the Lost Weekend for Ohio Valley Conference football teams.

That's basically what last weekend was. On a Saturday that featured six games involving OVC squads, only one managed to come away with a victory.

And as a result, only one OVC team -- Eastern Illinois, which also happened to be the lone conference squad to win Saturday -- is now ranked among the nation's top 25 NCAA Division I-AA teams.

The Panthers, who routed Division II St. Joseph's of Indiana 41-20, are rated 19th this week.

Murray State and Eastern Kentucky, who had been ranked 17th and 22nd, both dropped out of the poll after suffering losses.

Eastern Kentucky's defeat was not unexpected as the Colonels went down to undefeated Western Kentucky 37-21. The Colonels led 14-13 at halftime before faltering in the second half.

But Murray State's loss were certainly a shocker. The Racers held a 20-3 lead in the fourth quarter only to see Southern Illinois score three touchdowns in the final 11 minutes to pull off a 24-20 upset.

In other games involving OVC teams, Illinois State hammered Southeast Missouri State 41-7, Tennessee-Chattanooga beat Middle Tennessee State 33-24 and Jackson State slipped past Tennessee State 31-28.

So through three weeks of the season, 2-1 Eastern Illinois is the only OVC team with a winning overall record.

Southeast Missouri, 1-1, is the only other squad even at the break-even mark.

Murray State and Tennessee State are both 1-2; Eastern Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and Tennessee-Martin are all 0-2; and Tennessee Tech is 0-1.

Of course, part of that combined 5-13 start by OVC teams can be attributed to facing some rugged nonconference foes.

For instance, of those 13 defeats, 10 have been administered by teams ranked in this week's national I-AA poll.

Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee State have particularly faced a daunting nonconference schedule so far. The Colonels' losses have been to second-ranked Troy State and sixth-ranked Western Kentucky while the Tigers' defeats have been to eighth-ranked Jackson State and 15th-ranked Florida A&M.

And don't expect things to get any easier for Eastern Kentucky this weekend because the Colonels face their third straight ranked opponent in No. 9 Appalachian State.

Elsewhere around the league this Saturday, a conference game will pit Southeast Missouri at Murray State while nonleague affairs feature Eastern Illinois at Illinois State, Tennessee Tech at Samford and Tennessee-Martin at Southwest Missouri State.

* Murray State's loss to SIU marked the first time the Racers have lost back-to-back games since 1994.

* Tennessee State's game against Jackson State was played before a crowd of 61,171 at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.

* Eastern Illinois wide receiver Donnie Davis and Tennessee State defensive end Lamar Carter earned OVC offensive and defensive player of the week honors.

Davis had 205 all-purpose yards, including seven receptions for 97 yards, against St. Joseph's of Indiana. Carter had eight tackles and two sacks against Jackson State.