After the Division I-AA football games panned out this weekend, Eastern has found itself as the first team in the nation to clinch a playoff berth.

“This is the first time in my 15 years that’s happened,” head coach Bob Spoo said of the team’s automatic bid. “It’s a relief of sorts.”

With Furman and Grambling State, last week’s No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams, suffering losses this weekend, the Panthers also moved up to No. 4 in both the Sports Network and ESPN/USA Today polls.

Montana continues to sit atop the Sports Network poll with an 8-1 record while Georgia Southern has moved up two positions to No. 2 after defeating Furman. Hofstra jumped from No. 5 to No. 3 this week to round out the leaders three weeks before playoffs begin.

The difference between Eastern and the current top three teams is one game. Eastern head coach Bob Spoo and Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie have chosen not to make up the Illinois State game, which was canceled Sept. 15 in wake of the nation’s terrorist attacks. That leaves the Panthers with a 10-game slate while others scrambled to schedule an 11th game the week before the delayed playoff start of Dec. 1.

“There’s some gentleman out there who analyzes Division I-AA football and even though the No. 4 slot doesn’t mean we get that seeding, his thesis is because we don’t play an 11th game that we may be seeded lower,” Spoo said. “That would be interesting.”

The Panthers chose not to reschedule a game over the Thanksgiving break in hopes that wins over Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee Tech would result in the Panthers being successful in all Ohio Valley Conference contests this season.

“We chose to defer for a few weeks and our thinking was that if we could win games against Eastern Kentucky and Tech, we thought it would put us in the driver’s seat and we wouldn’t have to schedule another game,” Spoo said.

“Having won all of them, there’s no sense in playing an 11th game.

“There would be a proposition if we lost to Eastern Kentucky, Tech, Tennessee State, or SEMO, then we would have an 11th game because it would have made a difference,” Spoo said.