Fred Huff on SIU Sports

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The date - Saturday, Nov. 7 - has been marked on our sports calendar for some time due to the fact that Chris Lowery's basketball Salukis would be hosting Rodney Watson's first team at University of Southern Indiana that afternoon in the SIU Arena. It's even in red as a "must-see" event.

Now two other games have challenged it as far as interest is concerned.

All three are taking place at approximately the same time which creates a problem.

In addition to the SIU-USI basketball game, which is probably the least important of all being as though its only an exhibition game, the football Salukis are engaged in one of their biggest games

in recent years at South Dakota State (Brookings, S.D.).

And, if you're a Du Quoin High School football fan, which we are, you've got to be listening to what's going on in little Tolono, a suburb of Champaign, where the Indians are challenging the third-ranked team in their division of the IHSA's 3A playoffs.

The SIU-South Dakota State matchup is obviously the most important to area fans. Both teams are 7-1 on the season and have identical 6-0 records in Missouri Valley Football Conference play. They're almost mirror images of one another in other ways as well.

The Salukis are the league's second best team in rushing stats (195 yards per) while SDSU is fourth (156).

The Jackrabbits are the MVFC's top team in rushing defense allowing only 84 yards per game while SIU is second (112).

SIU averages 30.7 ppg while SDSU has scored 28.7 per. The Salukis have allowed opponents 12.5 per while their Saturday hosts have given up only 10.7.

One could go on and on and still come up with the same expectation. It'll be an interesting game and it's just too bad it's not taking place in old McAndrew Stadium.

The winner is assured of at least a co-championship for the season and will be the MVFC's automatic representative come playoff time in a couple of weeks.

Incidentally, this is the 25th year for the league which only recently took on the title of "Missouri Valley Football Conference".

Up until 2008 it was the "Gateway", a league formed in 1985 on a hot summer afternoon in a meeting held in the old Holiday Inn in Carbondale.

We remember the day well as Lew Hartzog, SIU's athletics director at the time, and I picked up Northern Iowa's AD - Bob Bowlsby - at the Carbondale airport.

Bowlsby had called the meeting which involved only 9-10 individuals and, if you can believe it, just a few hours later we were instructed to write a release on the formation of a new football conference - the Gateway - which would begin operations immediately. It had been the first time the group had met on the subject although obviously there had been phone calls exchanged.

And, when we say the league began "immediately", that's what we mean. It was so agreed due to the fact that the NCAA had a ruling which said new conferences had to be two years old before their champions would receive an automatic spot in post-season playoffs. Obviously the ADs wanted that to happen as quickly as possible.

The Missouri Valley Conference had not yet terminated it's sponsorship of football as a recognized championship sport. The Valley had, however, announced plans to do so and had stipulated that 1985 would be its final year.

The results meant that for one season only - 1985 - SIU and five other members of the new "Gateway Conference" belonged to two leagues.

Try explaining that to media members when asked, "And what conference is your school affiliated with?"

Bowlsby remained at UNI for only a few more years before becoming Iowa's AD for many years and then accepting one of the top administrative positions in all of collegiate sports at Stanford in 2006.

With that history lesson behind us, we're get back to welcoming good friend Rodney back to the Arena and, at the same time, wish the Indians well at Tolono.