UNI football: Panthers land at-large bid, will host Lamar in FCS playoffs opening round

The Panthers are in.

Buoyed by a strong strength of schedule and a few key wins, Northern Iowa has landed an at-large bid in the 24-team FCS playoff field. The Panthers (6-5, 5-3 Missouri Valley Conference) will host Lamar at 4 p.m. Saturday at the UNI-Dome.

A win would send UNI to UC Davis, which received the No. 6 overall seed. The entire field was announced Sunday.

"A lot of anxiety," Panthers coach Mark Farley said, "but at the same time, a lot of excitement because this is a great group of seniors." 

After falling at Youngstown State on Nov. 10, many believed UNI’s postseason fate was sealed, given its six-win ceiling. But the Panthers bounced back with Saturday’s 37-0 rout over Missouri State, presenting the committee with a tough decision. Most prognosticators had UNI as one of the final teams in.

The Panthers are just the third 6-5 team to land an at-large bid, joining Western Illinois in 2015 and Illinois State in 2016. It's no coincidence all three are from the traditionally rugged MVFC.

The conference wasn’t as strong in 2018 — UNI was one of three Valley teams selected, along with top seed North Dakota State and No. 5 South Dakota State — but the league’s reputation certainly didn’t hurt the Panthers’ case. UNI wasn't listed as one of the last three teams in. Fellow Valley member Indiana State was the first team out.  

"I just know that our league had two of the top five teams in it, and of course if you were the third team in the league, you should have a great probability of getting in," said Farley, whose Panthers finished tied for third in the Valley but had the tiebreaker over Indiana Sate. 

"You can't weigh it that way, but I think that's what that said to me when I saw that. The strength of the Missouri Valley and the strength of our schedule (were big)."  

There were other resume bright spots as well. UNI’s strength of schedule ranked third among FCS teams and was rated higher than 17 FBS schools, according to the Jeff Sagarin ratings. Only Missouri State and South Dakota were stronger.

Then, there are the wins. Although UNI played inconsistently down the stretch, the Panthers delivered a huge victory over South Dakota State (24-9 on Oct. 20) and knocked off fellow bubble team Illinois State (26-16 on Nov. 3). Couple those with the Sept. 27 rout at Indiana State, and the Panthers had just enough juice.

The playoff bid is UNI’s 20th in school history and 10th under Farley.

"These guys have been there," he said. "They know how this will operate." 

Dargan Southard covers Iowa and UNI athletics, recruiting and preps for the Des Moines Register, HawkCentral.com and the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.