1998 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game

Postseason college football game the Division I-AA (now FCS) championship game the Division I-A (now FBS) championship game 1998 Orange Bowl August 2023 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship I-AA National Championship Game 1998 NCAA Division I-AA 1998 December 19 Georgia Southern University Georgia Southern Eagles 14–0 SoCon Paul Johnson 1 1 7 14 12 10 University of Massachusetts Amherst UMass Minutemen 11–3 Atlantic 10 Mark Whipple 12 11 21 17 0 17 Finley Stadium Chattanooga, Tennessee John W. Keys (Big Sky)https://s3.amazonaws.com/gatadb/gamereports/1998/19981219_umass_complete.pdf 1998 NCAA Division I-AA Championship Game December 19, 1998 February 20, 2019 amazonaws.com 17,501 ESPN 1997 1999 The 1998 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was a postseason college football game between the Georgia Southern Eagles and the UMass Minutemen. The game was played on December 19, 1998, at Finley Stadium, home field of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The culminating game of the 1998 NCAA Division I-AA football season, it was won by UMass, 55–43.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/umass-wins-i-aa-championship/ UMass Wins I-AA Championship CBS News December 19, 1998 February 20, 2019 Teams The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the 1998 I-AA Playoffs, which began with a 16-team bracket.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28197577/division_iaa_playoffs/ Division I-AA playoffs Missoulian Missoula, Montana D5 November 23, 1998 February 8, 2019 newspapers.com UMass Minutemen 1998 UMass Minutemen football team UMass finished their regular season with an 8–3 record (6–2 in conference); two of their losses had been to rival Connecticut,https://cfbinfo.com/team/massachusetts-minutemen/1998 UMass Minutemen 1998 Schedule cfbinfo.com February 20, 2019 February 21, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190221112151/https://cfbinfo.com/team/massachusetts-minutemen/1998 dead with one considered a non-conference game. Seeded 11th in the playoffs, the Minutemen defeated sixth-seed McNeese State, 14-seed Lehigh, and second-seed Northwestern State to reach the final. This was the second appearance for UMass in a Division I-AA championship game, having lost to Florida A&M in the 1978 inaugural title game. Georgia Southern Eagles 1998 Georgia Southern Eagles football team Georgia Southern finished their regular season with an 11–0 record (8–0 in conference).https://cfbinfo.com/team/georgia-southern-eagles/1998 Georgia Southern Eagles 1998 Schedule cfbinfo.com February 20, 2019 February 21, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190221224027/https://cfbinfo.com/team/georgia-southern-eagles/1998 dead The Eagles, seeded first, defeated 16-seed Colgate, eighth-seed Connecticut, and fourth-seed Western Illinois to reach the final. This was the sixth appearance for Georgia Southern in a Division I-AA championship game, having four prior wins (1985, 1986, 1989, 1990) and one prior loss (1988). Game summary Scoring summary GSU UM 1 12:56 UM 7 67 2:04 RushTD Marcel Shipp 25 good Jason Cherry 0 7 1 8:29 UM FumbleTD Kole Ayi 9 good Cherry 0 14 1 7:25 GSU 2 48 1:08 RushTD Greg Hill 40 good Chris Chambers 7 14 1 5:04 UM 1 7 0:07 RecTD Adrian Zullo Jamie Holston 7 good Cherry 7 21 2 14:46 UM 11 63 3:34 FG 22 Cherry 7 24 2 10:54 GSU 6 36 2:11 RecTD Corey Joyner Greg Hill 6 good Chambers 14 24 2 7:17 UM 11 64 3:37 RushTD Todd Bankhead 1 good Cherry 14 31 2 4:09 UM 5 26 1:35 RushTD Shipp 4 good Cherry 14 38 2 2:01 GSU 6 55 2:08 RushTD Adrian Peterson 1 good Chambers 21 38 3 8:54 GSU 13 78 6:06 RushTD Peterson 5 no good Chambers 27 38 3 0:41 GSU 14 98 6:07 RushTD Hill 2 run failed 33 38 4 13:42 UM 5 72 1:59 RushTD Kevin Quinlan 2 good Cherry 33 45 4 11:51 UM 5 42 1:35 RushTD Shipp 2 good Cherry 33 52 4 8:39 GSU 12 58 3:12 FG 38 Chambers 36 52 4 2:21 UM 7 13 3:04 FG 25 Cherry 36 55 4 1:04 GSU 8 60 1:17 RushTD J. R. Revere 29 good Chambers 43 55 43 55 https://www.gatadb.com/game/219/ NCAA I-AA Championship December 19, 1998 GATAdb February 20, 2019 Game statistics No. 1 Eagles 7 14 12 10 No. 11 Minutemen 21 17 0 17 thumb|right|upright|Georgia Southern running back Adrian Peterson Georgia Southern Eagles GSU UMass Minutemen UM 26 86–595 65–457 138 10–21–1 30:48 23 77–462 51–303 159 18–26–0 29:12 Georgia Southern Eagles Georgia Southern UMass Minutemen UMass Greg Hill 8–16, 111 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT Greg Hill 29 car, 228 yds, 2 TD Corey Joyner 6 rec, 94 yds, 1 TD Todd Bankhead 17–25, 152 yds Marcel Shipp 35 car, 244 yds, 3 TD Jimmy Moore 6 rec, 63 yds https://umasshoops.com/features/footballchamps1998/#boxscore NCAA box score umasshoops.com February 20, 2019 References Further reading https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28662108/ncaa_division_iaa_poll/ NCAA Division I-AA Poll AP The Sports Network St. Louis Post Dispatch C4 November 24, 1998 February 20, 2019 newspapers.com External links 2018 UMass Hall of Fame: The 1998 Football Team via YouTube Championship Game Category:20th century in Chattanooga, Tennessee Category:NCAA Division I Football Championship Games Category:Georgia Southern Eagles football games Category:UMass Minutemen football games Category:College football in Tennessee Category:American football competitions in Chattanooga, Tennessee NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game