Street & Smith makes its FCS picks; catch SEMO vs. Cincinnati live

Street & Smith's college football preseason magazine — one of the more high-profile among the batch that shows up each year — has picked Eastern Illinois No. 14 and Tennessee-Martin No. 18 in its preseason FCS (formerly Division I-AA) poll. Also of note is SIU, which is No. 20.

Other notes:

• ESPN announced this week that SEMO's season-opening football game at Cincinnati on Thursday, Aug. 30 will be broadcast, albeit online only via the network's ESPN360.com site. The site will offer live broadband coverage of the game, which starts at 7 p.m.

• The AJGA's Dalhousie Junior Championship drew thin crowds offset by what appeared to be the most intense week of media coverage of any local sporting event in recent memory. The tour will return to Dalhousie in 2008 and '09, but will the crowds? Or the over-the-top media coverage?

• Malden Speedway called off its racing program June 22 because of personal reasons among the track's owners. A special event for the USCS sprint series scheduled that night has been moved to July 20.

• Seth Harrell, a former linebacker at SEMO and Jackson High School, will join the Sikeston High School sidelines this fall as an assistant. He joins the staff being put together by new coach Kent Gibbs.

• Local high school football schedules show few surprises or changes this year, the second year of a typical two-year cycle for most schools. The biggest change was the scheduling of a game between Charleston and Portageville on Sept. 14, their first regular-season matchup since 1974; Charleston had an open date last year, and Portageville dropped Fulton Co., Ky.

Both New Madrid County Central and Chaffee gained open dates this year; NMCC lost Centralia, Ill., from its schedule, and Chaffee lost Rector, Ark.