SIOUX FALLS — The first round of the FCS playoffs is in the books.
There were a couple minor upsets — Lehigh knocked off 9th-seeded Richmond and UT-Martin beat 16th-seed New Hampshire, while 12th-seed Illinois State beat unseeded SEMO despite having to give up home field for the Illinois high school football playoffs.
The big news (if there really can be big news when it comes to the 2nd round of the FCS playoffs) is the national championship game rematch that's now on tap with 14-seed Montana holding off Eddie George's Tennessee State Tigers.
The Tigers made it interesting, getting within a score in the fourth quarter, but Griz punt returner Junior Bergen (remember him?) made sure Montana advanced with two punt return touchdowns, the seventh and eighth of his career (tying the FCS all-time record).
So now the Griz are coming to Brookings, for the first time since 1970. It's a fun matchup, given that these are two of the few remaining FCS powers and they just played each other in last year's title tilt in Frisco, but the Jacks should be heavy favorites.
Montana is 9-4 but they don't have any really great wins. They beat Missouri State and Northern Arizona, while losing to North Dakota, Weber State, UC-Davis and Montana State, the latter two of which weren't that close.
Meanwhile USD will get a look at a fresh face when they take on Tarleton State on Saturday in the Dome.
The Texans reached the 10-win mark by advancing, but a 43-29 win over non-scholarship Drake shouldn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of Yote fans.
Obviously much more coverage on Saturday's games and the FCS tournament coming this week.
First round scores:
Montana 41, Tennessee State 27
Abilene Christian 24, Northern Arizona 0
Tarleton State 43, Drake 29
Villanova 22, Eastern Kentucky 17
Lehigh 20, Richmond 16
UT-Martin 41, New Hampshire 10
Rhode Island 21, Central Connecticut 17
Illinois State 35, SEMO 27
So here are your second round matchups, all set for Saturday, Dec. 7, all on ESPN+
Montana at SDSU, 1 p.m.
Villanova at Incarnate Word, 1 p.m.
Rhode Island at Mercer, 1 p.m.
UT-Martin at Montana State, 2 p.m.
Abilene Christian at NDSU, 2 p.m.
Tarleton State at USD, 2 p.m.
Illinois State at UC-Davis, 3 p.m.
Lehigh at Idaho, 8 p.m.
Also of note: The SWAC championship is Saturday at 1 p.m. on ESPN2. It'll be Southern (8-4) at Jackson State (10-2).
Some intriguing matchups there, to be sure. Villanova at Incarnate Word should be a good one. If the Jacks beat Montana, they'd get the winner.
Rhode Island at Mercer should be interesting, while Lehigh heads to Idaho to face Jason Eck's Vandals looking for a second-straight road upset.
The game to really keep an eye on, though, is Illinois State at UC-Davis. I expect the 5th-seeded Aggies to win, but I'm not sure they're in the same league as the top four seeds. The Redbirds will give them a chance to prove me wrong (or right).
The Trust Project
