Villanova earns the No. 11 national seed and hosts Eastern Kentucky in the first round of the FCS playoffs

VILLANOVA, Pa. –For the second straight year and third time in the last four years, the Villanova football team is headed to the FCS playoffs. The 24-team field for the Division I football championship was announced live on ESPNU Sunday afternoon, and the Wildcats finished 11th in the bracket. Villanova (9-3) will host a first-round game against Eastern Kentucky (8-4) of the United Athletic Conference. Both teams are at-large selections and will play each other for the first time on Saturday, November 30th at Villanova Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.

Head coach Mark Ferrante and the Wildcats are no strangers to the FCS playoff field. This is the 16th^Th It is the first time Villanova has gone to the postseason since 1989 and the first time the Wildcats have made consecutive playoff appearances since 2009 and 2010. Ferrante is taking Villanova to the postseason for the fourth time as head coach. Previously, he was a longtime assistant with the Wildcats staff, appearing in all 16 playoff appearances since the program became an FCS member in 1985. Villanova holds a record of 14-14 in the playoffs, most recently reaching the quarterfinals this season in which the team is ranked as the No. 8 national seed.

This year’s edition of the Wildcats concluded the regular season with a thrilling 38-28 victory over Delaware in the final game of the Battle of the Blue rivalry series. Villanova won nine regular-season games and lost just two in a discouraging CAA football slate for the third time in the last four seasons. Along the way, the Wildcats extended their home winning streak to 15 straight games dating back to 2022 and remained undefeated against non-conference FCS opponents in the regular season for the eighth straight season.

Villanova’s strength all season has been the play of its defense, which ranks second in CAA football in both scoring defense (18.8 points allowed per game) and fewest passing yards allowed (178.7 per game). . The defense held three regular season opponents (Colgate, New Hampshire, North Carolina A&T) without a touchdown and gave up just 14.7 points per game in its six conference wins. One of these victories came against a team from New Hampshire that, with Villanova, took third place in the table and also moved into the playoffs as number 16 in the national seeding list.

As solid as the defense has been all year, the Wildcats have seen a resurgent offense in the last two weeks, scoring 71 points against Monmouth (40-33 loss) and Delaware. In Saturday’s win over the Blue Hens, fifth-year linebacker Brendan Bell (Basking Ridge, NJ) considered the first player in Villanova’s FCS era to score both an offensive and defensive touchdown in the same game. He had a pick-six in the first quarter and helped seal the game with a six-yard rushing touchdown in the final third.

In next week’s first round, the Wildcats will face the Colonels, a member of the United Athletic Conference, which has produced three playoff teams this season. Eastern Kentucky defeated fellow playoff team and No. 13 national team Tarleton State as the Texans were ranked seventh nationally. The Colonels also defeated then-No. 16 Central Arkansas, losing a close game en route to conference champion and No. 15 national seed Abilene Christian.

Eastern Kentucky averages 22.8 points per game offensively and allows 23.8 points per game, with the latter figure dropping to 19.9 points allowed per game when excluding FBS losses to Mississippi State and Western Kentucky. The Colonels feature a 1,000-yard rusher in redshirt senior running back Joshua Carter, who has rushed for 1,028 yards and 13 touchdowns this year.