For the first time in history, Cape Girardeau, Mo., will host a game for all the marbles.

The 2003 Ohio Valley Conference Championship will come down to a man-on-man street fight between the up and coming challenger and the newcomer.

The host, Southeast Missouri State Indians (5-6, 5-2), will attempt to win its first OVC title in school history when they take on Jacksonville State (7-3, 6-1) in its first season in the league.

Indians head coach Tim Billings still doesn’t think his squad is quite capable of beating one of the strongest teams in the conference.

“We are struggling to win and they’re putting people out in the first half,” Billings said. “We’re facing the most exciting and best football team since I’ve been here.”

However, the Gamecocks aren’t excited about traveling to play in an unofficial championship game because the home crowd will make a difference.

“I think the favorite would have to be the home team because the defenses are playing the best,” Jacksonville State head coach Jack Crowe said. “These two teams are even and then we have to go on the road.”

The road wasn’t easy for Jacksonville State and SEMO to control their own destiny in the OVC race.

Jacksonville State lost two of its first three non-conference games which caused a concern in its head coach about his team’s ability to string together consecutive victories.

“We had some big adversity which made me question whether we were capable to get to this point,” Crowe said.

However, the Indians had just as much struggles, experts might argue more difficulty to start off the season.

“SEMO had equally as much adversity as us because they started 0-5 after being the conference preseason favorite,” Crowe said.

Eastern head coach Bob Spoo has played both teams and has an expert analysis opinion on how the game Saturday might unfold.

“It’ll be a good football team but the key will be if Jacksonville State can run the ball against them,” Spoo said. “If they won’t be able to do that, it’ll be a close contest.”

The only concern going into the contest for the Indians is a constant one – Who will play quarterback?

Last week’s starter for Billings and company, Andrew Goodenough, is struggling with an injury and could be replaced by preseason all-conference player of the year selection Jack Tomco.

“Andrew is going to try and play but I’ll know by Thursday if I have to go to Jack,” Billings said. “I really don’t want to juggle quarterbacks in a championship game.”

Both coaches understand that an at-large berth will not be given to the OVC and so this a do-or-die situation.

“This is a championship game and so we will attempt to pull out all the stops to win a ball game,” Billings said.