Black Bears bound for Louisiana UMaine earns first-round NCAA playoff berth against McNeese State

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ORONO – The one-week wait was excruciating, but the payoff was exhilarating.

Eight days after beating New Hampshire in its regular-season finale, the University of Maine football team finally heard the news it had been waiting for Sunday when it was selected as one of 16 teams to compete in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

Coach Jack Cosgrove’s 8-2 Black Bears, ranked No. 17 in last week’s poll compiled by The Sports Network, received one of eight at-large bids for the tournament and will take on 11th-ranked McNeese State (8-3) Saturday at 8 p.m. in Lake Charles, La.

It will be UMaine football’s first Division I-AA postseason appearance since 1989. The other came in 1987.

To some of the seniors, the wait encompassed years, not just days.

“Just to have an opportunity to go to Louisiana and play football in the NCAA playoffs is a great thing,” said senior Malik Nichols. “For five years I waited for this moment to happen. It’s great.”

UMaine coach Jack Cosgrove was somewhat low-key in his reaction to the announcement.

“It’s really exciting, a great day for Maine football,” said Cosgrove, whose Bears also earned a share of the Atlantic 10 championship by virtue of William & Mary’s 47-44 win over Villanova on Saturday.

“We felt with confidence that we were going to get this opportunity after we beat UNH,” he said. “We thought we were going to be in.”

A group of approximately 50 people, including 15 UMaine players, UMaine coaches, administrators, family members, friends and boosters, gathered Sunday afternoon in Dexter Lounge at Alfond Arena to watch the selection show on Fox Sports Net New England.

The seniors erupted with shouts of joy, hugs and “high fives” when “UMaine” popped up on the TV screen during the second segment of the show. A handful of other team members remained seated and shared handshakes.

“This was a great day today,” said senior Zack Magliaro. “We’ve got a chance to keep going and get a shot at another title.”

While Cosgrove had told his players they had a good shot at postseason, they never took anything for granted.

“We felt pretty good coming into today,” senior Chad Hayes of Old Town said of UMaine’s prospects. “I’ve been waiting for today. This week went by so slow, but we’re in. It’s exciting.”

After practicing Monday and Tuesday, the Bears had taken the rest of the week off to enjoy the Thanksgiving break. That helped take their minds off football.

“It was a long week, but going home for break and seeing family and friends and having Thanksgiving dinner helped out a lot,” said senior Lennard Byrd. “This is what I think everybody on our team dreamed for was to have opportunities to travel and play in front of large crowds.”

UMaine finished in a four-way tie for the Atlantic 10 title with Hofstra, William & Mary and Villanova, all of which posted 7-2 records in league play.

Neither Cosgrove nor the players wanted the championship to become overshadowed by the playoff berth.

“That’s been one of my goals since I’ve been here,” Magliaro said. “We finally got it and it’s definitely one of the best feelings we could have right now.”

All three Atlantic 10 playoff teams are on the road. Hofstra, ranked 10th, will bus to No. 5 Lehigh in Pennsylvania, while No. 20 William & Mary is headed for Appalachian State in North Carolina.

McNeese State won the Southland Conference automatic berth after clinching the league title with Saturday’s 31-21 win over Jacksonville State. The Cowboys have won four straight games.

“The only thing that surprised me is where we’re going,” Cosgrove said. “I thought there’d be more of a regional flavor.”

UMaine won the only previous meeting between the two schools, beating McNeese 35-7 in 1999 at Alfond Stadium in Orono.

“[McNeese] is a traditional and great I-AA football program over the years,” Cosgrove said. “We know it’s in a great conference, the Southland Conference, and it’s going to be a tremendous challenge to go on the road, to travel down there and play in their environment.”

The NCAA I-AA football playoffs are set up with serious consideration to regional matchups. Presumably, because UMaine wasn’t a convenient match with any team in the northeastern corner of the country, and since it would have to fly anywhere it played, it was sent to Louisiana.

Only four teams – No. 1 Montana, No. 2 Georgia Southern, No. 3 Furman and No. 4 Eastern Illinois – were seeded by the NCAA selection committee. Each may host up to three home games, if they win, leading up to the Dec. 21 national title game at Chattanooga, Tenn.

Should UMaine beat McNeese, it would meet the Eastern Illinois-Northern Iowa winner.

UMaine is having its most successful season since ’89, when the Bears finished 9-3 after a playoff loss at Southwest Missouri State. UMaine earned seven league wins for the first time ever and has posted eight wins for only the fifth time in the 111-year history of the program.

They don’t plan to let it end at McNeese State. There’s another title to be won.

“It’s nice to talk about the Atlantic 10 championship [but] there’s a national championship out there in front of us and an opportunity to win four football games and be the best in the nation in I-AA football,” Cosgrove said. “We’re going to put everything we can into it.”