The 2021 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game was a postseason

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

game played to determine a national champion in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic ...

for the 2020–21 season. It was played at Toyota Stadium in

Frisco, Texas Frisco is a city in Collin and Denton counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Its population was 200,509 at the 2 ...

, on May 16, 2021. It was the culminating game of the 2020–21 FCS Playoffs. The

Sam Houston State Bearkats The Sam Houston State Bearkats are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Sam Houston State University, located in Huntsville, Texas. Sam Houston's colors are orange and white and their sports teams' nickname is the Bearkats. Sam Hou ...

defeated the

South Dakota State Jackrabbits The South Dakota State Jackrabbits are the 19 intercollegiate teams representing South Dakota State University that compete in the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I (for football: Football Championship Subdivision). SDSU ...

, 23–21.

Background

The regular season and postseason schedules for the

(FCS) were both impacted by the

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. Multiple FCS conferences moved their scheduled games from the fall of 2020 to the spring of 2021, and in August 2020, the NCAA announced that the FCS postseason would also be delayed. While the NCAA at one point announced a cancellation of the FCS playoff, in late September a revised playoff schedule was announced, with the Championship Game to be played in mid-May 2021. The date of the Championship Game was later set for May 16. The 2021 Championship Game matched the final two teams from a 16-team playoff

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

, reduced from the normal 24-team bracket. The playoffs began with a first round on April 24, followed by quarterfinals on May 1, and then semi-finals on May 8.

Teams

The participants of the 2021 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game were the finalists of the 2020 FCS Playoffs—South Dakota State and Sam Houston State—which began with a 16-team

. Neither program had previously won a Division I Football Championship Game. Sam Houston State head coach

K. C. Keeler Kurt Charles Keeler (born July 26, 1959) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Sam Houston State University, a position he had held since 2014. Previously, Keeler was the head coach at his alma mater, th ...

was head coach of the champion 2003 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football team.

South Dakota State Jackrabbits

The Jackrabbits entered the game in Frisco with an 8–1 record. This was their first appearance in the championship game. SDSU was the top seed in the playoffs and defeated Holy Cross,

Southern Illinois Southern Illinois, also known as Little Egypt, is the southern third of Illinois, principally along and south of Interstate 64. Although part of a Midwestern United States, Midwestern state, this region is aligned in culture more with that of th ...

, and

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

at home.

Sam Houston State Bearkats

The Bearkats entered the game in Frisco with an 9–0 record. This was their third appearance in the championship game, having lost both of their prior appearances, in January 2012 and January 2013. SHSU was the second seed in the playoffs and defeated

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

, defending champion

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as t ...

, and

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

at home.

Game summary

Statistics

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com
Sam Houston vs. South Dakota State: 2020* FCS championship highlights
from NCAA via

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{{DEFAULTSORT:2021 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game

Championship Game In sport, a championship is a Competition#Sports, competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match sy ...

NCAA Division I Football Championship Games Sam Houston State Bearkats football games South Dakota State Jackrabbits football games American football in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex Sports in Frisco, Texas NCAA Division I Football Championship Game NCAA Division I Football Championship Game NCAA Division I Football Championship Game