INDIANAPOLIS – After falling to Virginia State Saturday afternoon, the last 24 hours may have been the longest of the year for the 14th-ranked Tuskegee University Golden Tigers football team as they awaited the release of the 2016 NCAA Division II field of 28. However, the news couldn’t have been as for the fourth consecutive year, the Golden Tigers heard their named called during the NCAA Division II Selection Show.
Tuskegee (8-2) will hit the road as the seventh seed to face second seeded Newberry College (10-1) on Saturday, with game slated to kick at 1:00 pm (est).
The Golden Tigers have been the lower seed in the opening round for two of their first three times in the playoffs, falling to North Alabama in their first appearance and defeating Catawba last season in the opening round as the sixth seed. Last season, Tuskegee also defeated North Alabama on the road to get to the Super Region 2 championship game (NCAA Division II quarterfinals) before falling to West Georgia.
This season, the Golden Tigers were ranked each week in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Top 25, reaching as high as number during week six of the season – a school record for ranking in the poll which was established in 2000. They also have been ranked each week in the D2football.com, reaching as high as 10th in that poll. The region rankings were released four weeks ago, and the Golden Tigers have been ranked each week – third, fourth and sixth last week.
For the first time since the 2013 season, the Winston-Salem State University Rams are playoff bound.
The WSSU Rams gathered as a team this evening in the Bowman Gray Field house to watch the announcement from the NCAA, and the Rams (9-2) will travel to Long Island University-Post (11-0) on Saturday, November 19th.
The Rams will enter the contest coming off of a thrilling 43-33 win over Bowie State in the CIAA Championship Game. LIU-Post is coming off of a 43-23 win over #15 Assumption in the Northeast 10 Championship game.
WSSU will enter the game as the #7 seed, and LIU-Post will enter as the #2 seed in Super Region 1. This will be the Rams first playoff berth since 2013 when the defeated Slippery Rock in the first round, before falling 7-0 to Shepherd University in the second round.
The winner of Saturday’s contest will face the winner of the Shepherd (10-0) versus Assumption (9-2) game.
Game time and ticket information will be released on Monday evening.
Courtesy: Tuskegee Athletics & WSSU Athletics
