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Ohio Valley Conference champion Eastern Illinois will play at South Dakota State in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Division I Football Championship on Saturday, November 24.
Eastern Illinois (7-4, 6-1 OVC) enters the playoffs ranked No. 25 in the Sports Network Top 25 poll. The team earned the league's automatic bid by winning its sixth OVC Championship this season. The team finished last in the league as season ago (1-7), becoming just the fourth team in the 65-year history of the league to go from worst-to-first in winning the OVC Championship. In the process head coach Dino Babers became just the fourth OVC coach to win a league championship in his first season as a collegiate head coach.
The Panthers are making their 14th Division I playoff appearance, having also been in the field in 1982, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009. The 14 playoff appearances are the second-most among current OVC teams and the eighth-most in FCS history. Eastern Illinois is 3-13 all-time in the Division I playoffs; the last time EIU was in the playoffs the Panthers lost to No. 1 Southern Illinois (2009). The team has lost 10 playoff games in a row and searching for its first win since beating Idaho 38-31 in the first round of the 1989 playoffs.
South Dakota State (8-3, 6-2 MVFC) capped its regular season by topping rival South Dakota 31-8 to finish in second place in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The Jackrabbits are ranked 19th in this week's Sports Network Top 25. SDSU, which became postseason eligible in 2008 following its reclassification to Division I, is making its second NCAA Division I playoff appearance; the Jacks lost to Montana in the 2009 playoffs.
The game will be played at 2:00 p.m. CT and televised on ESPN3. The winner will advance to play No. 1 seed and defending national champion North Dakota State (10-1) on Saturday, December 1.
It marks the first time since 2009 that the OVC has not placed multiple teams in the 20-team playoff field. The championship field will expand to 24 teams next season (2013).