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Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team will make its sixth straight NCAA Division III National Championships appearance and its eighth in the last nine years after the Cru received an at-large bid to the postseason when the 32-team field was announced today. UMHB will open the postseason at Central (IA) College with a 12:00 PM Central Time kickoff next Saturday, November 21
st. The Dutch is 10-0 overall and the season and Central won the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title after posting an 8-0 league record. Central will be making its 20
th appearance in the NCAA Division III National Championships and the Dutch are ranked 6
th in the country by D3football.com and 5
th in the nation by the AFCA. This will be the first time the Cru has opened the postseason against a program from outside the state of Texas and will also mark the first game for the UMHB football program in the state of Iowa. The Cru enters the playoffs with a 9-1 overall record and UMHB went 7-1 in American Southwest Conference play, sharing the ASC title with Mississippi College.
“I regret not getting another shot at Mississippi College,” Cru head coach Pete Fredenburg said. “But we have suffered so much as a conference with our first-round match-ups that I am not sure this isn’t a much better situation for our student-athletes to have a chance to be split up in the bracket and face somebody new.”
The winner of the UMHB/Central game will advance to play the winner of the California Lutheran/Linfield College first-round game. St. John’s (MN) will host Coe College and Monmouth College will host St. Thomas (MN) in the other half of the bracket.
More details on the UMHB/Central game will be posted later in the week. Stay tuned for ticket prices and other information as it becomes available.