Norfolk, Va.(Sept. 25, 2020) – Delaware State will have an opportunity to compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs during the anticipated spring 2021 season proposed after schools scrapped their fall 2020 schedules due to Covid-19. The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) has been granted an automatic berth to the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Playoffs this spring.
"I would like to thank the FCS Commissioners, Football Championship Committee and the Football Oversight Committee for supporting the MEAC's automatic qualifier (AQ) status and I am excited for our student-athletes and coaches to participate in the FCS playoffs," MEAC Commissioner Dennis E. Thomas said. "Furthermore, the MEAC is primed to make history this spring with it's first-ever championship game and it is exciting to make that sort of history in our 50th Anniversary."
The first-ever MEAC championship game will be held the weekend of April 16-18.
This will be the first FCS playoff automatic bid for the MEAC since 2014, the year before the league entered into an agreement to send its champion to the Celebration Bowl to compete against the champion of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Delaware State has made one FCS playoff appearance in its history, falling to the University in a 2007 opening round game in Newark, Del.
DSU's spring 2021 football schedule is slated to be released in the near future. The Hornets are scheduled to play only MEAC opponents next spring.
The spring 2021 FCS playoff field will be reduced from 24 teams to 16, with selection happening Sunday, April 18. The first round would take place the weekend of April 24, followed by quarterfinals the weekend of May 1 and semifinals the weekend of May 8.
The FCS Championship game will be held May 14, 15 or 16.
With the MEAC's automatic bid, the number of automatic bids increases from 10 to 11, with the five other playoff slots going to at-large teams.
Teams can play up to eight regular-season games across a 13-week period in the spring, ending with the weekend of April 16-18.
