(STATS) – The Ohio Valley Conference preseason media poll has been anything but fake news since being started in 2014.
Not only have media members who cover the nine-team conference correctly picked Jacksonville State to win the title each time, but the Gamecocks haven’t lost an OVC game in the four seasons.
It wasn’t surprising on Friday when Jacksonville State was installed as the preseason favorite again this year. The Gamecocks, who have won 32 straight OVC games since 2013, received 14 of the 15 first-place votes and 134 overall points to outdistance Austin Peay, which received the other first-place vote and 114 points.
Those two teams were followed by UT Martin (96), Tennessee State (91), Eastern Illinois (83), Eastern Kentucky (64), Murray State (39), Southeast Missouri (35) and Tennessee Tech (19).
The pollsters also selected Austin Peay sophomore quarterback Jeremiah Oatsvall and Jacksonville State junior safety Marlon Bridges as the OVC’s preseason offensive and defensive players of the year, respectively.
The OVC will release a preseason poll and an all-conference team, as voted on by its head coaches and sports information directors, at media day Monday in Nashville.
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