Dec. 4 (Saturday)	Series	TV/Digital	Time
Kennesaw State at No. 7 seed ETSU	Series tied 1-1	ESPN+	2 p.m.

Notes
• Southern Conference champion and No. 7 seed ETSU hosts Big South Conference champion Kennesaw State in the second round of the NCAA Division I Football Championship on Saturday.

• The Bucs are in the FCS playoffs for the third time in program history and the first since 2018. ETSU will be playing at home in the FCS playoffs for just the second time and the first since a 1996 first-round win over Villanova.

• The SoCon has gone 109-78 (.583) all-time in the FCS playoffs, winning eight national titles.

• ETSU won its first outright SoCon title and its second overall by going 7-1 in league play this season. The Bucs are 10-1 overall and opened the season with a 23-3 win at FBS Vanderbilt.

• Kennesaw State is 11-1 overall after its 48-21 win over Pioneer League champion Davidson in the first round of the playoffs last weekend. The Owls went 7-0 in Big South play, with their only loss on the season at FBS Georgia Tech.

• KSU’s Big South title was its third in five seasons but first since 2018. The Owls are departing for the ASUN Conference next season.

• ETSU enters the contest ranked No. 8 in the AFCA FCS Coaches’ Top 25 and No. 9 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25. KSU is ranked No. 4 by the coaches and No. 10 by Stats Perform.

• ETSU and KSU have intertwined histories, as the squads opened the 2015 season against each other in what was the Bucs’ first game since reviving their program and the Owls’ first football game ever. KSU took that first meeting in Johnson City, Tennessee, 56-16, with ETSU returning the favor on the road in overtime the following season, 20-17.

• SoCon teams are 0-3 against KSU in the playoffs, with Samford falling to the Owls in the first round in 2017 and Wofford dropping games to KSU in 2018 (second round) and 2019 (first round).

• Four finalists for Stats Perform legacy awards will be participating in Saturday’s game. ETSU running back Quay Holmes is a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, as is KSU quarterback Xavier Shepherd. Both are their respective leagues’ offensive players of the year. Bucs coach Randy Sanders and Owls coach Brian Bohannon are both finalists for the Eddie Robinson Award and are their respective leagues’ coaches of the year.

• Holmes has rushed for a career-best and FCS-leading 1,431 yards this season, while junior Jacob Saylors has run for 968, also a career best, and needs just 32 yards for the duo to become the first SoCon teammates to both rush for 1,000 in a season since 2015 and just the 12th pair in league history to do so overall. Holmes has also rushed for 16 touchdowns, tied for third-most in the FCS this season.

• With 4,142 career rushing yards, Holmes needs just seven more to enter the SoCon’s career top 10. He is fifth in SoCon history in all-purpose yards with 6,114.

• Two of the best rushing attacks in the FCS will be on display Saturday. KSU is second in the FCS at 277.9 yards per game, while ETSU is sixth at 239.9 yards per game.

• Bohannon tied the Big South record for coaching victories in KSU’s win over Davidson, which was the 63rd win of his career.

• Shepherd leads the FCS with 23 rushing TDs on the season and is second in scoring with 11.5 points per game. He accounted for five touchdowns in the win over Davidson, rushing for four and throwing for another.

• ETSU linebacker Jared Folks, the 2020-21 SoCon Defensive Co-Player of the Year, is the first player in NCAA history to receive an eighth year of eligibility. The 26-year-old began his career at Temple in 2014 and has been at ETSU since 2018, extending his career to an unprecedented eighth season through a combination of medical waivers and the COVID exemption.

• Six SoCon student-athletes and one coach are among the finalists the Stats Perform legacy awards. ETSU running back Quay Holmes and Samford quarterback Liam Welch are among the 25 finalists for the Walter Payton Award; Chattanooga defensive end Devonnsha Maxwell and VMI linebacker Stone Snyder are among the 25 finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award; The Citadel cornerback Dominick Poole and Western Carolina safety Andreas Keaton are among the 23 finalists for the Jerry Rice Award; and ETSU coach Randy Sanders is among 17 finalists for the Eddie Robinson Award.

• The SoCon also had finalists for all of the major national awards last season, with three for the Walter Payton Award, two for the Buck Buchanan Award and two for the Jerry Rice Award in addition to Eddie Robinson Award winner Scott Wachenheim of VMI. All of them returned this season.

