Hope for good weather
Lets hope for some good weather.
Youngstown State is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2000.
The good news is that the Penguins were given the No. 4 seed and will be playing at home against James Madison of the Atlantic 10 Conference and the contest will be televised live nationally on ESPN2.
The bad news is that the game will be played at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and everybody knows what kind of weather you can expect on Thanksgiving weekend in Northeastern Ohio, especially at night.
Still, the Penguins and sixth-year coach Jon Heacock are excited to be back in the postseason, although there was never a doubt, like in past seasons, that they would be back after winning the Gateway Conference's automatic bid.
Championship is firstsince elevation to I-AA
The Penguins, who own four national championships and were twice runners-up, also came up with their first outright league championship since becoming a member of the I-AA ranks.
We're not supposed to use I-AA any more because as of Sunday that division category was no longer in use. It is now the NCAA Division I Football Championship.
Last Saturday, Northern Iowa defeated Illinois State, 38-27, in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa and handed the Redbirds their second league defeat, leaving YSU all alone in first place for the outright title.
The Penguins won league titles in 1978 and 1979 while a member of the Division II Mid-Continent Conference under then coach Bill Narduzzi.
Still, as the No. 4 seed the Penguins got a tough opening draw in James Madison, which won the South Division of the Atlantic 10 Conference with a 7-1 record.
And the upper bracket, which the Penguins are in, is the much tougher of the two. It includes defending national champion Appalachian State, along with the Gateway's No. 2 team, Illinois State, Eastern Illinois, Montana State and Coastal Carolina.
Salukis get break withTennessee-Martin
Southern Illinois, the No. 3 Gateway team, on the other hand, drew Tennessee-Martin out of the weak Ohio Valley Conference and will play at home in the bottom bracket.
Both Heacock and YSU athletic director Ron Strollo felt that the draw really wasn't a big issue.
"At this point it really doesn't matter who you play as long as you are playing," Heacock said. "All the teams in the playoffs are good or they wouldn't be here."
Strollo felt the brackets were pretty much equally divided.
Strollo was much more excited about the televised first-round game.
"There is no way that you could ever buy the exposure that we're going to get from this game," Strollo said.
This year, Panthersare sitting at home
Of the Gateway Conference's big four teams, only Northern Iowa was left out of the playoffs, yet the Panthers beat two of the three Gateway teams that made it in YSU and Illinois State.
The Panthers had a big home loss to Division II North Dakota early in the season and then lost at home to Western Illinois and those two losses doomed the Panthers.
Probably one of the happiest Penguins Sunday was senior tailback Monquantae Gibson, whose heroics in the team's season finale win at Western Kentucky put the Penguins in the playoffs.
Gibson is terrified of flying. Getting the No. 4 seed means the Penguins will play at least two games at home.
"I've been praying all day that we would be seeded and I wouldn't have to get on an airplane again," Gibson said. "The next flight I want to take is to Chattanooga."
Pete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.