The nickname for the Ohio Valley Conference must be the Over-Valued Conference because the OVC-Gateway Challenge turned out to be less than a hurdle and more like a speed bump.

So far, the Gateway Football Conference has run the table winning all seven contests so far. Yes, all this made for regional television drama did was establish the Gateway’s right to declare that we are better than you. OVC commissioner John Steinbecher’s first thought should be, “what the hell was I thinking?”

I’m having problems comprehending how a conference with a pair of playoff teams and a consistent reputation of being a top I-AA conference can be this disappointing.

The prediction around OVC country had to have been a 5-3 victory for the eighth oldest conference but the attitude suddenly dipped to a new low after the OVC preseason favorite (Southeast Missouri) proved how overrated it is by losing at home to a recent middle of the road Southern Illinois team. The Salukis made it two for two the next week when they beat the defending OVC champion Murray State in Carbondale.

At this point, the OVC was in a two game hole but looked to be getting out of it as Eastern, SEMO and Murray all had early leads Saturday and looked to be taking care of business at home. However, when darkness fell, the OVC spirits dampened as Illinois State, Southwest Missouri and Indiana State (all non-playoffs teams and teams under .500 in 2002) got road comeback wins over powerhouse OVC members.

The defending national champion Western Kentucky took care of the border war with Eastern Kentucky at home leaving one game that wasn’t worth watching.

The final game of the evening was over before it started when Tennessee-Martin (otherwise known as the school everybody plays on Homecoming) traveled to play the second-ranked Western Illinois Leathernecks. And well, this game was simply as unfair as it sounds. Western was up 41-0 at half and cruised to victory in the second half.

And now OVC commissioner John Steinbecher has one final hope to salvage some dignity into a contest he brought on himself. The OVC’s final hope to get a win is in hands of Bob Spoo and company. The Panthers travel to Terre Haute, Ind., to play Indiana State and my suggestion to Mr. Steinbecher is don’t make that trip. Don’t watch another beating and don’t ever do this again.

In theory, this was a great public relations decision promoting in-state rivalries in the Gateway and putting more games on television but the OVC ended up looking like a second-class conference to the people who decided at-large berth for the I-AA playoffs.

To put it bluntly, I thank God Eastern isn’t involved in the Gateway anymore because that would make the 2003 season even more harder to swallow.