More Games the NCAA Doesn't Want You To See

Shhhhh…there is a football playoff going on over in D-1AA and it’s all good…Don’t tell the suits out in Kansas, they’ll freak…

In spite of the NCAA’s attempts to make you believe that student-athletes and a football playoff simply do not a good idea make, J. Mad. U’s D-1AA national semifinal playoff football game with Montana will be televised nationally at 8 PM Friday, Dec. 12 on ESPN2.

The Dukes will host the Griz at JMU’s Bridgeforth Stadium/Zane Showker Field with the winner advancing to the Dec. 19 NCAA Football Championship Subdivision title game in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Rumor has it that: a) Chattanooga really is the garden spot of the universe, it has just previously gone unreported, and 2) the field won’t come up in huge chunks like it did in the 2004 National Championship game one by JMU over these very same Grizzlies.

This weekend’s other FCS playoff semifinal game will be Richmond at Northern Iowa at 4 PM Saturday (Dec. 13). That game will also be televised nationally by ESPN.

JMU will take a 12-1 record and a team-record-tying 12-game winning streak into play this weekend. The Dukes are coming off a 31-27 home victory over Villanova Saturday (Dec. 6) in the playoffs’ second round.

Montana is 13-1 and won 24-13 over Weber State Saturday (Dec. 6) for its ninth straight victory.

JMU and Montana have met only once—in the 2004 national title game where the Dukes CRUSHED those Montana boys 31-21 making them the ONLY college football team from Virginia to win a National Championship this decade.

(Photos by Willis Glasglow/WG Sports Photography and Pat Jarrett/Staunton News Leader)