Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Football Playing At Delaware Saturday In I-AA Playoffs
11/23/2003 | 12:00:00 | Football
Nov. 23, 2003
CARBONDALE - There's no time to be angry.
There's no time to ask why or how.
The Southern Illinois University football team has a flight to book, hotel reservations to make and six days to prepare for the No. 3 team in the nation.
The No. 5 Salukis will be playing at Delaware Saturday at noon in their first Division I-AA playoff game in 20 years.
That's right - Delaware.
"We've got to get refocused," SIU head coach Jerry Kill said. "We planned on being at home, so we've got a lot of work to do today."
Fans and the media had speculated about a possible matchup with either Jacksonville State, Northern Arizona or Montana State.
All three possibilities had one thing in common - the game would be played at McAndrew Stadium in Carbondale. But the NCAA selection committee threw SIU a curveball Sunday, one that buckled everyone's knees. The Salukis will be playing the No. 2 seed in the 16-team tournament.
"We definitely thought we'd have a home game," said senior wide receiver Courtney Abbott. "I thought we'd get a top-four (seed). You never know."
But the eternally upbeat Salukis are prepared to play with the hand they've been dealt.
"We're just happy to be in right now," Abbott added. "And whoever they give us is who we're going to play."
"I certainly am (surprised)," Kill said. "But, you know, that's something we can't control."
"Losing our last game to Northern Iowa, we knew that it wasn't in our hands anymore," said senior tailback Tom Koutsos. "So we'll take what they give us and prepare to go play Delaware."
The hundreds of Saluki fans that came to SIU Arena to watch the NCAA Selection Show - and, presumably, purchase some playoff tickets - weren't able to express their displeasure quite as diplomatically.
When the bracket featuring the Salukis at Delware flashed up on the big screen , the reaction was - to put it mildly - one of shock and disappointment.
"I wanted the home game for, of course, our fans and the people of Southern Illinois who've put so much effort into supporting our program," Kill said. "But, again, we can't control how that works. All we can control is where we're at, and we're in the national playoffs. Now we've got to prepare."
Initially, fans cheered upon seeing SIU officially make the playoffs. But cheers soon turned to boos when the fans realized where the game was being played.
Even more discontent was expressed when I-AA expert Tony Moss of the Football Network noted that Delaware - in addition to having a very good team - is a tough place for visiting teams to play. 20,000-plus fans are expected Saturday at Delaware Stadium.
Moss sited the SIU-Delaware matchup as one of the most intriguing of the first round because both teams have the talent to win a national championship.
The collective response: "Then why are they playing each other in the first round?"
By the way, when Moss was asked to pick a national champion, he didn't hesitate: "McNeese State is the team to beat," Moss said. "But I'm going out on a limb and picking Delaware."
Please take a moment for the preceding information to sink in...
The winner will move on to play the winner of Montana State-Northern Iowa, while the loser will be left wondering "what if?"
The Blue Hens finished the regular-season at 11-1, winning the Atlantic 10 with an 8-1 record. They wrapped up the league's automatic bid Saturday with a victory over Villanova.
"We don't know a lot about them," Kill said. "But we'll learn a lot. It's kind of like coach (Bruce) Weber and the Sweet 16 -- you just get her done."
Fortunately, SIU has performed well on the road all season, knocking off nationally-ranked Western Kentucky and Western Illinois.
"You know, maybe that's why we had that tough road schedule," Kill said. "That's the way I look at it. It's been great preparation. I don't know if we can play in any tougher places than we played this year."
There's no doubt that the Salukis got a raw deal. But its nothing a team that went from 1-10 two years ago to 10-1 and a Gateway Conference Championship can't overcome.
"Everything's happened so far in this season for a reason," said junior safety Alexis Moreland. "So I think this is just one more step in the process."
"As a football we need to understand we need to be excited about being in," Kill said, "and then we need to go accept the challenge because all we need to do is win three games and we'll be in the big show."
CSTV: College Sports Television will televise live nationally the NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship First-Round game featuring #5 Southern Illinois at #3 Delaware on Saturday, November 29, at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT). Carter Blackburn will handle play-by-play, Scott Zolak will provide color commentary and Mindi Bach will be the sideline reporter from Tubby Raymond Field at Delaware Stadium.
CSTV Football Saturday programming commences at 12:30 p.m ET/9:30 a.m. PT) with a live pre-game show from the CSTV Fieldhouse in New York, that will feature a preview of the Southern Illinois-Delaware game, along with the rest of that day's Division I-AA playoff games and action from throughout all of college football. Mike Crispino and Aaron Taylor will host the CSTV pre-game show, as well as the network's halftime and post-game programs that afternoon.
Southern Illinois (10-1) suffered its only loss of the season in its final game, a 43-40 setback November 18 to fellow Gateway Conference co-champion Northern Iowa. Delaware defeated #18 Villanova 21-18 yesterday in its regular season finale to earn a share of the Atlantic 10 conference title and finish the regular season at 11-1, 8-1.
CSTV, the first 24-hour college sports network, is available to approximately 15 million homes nationally on cable and satellite. The network is available on Adelphia and Insight systems and on DirecTV. For information on CSTV availability in particular markets, consumers can log on to www.cstv.com or call their cable or satellite operator.
