Missouri Valley has three FCS quarterfinalists

Published Dec. 6, 2015 2:13 a.m. ET

foxsports

(STATS) - As the only conference with more than one team in the FCS national quarterfinals, the Missouri Valley and its three representatives will have an added spotlight next weekend.

There are two quarterfinals both Friday night and Saturday.

Valley co-champ Illinois State (10-2), the No. 2 seed, will play in the first quarterfinal Friday when it hosts No. 7 seed Richmond (9-3) at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN3).

Also Friday, top-seeded Jacksonville State (11-1), ranked first in the STATS FCS Top 25 over the final 11 weeks of the regular season, will host No. 8 seed Charleston Southern (10-2) at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN2).

The only quarterfinal that is not a first-ever meeting pits Missouri Valley rivals Northern Iowa (9-4) and North Dakota State (10-2) against each other in a rematch inside the Fargodome at noon ET Saturday (ESPN).

Third-seeded NDSU, the four-time defending FCS champion and the other MVC co-champion, beat UNI 31-28 on a last-minute touchdown Oct. 10.

Also, a pair of unseeded teams will meet Saturday when Colgate (9-4) visits Sam Houston State (10-3) at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN3).