NCAA Bracket (pdf)
Video Highlights
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Wofford College will face the University of Northern Iowa on Saturday, December 3 in the second round of the NCAA FCS Playoffs in Cedar Falls, Iowa at 5:00 pm ET. The game will mark the fourth time in the last five years that the Terriers have advanced to the Playoffs.
Wofford finished the season with an 8-3 overall record and were 6-2 in the Southern Conference to finish in second place. This marks the Terriers fifth trip to the NCAA Playoffs and third as an at-large team. In 2010, Wofford won at Jacksonville State before falling in the quarterfinals to Georgia Southern.
The winner of the UNI-Wofford matchup will face the winner of Montana and either Tennessee Tech/Central Arkansas in the quarterfinals on Dec. 9 or Dec. 10.
Sam Houston State University (11-0) tops the bracket as the top seed after capturing the automatic qualifying berth from the Southland Conference. Second-seeded North Dakota State University (10-1) is making its second consecutive appearance. Georgia Southern University (9-2), which is making its 18th overall tournament appearance, is the number-three seed. The University of Montana (9-2) is the number-four seed after capturing the Big Sky Conference automatic berth. Rounding out this year’s seeded teams is the University of Northern Iowa (9-2) with the number-five seed.
First-round hosts include Big South automatic qualifier Stony Brook University (8-3), Ohio Valley Conference automatic qualifier Tennessee Technological University (7-3), Old Dominion University (9-2) and Eastern Kentucky University (7-4).
The top four national seeds will host winners from the first round match-ups. Others hosting second rounds game will be Northern Iowa, Appalachian State University (8-3), the Bobcats of Montana State University (9-2) and the Colonial Athletic Association automatic qualifier, Towson University (9-2).
Other automatic qualifiers in the tournament include University of Albany (8-3), the Northeast Conference champion, who clinched its first trip into the championship. Also making its first trip into the championship is Norfolk State University (9-2), winner of the automatic bid from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Winning the Patriot League was the Mountain Hawks of Lehigh University (10-1).
Other teams in the field: first time participant, University of Central Arkansas (8-3); James Madison University (7-4); Maine (8-3); University of New Hampshire (8-3); and Wofford College (8-3).
Ten conferences received automatic-qualifying berths: the Big Sky Conference, Big South Conference, Colonial Athletic Association, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Missouri Valley Football Conference, Northeast Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Patriot League, Southern Conference and Southland Conference.
The combination of www.NCAA.com and ESPN’s family of networks will once again provide coverage of all rounds of the 2011 NCAA Division I Football Championship.
Television schedules and games times for all rounds of the 2011 championship will be updated daily at the NCAA Sports web site (www.NCAA.com/fcs).
Quotes
Head Coach Mike Ayers
“We are excited about it. We have been fortunate enough to be selected and we get a first round bye which we desperately needed. We are very beat up and banged up football team. We had a great win yesterday against a very tough Chattanooga team and it felt good to come in here and watch your name come up on the screen. I don’t know anything about Northern Iowa. I know they come from a very tough conference and if they are selected they are an outstanding football team. We have only played Youngstown State (1996) from that conference. We have an opportunity to start the next season, the playoff season, and if we get our guys healthy I think we can take a run at it.
“I think anytime you play out of your conference there is always going to be that opportunity to be a little bit ahead if someone is not familiar with what you are doing from an offensive or a defensive standpoint. At the same time, you have to look at it and we are facing the same thing. We will do our best to collect some information, practice, give our kids a chance to go home for Thanksgiving and then get back and prepare. It is exciting. This is what you work for. It has been a long drive, with a season that quite frankly starts in January and if you are fortunate to have it culminate in December, you have had a great year.”
Quarterback Mitch Allen
“It is a second season and we are thankful to be in it. We have been in this situation before and we know what it is like to play in the playoffs. It is very exciting. An emotional and physical eleven game season is behind us and we are better for it. We played our hearts out and it came down to the wire for us. We were fortunate enough to stick together and keep the belief and make that run at it in the last game at Chattanooga to get an opportunity to play in the playoffs. You never know – all the teams are great and it is a tough field, but if you stay healthy and can execute at a high level, you have an opportunity to make a run and win the whole thing.
“The Chattanooga game was the first round of the playoffs for us. If we lose that game, we are not meeting here today to see our name up on that screen. That was the first round for us and fortunately we have a bye now which gives us some time to rest and recover. I am so excited for these seniors to have an opportunity to play again.”
