Fit to be tied

It's official: there's a new power in the Ohio Valley Conference. Now if only we knew who it was.

#12 UT-Martin continued its dream season today, knocking off the #14 defending OVC champions, Eastern Illinois in a tight 15-9 contest. The Skyhawks now are 6-1, 4-0 in the OVC.

Meanwhile, Tennessee State had little trouble with Samford, pounding the Bulldogs 29-7. The Tigers are 5-3, with their own 4-0 conference record.

And unfortunatelybecause of TSU's special deal with the league to play four HBCU classic games each year, these two conference leaders won't meet this season. I don't know what the conference's tiebreaker procedures are for this particular situation, but if both teams manage to win out they'll be needed.

Looking at the box score over at ESPN.com, it looks like the Martin-EIU game was a contest of two powerful running attacks going against stout defenses, with the Skyhawks managing just enough of an edge to pull out the victory. The game saw just 400 total yards of offense between both teams, with most of that coming on the ground. EIU running back Vincent Webb managed 106 yards, but Martin's Donald Chapman had a touchdown to go with his 94 yards, and Greg Preston added another. Chapman also tagged on a two-point conversion on the final touchdown for insurance.

No box score available yet for the TSU-Samford game.