The 1984 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was a postseason college football game between the

Montana State Bobcats The Montana State Bobcats are the varsity athletic teams representing Montana State University in Bozeman in intercollegiate athletics. The university sponsors thirteen teams including men and women's basketball, cross country, skiing, tennis, a ...

and the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. The game was played on December 15, 1984, at

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in Charleston, South Carolina. The culminating game of the

1984 NCAA Division I-AA football season The 1984 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began in August 1984, and concluded with the 1984 NCAA Division I-A ...

, it was won by Montana State, 19–6. The championship game was televised on the Satellite Program Network (SPN), as the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

paid SPN to broadcast some playoff contests following a

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ruling ('' NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma'') that halted the NCAA's practice of negotiating television contracts for its members.

Teams

The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the 1984 I-AA Playoffs, which began with a 12-team

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Montana State Bobcats

Montana State finished their regular season with a 9–2 record (6–1 in conference); two wins came over Division II opponents ( Mesa State and Portland State) and one win came over a

Division I-A The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...

program (

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

). Tied for second in the final NCAA I-AA in-house poll and seeded third in the tournament, the Bobcats received a first-round bye then defeated

Arkansas State Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

and second-seed

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

to reach the final. This was the first appearance for Montana State in a Division I-AA championship game.

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

Louisiana Tech finished their regular season with a 7–4 record (5–1 in conference); three of their losses were to Division I-A programs (

Southwestern Louisiana The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette, University of Louisiana, ULL, or UL) is a public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus University of Louisiana System and the ...

, Southern Miss, and Ole Miss). Ranked ninth in the final NCAA I-AA in-house poll and unseeded in the tournament, the Bulldogs defeated Mississippi Valley State, top-seed

Alcorn State Alcorn State University (Alcorn State, ASU or Alcorn) is a public historically black land-grant university adjacent to Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 and was the first black land grant college established in the United States. On ...

, and Middle Tennessee State to reach the final. This was also the first appearance for Louisiana Tech in a Division I-AA championship game.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Game statistics

References

External links

1984 I-AA National Championship
via

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{{1984–85 NCAA Division I championships navbox Championship Game NCAA Division I Football Championship Games Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football games Montana State Bobcats football games American football in South Carolina Sports in Charleston, South Carolina NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game