The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the 1998 I-AA Playoffs, which began with a 16-team bracket.[4]
UMass Minutemen
UMass finished their regular season with an 8–3 record (6–2 in conference); two of their losses had been to rival Connecticut,[5] with one considered a non-conference game. Seeded 11th in the playoffs, the Minutemen defeated sixth-seed McNeese State, 14-seed Lehigh, and second-seed Northwestern State to reach the final. This was the second appearance for UMass in a Division I-AA championship game, having lost to Florida A&M in the 1978 inaugural title game.
Georgia Southern Eagles
Georgia Southern finished their regular season with an 11–0 record (8–0 in conference).[6] The Eagles, seeded first, defeated 16-seed Colgate, eighth-seed Connecticut, and fourth-seed Western Illinois to reach the final. This was the sixth appearance for Georgia Southern in a Division I-AA championship game, having four prior wins (1985, 1986, 1989, 1990) and one prior loss (1988).
^"1998 NCAA Division I-AA Championship Game" (PDF). December 19, 1998. Retrieved February 20, 2019 – via amazonaws.com.
^ abc"NCAA I-AA Championship". GATAdb. December 19, 1998. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
^"UMass Wins I-AA Championship". CBS News. December 19, 1998. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
^"Division I-AA playoffs". Missoulian. Missoula, Montana. November 23, 1998. p. D5. Retrieved February 8, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
^"UMass Minutemen 1998 Schedule". cfbinfo.com. Archived from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
^"Georgia Southern Eagles 1998 Schedule". cfbinfo.com. Archived from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
^"NCAA box score". umasshoops.com. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
Further reading
"NCAA Division I-AA Poll". St. Louis Post Dispatch. The Sports Network. AP. November 24, 1998. p. C4. Retrieved February 20, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
External links
2018 UMass Hall of Fame: The 1998 Football Team via YouTube