#20 Southeast Missouri (8-3) will host #15 Stony Brook (7-4) in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Division I Football Championship. SEMOwill host a playoff game for the first time on Saturday, Nov. 24. The game will air live on ESPN3 from HouckField at 1:05 p.m., CT.

Southeast Missouri will host No. 15 Stony Brook (7-4) in the first round at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN3. The winner of that game will advance to play No. 2 national seed Weber State (9-2) on Saturday, December 1. Weber State shared the Big Sky Championship with Eastern Washington and UC Davis this season.

SEMOmakes its second playoff appearance in school history and first since 2010. That year, the Redhawks won the OVC Championship and earned the OVC’s automatic bid and would go on to play eventual National Champion Eastern Washington.

The Redhawksentered this year’s 24-team bracket as an at-large selection joining automatic qualifier Jacksonville State out of the Ohio Valley Conference. JSU also plays a first round game Saturday.

This year marks the sixth of an expanded 24-team field playoff field. In 2010 the FCS Playoffs expanded from 16 teams to 20 teams, the first expansion since the field grew from 12 to 16 teams in 1997. The OVC has placed multiple teams in the playoffs (which began in 1978) in 22 of the 41 years; the OVC has now had multiple teams in the field in six of the last nine and eight of the last 13 years.

This year the top eight seeds received byes to the second round while the first round features 16 teams in eight total matchups. The first round of the playoffs will be played on Nov. 24, with the second round taking place on December 1. For the ninth-straight year the championship game will be played in Frisco, Texas at Toyota Stadium. The Southland Conference will serve as the host of the championship, which will be held on Saturday, January 5.

This season the Redhawks ended JSU’s OVC record 36-game conference winning streak earlier and won six of seven games entering the playoffs. SEMO is ranked 20th in the latest STATS Top 25 poll and ranks first nationally in turnover margin (+2.09/game), turnovers gained (31), passes intercepted (21) and fewest fumbles lost (1). The team also ranks ninth nationally in scoring offense (39.2 points/game).

For ticket information for the Nov. 24 FCS playoff game, visit here.