KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Rocky Mountain College knew Saturday’s loss to Montana Tech would hurt its playoff seeding. Sunday, the Battlin’ Bears found out how much.
Rocky, which finished as the Frontier Conference champion at 8-3, will travel to No. 1 Morningside College in the opening round of the NAIA Football Championships on Saturday, Nov. 17. Kickoff time is still to be determined.
Morningside (11-0) boasts the No. 1 offense in the NAIA, averaging 56.4 points per game and more than 600 total yards, including almost 400 passing yards per contest.
“You dig into it, you just go, ‘OK, where do you got to stop them? Or where do you got to slow them down?’ Whether it’s the run game or the pass game, hopefully you match up well enough to do that,” said Rocky head coach Jaosn Petrino. “But when you’re the top 16 teams left in the nation in terms of the NAIA, each team is going to be good. They’re going to bring some challenges. Hopefully, as we look at them on film, we’ll have a little better idea here in the next 48 hours.”
Rocky would possibly have hosted a playoff game if it would have beaten Tech in the season finalé. Instead, Jed Fike ran for 227 yards as the Diggers finished their season at 5-5.
The Bears were the only Frontier Conference team to earn a playoff invitation.
