SUWANEE, Ga. - One year after the now famous "Mississippi Miracle" play, both Millsaps College and Trinity University prepare for their much anticipated rematch Saturday in San Antonio. Though it would be hard to top last year's finish, do not be surprised if yet another chapter is written to this budding rivalry.
"Every game is big," said Millsaps third year head coach Mike DuBose. "But this is by far the biggest game we've played this year."
It might not be a stretch to say that when the Majors (ranked fifth in the D3football.com poll and seventh in the AFCA Coaches' poll) and Tigers (eighth in the AFCA poll, 14th in D3football.com) kickoff, the two teams will be playing in the biggest game in the history of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference/College Athletic Conference. As testament, D3football.com plans on sending national correspondent Keith McMillan to cover the game.
Millsaps enters the game sporting a record of 7-0 and 5-0 in the
SCAC. The Majors are riding a nine game winning streak dating back
to last year. The Tigers come in at 7-0 also, 4-0 in the SCAC.
Trinity also looks to extend its 36 game conference home winning
streak. As if that were not enough, no two conference teams have
ever played each other while ranked this high.
Last year's game featured two conference teams ranked in the Top 25
for the first time ever - this year's game features two top 10
teams.
"With two top ten teams playing, this is a very big game," said
Trinity head coach Steve Mohr. "This game will go a long way to
determining the conference champion, but neither teams' season ends
Saturday."
No two conference teams with 7-0 records have ever played each other in SCAC history and one has to go back to the CAC era of the conference (1962-1990) to find a match-up of 6-0 teams. In 1989, Centre College and Rhodes College were both 6-0, but the Colonels dropped a 27-21 decision to Otterbein the week before the two played for the conference title in each team's season finale.
There are still two more weeks left in the regular season after Saturday's game but with both teams ranked so high, the loser of this game may still find a way into the NCAA Division III Playoffs via a Pool C bid. The winner has the inside track into securing the SCAC's automatic qualifier into the playoffs. Millsaps is ranked second and Trinity ranked fourth in the first South Regional Rankings released by the NCAA this week.
Trinity and Millsaps have either won the SCAC outright or shared the conference championship in each of the last 15 years, with the Majors breaking the Tigers string of 13 consecutive league titles in 2006. The two shared the conference title in 1996 and 2007.
While most of those championships make their home at Trinity, Mohr knew something was changing at Millsaps when the Majors hired DuBose prior to the 2006 season.
"I have great respect for coach DuBose," Mohr said. "I always thought if Millsaps got things going it would help strengthen our conference. I think it adds exposure to the conference."
"Anytime you have an opportunity to play Trinity, you're playing the best in the conference," said DuBose. "Our goal is to try and get to where we can compete on a national level and they have been there for some time. We're a good football team, but they're not only a good football team they're a good football program."
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