Ohio Valley Conference teams Tennessee Tech and Eastern Kentucky will each play in the first round of the NCAA Division I Football Championship on Saturday, November 26.
Tennessee Tech (7-3, 6-2 OVC, ranked No. 21 in Sports Network/Fathead.com poll) was one of three teams that shared the OVC Championship (winning its first OVC title since 1975) and earned the league's automatic bid to the playoffs by topping the other two squads. The Golden Eagles will host Central Arkansas (8-3, 6-1 Southland Conference, No. 15 nationally) at Tucker Stadium in Cookeville in a game televised on ESPN3 (2:00 p.m. CT). The playoff berth is the first-ever for Tennessee Tech.
Eastern Kentucky (7-4, 6-2 OVC) also shared the OVC Championship this season, winning its 21st OVC crown, which is tied (with Massachusetts) for the most ever by a team at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level, and earned an at-large bid to the Championship. The Colonels will host James Madison (7-4, 5-3 in CAA, No. 17 nationally) at Roy Kidd Stadium in Richmond in a game televised on ESPNU (12 p.m. ET). EKU is making its 20th FCS playoff appearance (second-most all-time behind Montana's 21 appearances) and first since 2008. It will be the first time since the 1994 season that Eastern Kentucky has hosted a home playoff game (its last five playoff games have been on the road). EKU is 16-17 all-time in FCS playoffs games.
In the 34 years of the FCS playoffs (which started in 1978), the OVC has now placed two teams in the playoffs 18 total times, including for the second-straight year.
OVC teams will be looking to snap a 16-game losing streak in the FCS Playoffs; an OVC team has not won a playoff game since former member Western Kentucky did in 2000.