Nov. 5 (Saturday)	Series	TV/Digital / Stats	Time
#12/11 Chattanooga at The Citadel*	Chattanooga leads 33-20-2	ESPN+ / Stats	2 p.m.
Wofford at Western Carolina*	Wofford leads 28-15	Nexstar/ESPN3 / Stats	2 p.m.
VMI at #10/10 Samford*	Samford leads 6-3	ESPN+ / Stats	3 p.m.

*Southern Conference game
FCS rankings listed AFCA FCS Coaches’ Top 25/Stats Perform FCS Top 25
 
Nexstar affiliates for Nov. 5 Ingles SoCon Game of the Week
ECBD/The Lowcountry’s CW (Charleston)
WMUB (Macon)
WMYT/My 12 (Charlotte)
WWCW/The CW Virginia (Lynchburg/Roanoke)
WYCW/The CW62 (Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville)
 
Play-by-play: Pete Yanity
Analyst: Jared Singleton

Notes
• Wofford visits Western Carolina on Saturday for the Ingles Southern Conference Game of the Week on select Nexstar affiliates, while league-leading Samford hosts VMI and The Citadel welcomes Chattanooga.
 
• Four SoCon squads are nationally ranked this week. Samford, Mercer, Chattanooga and Furman sit Nos. 10-13 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25, in that order, while the Bulldogs are No. 10 in the AFCA FCS Coaches’ top 25 and are directly followed by the Mocs at No. 11 and the Bears at No. 13. The Paladins entered the AFCA poll this week at No. 19.
 
• Resurgent Wofford picked up its second straight win under interim coach Shawn Watson on Oct. 29, outlasting ETSU in a 48-41 slugfest. Quarterback Jimmy Weirick threw for a school-record 409 yards and three touchdowns en route to earning SoCon Offensive Player of the Week honors, Amir Annoor intercepted a pass and returned in 19 yards to the ETSU 12-yard line with 52 seconds left and Nathan Walker scored on a 9-yard rush with 32 ticks left as the Terriers won a thriller.
 
• Western Carolina was idle last week after its 34-21 loss to The Citadel on Oct. 22. The Catamounts got 129 rushing yards from freshman Desmond Reid in the setback, while classmate Cole Gonzales threw for two TDs.
 
• The Catamounts earned a 41-21 road win over Wofford last season to snap the Terriers’ four-game winning streak in the series.
 
• 10th-ranked Samford will look to remain unbeaten in league play but must get past a VMI squad that has won three straight against the Bulldogs. Samford rolled to a 38-3 win at The Citadel last weekend, getting another extremely efficient performance from quarterback Michael Hiers, who went 30-for-35 for 260 yards and three TDs.
 
• Injury-ravaged VMI got some good news last week with the returns of starting quarterback Seth Morgan and All-American linebacker Stone Snyder to the lineup against Mercer.
 
• Chattanooga visits The Citadel as it looks to bounce back from its first league loss, a 24-20 setback at then-No. 24 Furman last weekend. The Mocs were playing without running back Ailym Ford, who led the SoCon in rushing at 117.6 yards per game entering the contest.
 
• The Citadel got a school-record 56-yard field goal from Colby Kintner in last weekend’s 38-3 loss to Samford, but that was all the offense the Bulldogs could muster. Kintner’s record kick trails only seven 57-yarders for the longest in SoCon history and easily surpassed the program record of 53 yards set in 1984.
 
• The last seven meetings between The Citadel and Chattanooga have been decided by eight points or fewer, with the last four decided by a field goal or less and three straight from 2018 to the 2021 spring season decided by just one point.
 
• ETSU RB Jacob Saylors and Mercer WR Devron Harper both set program records for all-purpose yards last week. Saylors had 369, the third-highest total in SoCon history, on 245 yards rushing and a 124 yards on kickoff returns. Harper had 293 yards on 22 rushing, 80 receiving, 65 on kickoff returns and 126 on punt returns, including an 87-yard return for TD.
 
SoCon Points of Pride
• 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 47 total FCS playoffs appearances.
     • Six of the nine SoCon teams appeared in an FCS top-25 national poll in the 2020-21 season and five of nine did so in the fall 2021 campaign.
 
• 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-three former SoCon players and coaches have been enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
 
• The SoCon had 15 FCS All-America selections in fall 2021 season. Two of them were drafted into the NFL, with Chattanooga OL Cole Strange becoming the SoCon’s first first-rounder since 1974 when he was taken 29th overall by the New England Patriots. Samford WR Montrell Washington was selected in the fifth round by the Denver Broncos.
 
• 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 2022 campaign is the 101st season of SoCon football. Founded in 1921, the SoCon is the fifth-oldest Division I conference.
 
Recent news
Furman at Mercer on Nov. 12 selected for Nexstar broadcast (11/1)
SoCon names football players of the week (10/31)
Saturday's football roundup (10/29)