INDIANAPOLIS – The field of 24 teams competing for the 2019 NCAA Division I Football Championship was announced today by the NCAA Division I Football Championship Committee. Southern Conference champion Wofford and runner-up Furman play in the first round on Saturday. The Terriers will host Kennesaw State, while Furman will head to Austin Peay.
Wofford will host Kennesaw State on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Gibbs Stadium.
Wofford, ranked No. 11 in the latest STATS FCS Top 25, finished the season with an 8-3 overall record and a 7-1 mark in the Southern Conference to win the outright league title. This marks the Terriers’ 10th trip to the NCAA Playoffs and fourth straight. Wofford has won at least one playoff game in each of the last three appearances.
The game will be a rematch of a second-round game last season in which Wofford was defeated 13-10 by the Owls in Georgia.
Tickets for the game will be $25 of adults and $10 for children. The Wofford ticket office will be open on Monday and Tuesday at 864-597-4090, or tickets can be purchased online at www.woffordterriers.com/tickets.
Furman (8-4, 6-2 SoCon), ranked No. 16 in the STATS FCS poll, will hit the road to face Ohio Valley Conference champion Austin Peay (9-3, 7-1 OVC), ranked 18th in the FCS Poll, this Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN3 at Fortera Stadium in Clarksville, Tenn.
The playoff berth is the 18th for Furman — tops among current Southern Conference schools – and second in the last three years under third-year head coach Clay Hendrix.
The Paladins, who own an 19-16 all-time playoff record, have played for three FCS (formerly I-AA) Championships and captured the league’s first national championship in 1988, defeating Georgia Southern, 17-12, in Pocatello, Idaho.
The Paladins dropped two of their first three games this season, including setbacks to FBS foes Georgia State (48-42 loss) and Virginia Tech (24-17), before winning seven of their next eight outings. Furman was ranked ninth in the FCS Selection Committee’s Top 10, which was released on Nov. 6, and moved as high as seventh in the AFCA Coaches Poll on Nov. 11 before falling to Wofford, 24-7, on the road in the SoCon season finale on Nov. 16.
The 2019 championship field consists of 10 automatic qualifiers and 14 at-large qualifiers. The top eight teams in the 24-team bracket for the championship are seeded and receive first round byes. Team pairings are determined primarily according to geographical proximity.
Automatic Qualifiers
Big Sky Conference – Weber St. (9-3)
Big South Conference – Monmouth (10-2)
Colonial Athletic Association – James Madison (11-1)
Missouri Valley Football Conference – North Dakota St. (12-0)
Northeast Conference – Central Connecticut State (11-1)
Ohio Valley Conference – Austin Peay (9-3)
Patriot League – Holy Cross (7-5)
Pioneer Football League – San Diego (9-2)
Southern Conference – Wofford (8-3)
Southland Conference – Nicholls St. (8-4)
At-Large (14)
Big Sky Conference – Montana (9-3)
Big Sky Conference – Montana State (9-3)
Big Sky Conference – Sacramento State (9-3)
Big South – Kennesaw State (9-3)
Colonial Athletic Association – Albany (8-4)
Colonial Athletic Association – Villanova (9-3)
Independent – North Dakota (7-4)
Missouri Valley Football Conference – Illinois State (8-4)
Missouri Valley Football Conference – South Dakota State (8-4)
Missouri Valley Football Conference – Northern Iowa (8-4)
Ohio Valley Conference – Southeast Missouri St. (9-3)
Southern Conference – Furman (8-4)
Southland Conference – Central Arkansas (9-3)
Southland Conference – Southeastern Louisiana (7-4)
Television schedules and game times for all rounds of the 2019 championship will be updated at NCAA.com. All rounds of the FCS playoffs can be seen on ESPN’s family of networks with first-round games taking place Saturday, Nov. 30, and concluding with the national championship game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, Saturday, Jan. 11, at noon (ET) on ABC.