For the fourth consecutive year, three Southern Conference football teams have been invited to participate in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.
Georgia Southern, Appal-achian State and Furman will all be part of the 16-team field when play begins on Saturday at campus sites.
Georgia Southern earned the SoCon’s automatic bid by winning the league championship with a 9-2 overall record and a 7-1 league mark.
Their only loss was to Wofford on Sept. 21.
The Eagles are the No. 3 seed in the field and will open the postseason in a home matchup against Bethune-Cookman (11-1).
Appalachian State and Furman each earned at-large bids to the championship.
The Mountaineers and Paladins finished with identical 8-3 overall records and 6-2 league marks and tied for second in the Southern Conference along with Wofford.
Appalachian State earned a home game against Maine (10-2) in the first round.
Furman will travel to Villanova (9-3) for an opening round game.
Should Appalachian State and Georgia Southern each win their first round games, the two would meet on Dec. 7 in the quarterfinals in Statesboro, Ga.
The SoCon and the Atlantic-10 were the lone conferences to each receive three bids.
The Atlantic-10 will be represented by fourth-seeded North-eastern as well as Maine and Villanova.
Automatic bids also went to the champions of the Southland, Big Sky, Patriot, Gateway, Ohio Valley and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conferences.
Wofford, which finished 9-3 overall and 6-2 in the SoCon, did not make the field despite two wins over ranked opponents during the regular season.
The Southern Conference will be aiming for its sixth national championship. Furman won the title in 1988 and Marshall claimed national championships in 1992 and ’96.
Georgia Southern won the I-AA title in 1999 and 2000 and also claimed championships in 1985 and ’86, prior to its admission to the SoCon.
In the postseason, Southern Conference teams have represented the league very well. The SoCon has the best win-loss percentage of any I-AA conference with a 66-38 record, a .635 winning percentage.
In first round games, SoCon teams are 29-12, a winning percentage of over 71 percent.
The SoCon has placed a team in each of the last four national championships and in nine of the last 11.
The national championship game will be played on Friday, Dec. 20 at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, and will be hosted by UT-Chattanooga.
The game will be televised live on ESPN as will both of the semifinal games on Saturday, Dec. 14.

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