SEGUIN, Texas - The Texas Lutheran Bulldogs will play in the NCAA Division III Football Championship playoffs for the first time in school history after receiving an at-large, post-season bid from the NCAA Sunday evening. NCAA DIII Playoff Bracket
The 20th-ranked Bulldogs (9-1, 3-0 SCAC) will play No. 2-ranked University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (10-0, 5-0 ASC) this Saturday (Nov. 22) in Belton, Texas. Kickoff is set for noon at UMHB's Crusader Stadium.
"It's been exciting; it's been a relief," said Danny Padron, TLU's fifth-year head football coach, commenting on his initial reactions to the news. "It's been (a feeling) of gratitude. I think I have said it before. We are just so thankful for so many things that have happened.
"And to get an opportunity to play in the NCAA playoffs, something that has not been done before with the TLU Football team, it is really exciting. I am excited for our kids, for our school and for our community."
TLU will make its first post-season football appearance since the 1976 NAIA-II national semifinal. The Bulldogs won back-to-back NAIA-II National Championships in 1974 and 1975.
The Bulldogs began play as a non-scholarship football program in 1998 (after a university hiatus from football of 10 seasons) and became a full member of the NCAA Division III in 2002.
The back-to-back champions of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, TLU needed one of eight at-large bids (out of two Pool B and six Pool C bids) to make the NCAA DIII playoffs.
The Bulldogs, individually, sat through a Sunday selection show in 2013 after going 8-1 and did not have their school's name called.
The 2014 selection show, aired on ncaa.com, turned out a bit better for the Bulldogs. TLU players individually watched the 5 p.m. show in their dorm rooms and apartments and then gathered at 6 p.m. at the Dr. Burton E. Grossman Fitness Center for a team meeting.
"I was in the shower actually; and when my roommate told me we got in, I think I jumped out of the shower half-naked from the excitement," said Dustin Hannon, a senior receiver and team captain."
Hannon said the Bulldogs were motivated all season to have a better Sunday selection experience.
"I think (not getting a bid in 2013) definitely motivated the class we have right here," said Hannon. "That disappointment was from something we felt we deserved last year. That didn't happen. It didn't work out, but it was a blessing in disguise because it gave us more motivation for this year, to be better, to work harder in the off-season, to do the things we needed to do to get where we needed to be."
The Bulldogs of 2014 posted key road wins over Hardin-Simmons and Louisiana College, endured a 4-0 road stretch in the early portion of the season, and rolled to a 3-0 conference record.
The SCAC does not have an automatic bid reserved for its conference champion since the conference only has four football-playing schools (TLU, Austin College, Southwestern and Trinity). Seven football schools are needed for the automatic bid.
So each game of the 2014 season essentially became a playoff game, with TLU knowing it had little room for error in order to secure an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
TLU will face a Mary Hardin-Baylor team that rolled over the Bulldogs this year, on Oct. 25 in TLU's Bulldog Stadium, by a score of 72-16. TLU is 1-15 all-time against the Cru. TLU and UMHB played together in the American Southwest Conference from 1998 to 2012.
The Bulldogs' lone win over UMHB came in 1999 in Seguin, Texas (at Seguin ISD's Matador Stadium).
Tickets for the playoff game at UMHB will go on sale to the general public Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Reserved tickets are $10 apiece, and general admission tickets are $8 for adults and $4 for students (ages 3-college age) and will be sold at Crusader Stadium Gate One in Belton or by phone at 
(254) 295-4455.
Online ticket sales will open at 1 p.m. Wednesday through the following link: http://www.umhb.edu/stadium/stadium-events.
