Polls, Tuesday news & post-season specula/tion

First the I-AA polls:

UT-Martin fell to #12 from the eighth spot in The Sports Network's media poll and the fan poll at AnyGivenSaturday.com, and to 13th in the College Sporting News' coaches poll. Eastern Illinois climbed up to #17 in the TSN & CSN polls, with the fans putting them at #19.

Tennessee State picked up some votes in the media poll, getting 10 points for what would be 38th place. Eastern Kentucky impressed a coach or two, getting six points for an effective #39 ranking at CSN.

Now, the news, leading off with a few stories that discuss what might happen this week with respect to the OVC and the playoffs:

For the second straight year, Jacksonville State faces Eastern Illinois in the final game of the season, with the hope of completely screwing up the league title race. The Anniston (Ala.) Star (sorry, subscribers only) says JSU can end the season with a share of a four-way tie for the OVC title and the league's automatic berth to the playoffs. There are a lot of ifs - JSU must beat EIU, MUrray State must beat UT-Martin, and TSU must beat EKU - but here's what the paper says: "If everything works in JSU's favor, the race would end in a four-way tie at the top and the Gamecocks would claim the league's automatic bid — despite having lost to both Martin and TSU — because the tie-breaker would fall to everyone's Eastern Kentucky game. Martin and TSU both would have lost to EKU, the Gamecocks and EIU would have beaten the Colonels, and JSU would get the final tiebreaker by virtue of beating EIU Saturday."

Eastern Illinois, meanwhile, is pondering a different outcome. The (Charleston, Ill.) Journal Gazette/Times-Courier examines the Panthers' chances for an at-large berth to the playoffs if they beat Jax State but fall short of the outright league title. The chances are probably the best the OVC has had at an at-large berth since 2002, according to Southeast Missouri Athletics Director Donald Kaverman, who is on the NCAA I-AA selection committee.

The Nashville City Pape, meanwhile, says if EIU and UT-Martin lose but TSU wins, the Tigers get the automatic bid. Folks, just about everyone still is in this.

The Gadsden (Ala.) Times misses what The Star noticed, saying only that the Gamecocks can play the spoiler role at EIU Saturday.

The Birmingham (Ala.) News' Mike Perrin sticks up for Samford coach Bill Gray, saying that SU needs to invest more in facilities and the program as a whole if it expects the Bulldogs to win. Perrin withholds his opinion on whether the unviersity should invest in hiring a new coach who knows how to win.

The (Cookeville, Tenn.) Herald Citizen reports that Tennessee Tech coach Mike Hennigan, who took a medical leave of absence just before the start of the season, is officially leaving the university. The school is beginning a search for a new coach. Here's a link to the HC sports section.