There are four top-25 first round matchups in this week’s NCAA FCS playoffs. No. 19 Tennessee State, its first time in the playoffs since 2013 plays at No. 13 Montana November 30.
TSU, Jackson State (#15), South Carolina State (#18) and North Carolina Central (#23) are the only Black colleges ranked in the weekly AFCA FCS Coaches Poll.
Tennessee State clinched a share of the Big South football Championship with a 28-21 triumph last Saturday over then #11 Southeast Missouri State, now #16. It is the first OVC championship for the Tigers (9-3, 6-2 conference) since 1999 and first under head coach Eddie George, who was hired in 2021.
The former Ohio State star who won the 1995 Heisman, a 10-year NFL career including 1996 Rookie of the Year, four-time Pro Bowler and an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIV before retiring and eventually going into coaching.
TSU is George’s first HC opportunity, and he has quietly but effectively built a winner there.
Contract extension
Ty Grace last week got a four-year contract extension through the 2027-28 season as Howard University head women’s basketball coach. She joined HU in 2015 and won its first MEAC tournament title since 2001 during the 2021-22 season. That same year, the Bison defeated the University of Incarnate Word in the inaugural First Four round — Howard’s first NCAA tournament win in school history.
Grace is a rising star in the coaching ranks. Her extensive coaching experience includes assistant positions at Seton Hall and the United States Military Academy, and as head coach at her alma mater, the University of New Haven, where she won 73% of her games and two NCAA Division II tournament appearances and the school’s first trip to the Elite Eight in 2014-15.
“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with such a talented and dedicated group of young women, and I look forward to seeing how we can take this program to even higher heights,” the coach said in a press release.
Howard Athletic Director Kery Davis added, “Coach Grace is one of the top coaches in the entire sport of women’s basketball. Her student-athletes have prospered on the court, in the classroom and in the community. She has excelled in ingraining the championship culture into this program. The future of Howard Women’s Basketball is incredibly bright under her leadership.”