Tradition is a wonderful thing. It defines a person, family and university in the case of Eastern.

But there comes a point where tradition becomes laziness. We’ve reached that point with the Eastern-Indiana State football rivalry.

With its choices of non-conference games, Eastern has forced itself to once again win the Ohio Valley Conference in order to make it back-to-back playoff appearances.

A win at Illinois State would’ve made this argument mute but a third straight loss to the Redbirds backed the Panthers into this corner once again. An impressive I-AA win would’ve countered the disappointment in Normal.

Nobody is blaming director of athletics Rich McDuffie for taking the I-A game. It’s what he has to do and when it comes to the money we get, he does it well. It was as if Illinois athletic director Ron Guenther drove to Charleston and said, “hey, I got this football program in shambles and we need a win. If I have to fire this new coach, I’m going to run out of guys named Ron to hire.”

Once the suitcase flipped open with $250,000 in it, the deal should’ve taken long enough for McDuffie to sign his name.

However, if the NCAA selection committee is forced to sit down and look at the Panthers as an at-large candidate, they’ll quickly realize all of Eastern’s wins are unimpressive on paper. The home win against Indiana State is what weakens the EIU playoff resume more than the loss at Illinois State. What is astounding is that a solution was possible for McDuffie and company and it was as easy as S-I-U.

“We’d actually like to play a rivalry with Eastern every year to make up for that open date,” said SIU sports information director Tom Weber. “But (we) have gotten no response back.”

The Salukis were shocked when Southeast Missouri and new head coach Tony Samuel pulled the plug on its annual rivalry. With McDuffie being the former head honcho at SEMO, he had to know what was going on in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

McDuffie and his trusty sidekick John Smith could’ve dumped the ISU game that hurts us win, lose or draw, for a series with the Salukis that gives Eastern another chance at a marquee I-AA win.

Indiana State could’ve ended its ongoing losing streak against a lower-level opponent, Panther fans would have the opportunity to wash out the taste of last year’s playoff disaster and the game would get local coverage.

Unfortunately, Eastern’s constant “we have to play them” attitude with Indiana State is hurting the Panthers in the long run.