• The Southern Conference has been among the best in the FCS at recruiting dynamic new talent in the last five seasons. Since 2016, six SoCon freshmen have finished in the top five of the voting for the Jerry Rice Award, the most of any conference.

• Chattanooga offensive lineman Cole Strange was named the SoCon Student-Athlete of the Week on Oct. 20, becoming the fourth football player to do so this season. The weekly award, open to all SoCon sports in season, honors academic as well as athletic achievement. Furman quarterback Hamp Sisson (Sept. 8) and placekicker/punter Timmy Bleekrode (Sept. 15) and Wofford kicker/punter Atkins Roberts (Oct. 6) have also earned the distinction so far this season.

• Strange recently earned an invitation to the Reese’s Senior Bowl.

• Chattanooga junior offensive lineman McClendon Curtis has been named to the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee Student-Athlete Connection Group. He is one of just 12 nationwide in all three NCAA divisions to earn a spot in the group.

• Chattanooga defensive back Jerrell Lawson was announced by the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) as one of 176 semifinalists for the 2021 William V. Campbell Trophy.

• VMI won its first SoCon championship since 1977 last season. Scott Wachenheim was subsequently named the national coach of the year

• Preseason SoCon favorite Chattanooga returned 72 of 76 lettermen and all 25 starters from last season. Eventual SoCon champion ETSU, which finished last season ranked in the top 25 nationally, returned all 50 of its lettermen and every starter.

• Eighteen different SoCon student-athletes earned preseason All-America honors from at least one organization, with VMI wide receiver Jakob Herres a consensus first-team pick.

SoCon Points of Pride
• The 2021 season is the 100th of Southern Conference football. The SoCon is the fifth-oldest NCAA Division I college athletic association.

• Since it began competing in FCS, the SoCon has amassed the second-most national championships with eight. Also boasting another eight national championship runner-up finishes, the league has 16 title-game appearances, the most among FCS conferences.

• The SoCon prides itself on quality and depth.
    • Eight of the nine current SoCon football members have participated in the FCS Playoffs with seven different schools receiving bids since 2016.
    • Overall, current SoCon football members have combined for 46 total FCS playoffs appearances.
    • Six of the nine SoCon teams appeared in an FCS top-25 national poll in the 2020-21 season.

• The SoCon has had seven Walter Payton Award winners, two Buck Buchanan Award winners and five Eddie Robinson Award winners. VMI Coach Scott Wachenheim won the Eddie Robinson Award (FCS National Coach of the Year) in 2020-21.

• Sixty-one former SoCon players and coaches have been enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

• The SoCon had 12 FCS All-America selections in 2020-21.

• The SoCon broadcasts all of its home games on ESPN+ or ESPN3 and has an over-the-air television network that will air eight games in five southern states in 2021.

• Sixteen former SoCon players were on active NFL rosters last season and five more were on practice squads. Former Citadel wide receiver Andre Roberts, former Samford defensive back James Bradberry and former Georgia Southern kicker Younghoe Koo, who played in the SoCon as a freshman, were Pro Bowlers. Thirteen former SoCon players are on NFL rosters this season, with seven more on practice squads.

• The SoCon has been playing Division I FCS football since the 1982 season. The NCAA created two subdivisions for Division I football beginning in 1978 with the creation of I-A (now FBS) and I-AA (now FCS). The SoCon was shifted from I-A to I-AA along with the Ivy League and Southland Conference following the 1981 season, joining the Mid-Continent, Big Sky, MEAC, SWAC, OVC, and Yankee conferences, along with a number of independents, as I-AA participants.

• The SoCon is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2021. The league contested the first-ever collegiate conference basketball tournament in 1921, tackled freshman eligibility in 1922, became the first conference to adopt the 3-point field goal in basketball in 1980 and developed women’s championships in 1984.

Recent news
All-SoCon media football teams announced (11/23)
All-SoCon coaches football teams announced (11/23)
Seven among finalists for FCS legacy awards (11/22)
SoCon names final football players of the week (11/22)
ETSU earns No. 7 seed in FCS playoffs (11/21)
ETSU wins SoCon football title with 38-35 win over Mercer (11/20)