Eastern’s 52-49 win over Tennessee State Saturday jumped the Panthers three places in the polls to No. 6. But head coach Bob Spoo is too busy focusing the team on Thursday’s game at Tennessee-Martin to pay much attention to the rankings.

“I haven’t seen the polls yet. Where are we?” Spoo said Monday afternoon. “I haven’t heard yet.”

But with three of the nation’s top five teams suffering losses this weekend, Eastern’s chances at hosting a playoff game are looking brighter each week.

While Spoo hasn’t studied the polls much this season, he said he will certainly start to take a glance as the final weeks of the season approach.

“I’m not big on polls at the start of the year, but they’re meaningful now,” Spoo said. “We’ve had some success and the higher we are in the polls, we find we’ll have a greater opportunity to host a playoff game. Now the polls take on a different perspective.”

As this week’s rankings were released Monday, there was a shift from top to bottom. No. 1 Georgia Southern lost at East Tennessee State 19-16 Saturday to fall this week to No. 4 slot, giving 7-1 Montana the top position.

No. 6 Grambling State moved up to No. 3 this week after defeating Texas Southern 43-3, but No. 4 Rhode Island and No. 5 Youngstown State suffered losses to Richmond and Western Kentucky respectively. Rhode Island is now ranked No. 9 while Youngstown dropped down to No. 10.

All the shifting in the polls has kept Spoo and the Panthers from taking Thursday’s game against 1-7 Tennessee-Martin lightly.

“Don’t be misled,” Spoo said. “There are a lot of upsets going on. First of all, we don’t take anything for granted. They understand the importance of the Tennessee-Martin game.”

If the Panthers can defeat the Skyhawks Thursday, they would clinch the OVC championship.