Bison Football returns from bye week for playoff opener
Steve Hallstrom
Special to The Farmer
The NDSU Football team spent Thanksgiving week resting and recovering, and now the job is to digest the turkey along with a big scouting report on Abilene Christian.
The FCS Playoffs kicked off on Thanksgiving week with eight first-round matchups. The top 8 seeded teams had first-round byes. Teams seeded 9-16 hosted the first-round games against at-large opponents. Most games went according to schedule but there were two upsets, including 9th seeded Richmond.
(12) Illinois State 35, Southeast Missouri State 27
(10) Rhode Island 21, Central Connecticut State 17
UT Martin 41, (16) New Hampshire 10
Lehigh 20, (9) Richmond 6
(11) Villanova 22, Eastern Kentucky 17
(15) Abilene Christian 24, Northern Arizona 0
(13) Tarleton State 43, Drake 29
(14) Montana 41, Tennessee State 27
This sets up the second-round schedule:
• 2 p.m. | No. 11 Villanova at No. 6 Incarnate Word
• 2 p.m. | No. 10 Rhode Island at No. 7 Mercer
• 2 p.m. | No. 14 Montana at No. 3 South Dakota State
• 3 p.m. | UT Martin at No. 1 Montana State
• 3 p.m. | No. 15 Abilene Christian at No. 2 North Dakota State
• 3 p.m. | No. 13 Tarleton State at No. 4 South Dakota
• 4 p.m. | No. 12 Illinois State at No. 5 UC Davis
• 9 p.m. | Lehigh at No. 8 Idaho
If NDSU were to win Saturday at home to 9-4 Abilene Christian, the Bison would face the winner of the Mercer - Rhode Island game in the national quarterfinals on December 14.
Saturday’s game will be the first time NDSU has played ACU.
ABOUT THE WILDCATS
Abilene Christian (Texas) is the champion of the United Athletic Conference, which was created in January of 2021 when the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) and the ASUN (Atlantic Sun Conference) merged to create a conference that would play football at the FCS level. The UAC has schools located in Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
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