FCS All-In: Sportsmanship an important part of Tennessee Tech football program

FCS All-In: Sportsmanship an important part of Tennessee Tech football program

By Kyle Schwartz, OVC Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Communications

• FCS All-In YouTube Channel FCS Insider Website

In a collaborative effort the NCAA's 15 Division I FCS Conferences, a new episode "FCS All-In" will premiere each Saturday at 9 am CT throughout the 2021 football season on YouTube (and will also be available on-demand).

Each conference will have a segment during the show, which will also feature national correspondents.

As a sneak preview, here is this week's OVC segment, which features Tennessee Tech head football coach Dewayne Alexander.

Alexander, a TTU alum, is now in his fourth season as head coach for the Golden Eagles. In the spring he was named to the NCAA's Committee for Ethical Conduct and Sportsmanship. The committee's mission is to improve the condition of sportsmanship and ethical conduct in all aspects of college athletics by developing and implementing strategies that foster greater acceptance of the value of respect, fairness, civility, honesty and responsibility.

Sportsmanship has been important to Alexander and the Tennessee Tech program, who has won three-straight OVC Team Sportsmanship awards by doing things the "Golden Eagle Way."





Make sure to subscribe to the FCS All-In YouTube Channel, turn on notifications and check back each Saturday morning to see the OVC segment and the segments from the other FCS conferences.

The 2021 FCS Playoffs will feature 24 teams and the field will be announced on Sunday, November 21. Each of the playoff contests will air on the ESPN Family of Networks with the National Championship game to be held on Saturday, January 8 in Frisco, Texas.

FCS ALL-IN ARCHIVE
• OVC Coaches Looking Forward to 2021 Season
• EIU's Cushing Contributes to Game On and Off the Field
• Walden Brings High Energy to Austin Peay Football
• George Brings Football Success to First Head Coaching Job

OVC NOTABLES
• This year marks the 74th year of football in the OVC.
• Every current OVC team has been ranked in the Top 25 polls for at least one week over the past five years (2016-20).
• Last year three teams were ranked in the final Stats Perform Top 25, the first time since the 2013 season three OVC teams finished the season ranked in that poll.
• The OVC has placed multiple teams in the FCS Playoffs seven times in the past 11 years.
• OVC teams have 12 playoff wins since 2013, including five Quarterfinal appearances and one National Championship game appearance.
• Since 2013, the OVC has produced one Walter Payton Award Winner, two Buck Buchanan Award Winners, an Eddie Robinson Award Winner and a Deacon Jones Trophy winner. In addition, the league has had two Doris Robinson Award Winners, as the National Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
• In 7 of the past 11 years, an OVC team has defeated a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponent.
• The OVC has produced at least one NFL Draft Pick in 10 of the past 14 years.
• In January 2020, OVC alum Jimmy Garoppolo became just the eighth former FCS quarterback to start a Super Bowl, doing so with the San Francisco 49ers. Last season (2020) 11 former OVC players were on active rosters at the end of the season.
• Former EIU quarterback Tony Romo was selected to the 2021 College Football Hall of Fame Class. He is the third former OVC player to be inducted (Jim Youngblood, George Floyd Jr.); in addition, there are also three former OVC coaches (Roy Kidd, Boots Donnelly, Frank Beamer) already enshrined.
• Over the previous 73 years, 15 of 18 teams that have competed have claimed at least one league championship.