WARRIOR FOOTBALL RECEIVES FIRST-ROUND BYE IN NATIONAL PLAYOFFS

WILLIAMSPORT, PA – The NCAA announced the brackets for the 2003 Division III National Football Playoffs, Sunday afternoon, on ESPNews. Lycoming College was chosen as the number one seed in the south region giving them a first-round bye and homefield advantage for a second-round game on November 29.

The Warriors will host the winner of the first-round game featuring Trinty (Texas) at East Texas Baptist. Trinity received an automatic bid to the playoffs by winning the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference with a record of 5-1 and an overall mark of 8-2. East Texas Baptist also received an automatic berth for winning the American Southwest Conference with a league record of 8-1 and an overall record of 8-2.

The 28-team field for the NCAA Division III playoffs is comprised of 19 automatic bids, awarded to the champions of conferences with more than seven members, and nine at-large bids, six of which are reserved for independent institutions or conferences with six or fewer teams.

Lycoming earned an automatic berth by winning the Middle Atlantic Conference with an overall and conference record of 8-1. The conference championship is the Warriors’ 13^th all-time and their first since 1999. The appearance in the NCAA playoffs will be the program’s 11^th overall and ninth since 1990. This will also be the first time Lycoming has received a bye since the playoffs expanded to 28 teams in 1999.

In addition to the Warriors; Mount Union, Springfield (Mass.), and St. Johns will receive first-round byes. The other first-round match ups are as follows: (the complete brackets can be found at here)

Mount Union bracket:
                #5 Concordia (Wisc.) at #4 UW-La Crosse
                #6 Hanover at #3 Baldwin-Wallace
                #7 Hope at #2 Wheaton

Lycoming bracket:
                #7 Trinity (Texas) at #4 East Texas Baptist
                #5 Waynesburg at #3 Bridgewater
                #6 Muhlenberg at #2 Christopher Newport

Springfield bracket:
                #4 Curry at #5 RPI
                #6 Ithaca at #3 Brockport St.
                #7 Allegheny at #2 Montclair St.

St. John’s bracket:
                #6 Simpson at #4 St. Norbert
                #5 Bethel at #3 Wartburg
                #7 Redlands at #2 Linfield