The Villanova Wildcats, Delaware Blue Hens, and Lehigh Mountain Hawks will be representing the region in the 2010 FCS playoffs, set to begin on Nov. 27. Villanova earned an at-large bid after it knocked off No. 1 Delaware in the final game of the season dubbed "The Battle Of The Blue". Both of those teams have a bye in the first round. Check out the full 2010 bracket here.
Lehigh will go on the road to face Northern Iowa, a familiar opponent says Mountain Hawks head coach Andy Coen.
"It’s surprising," said Coen. "When the first-round games started to come out I knew it was going to be interesting. We’ve been on a plane to Iowa once before this year but so it’s not going to be totally foreign to our guys."
"Hopefully we can go and represent Lehigh and the Patriot League well," Coen said. "That’s our first goal. We’re going to roll up our sleeves. I don’t think there’s a ton of pressure on us right now. The kids are going to go out and play hard and we’ll see what happens."
The winner of that game will travel to Delaware to take on the Blue Hens in the second round on Dec. 4. Blue Hens Head Coach K.C. Keeler says this team is as good as they've ever had.
"We have always done a good job in the playoffs so were are excited," said coach K.C. Keeler, who is 8-2 in tournament games at UD. " This team has a lot to it. We are talented, we have a lot of heart, and we have great leadership. And we are fortunte to have the best quarterback in the country without question in Pat Devlin. This team is every bit as good as any team we have had here."
Villanova will travel to No. 5 ranked Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in Nacogdoches, Texas, also on Dec. 4. The cats will be looking to defend their national title.