Monday, November 21, 2011

Bethune-Cookman's playoff selection snub 'unbelievable'

Coach Brian Jenkins
Daytona Beach, Florida -- Bethune-Cookman football coach Brian Jenkins watched the FCS playoff selection show Sunday morning, and his worst fear was realized.

The Wildcats were passed over for the 20-team field. "I just think it's unbelievable, really," Jenkins said. "You've got to wonder what the selection committee is evaluating things on and what they're looking at." The Wildcats (8-3 overall, 6-2 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) defeated Florida A&M 26-16 in Orlando on Saturday to finish the season with six straight victories.

The unfairness of it is really unbelievable, and it's starting to stand out more and more every year," Jenkins said.

ESPNU's Jay Walker, an analyst on the selection show, agreed. The former quarterback at Howard, a MEAC team, said during the broadcast that B-CU deserved one of the 10 at-large spots over James Madison or Eastern Kentucky, two 7-4 teams that will meet each other in the first round of the playoffs next Saturday.

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Bethune-Cookman snubbed in NCAA Division I-AA playoffs

The Bethune-Cookman football team was left out of the Football Championship Series (NCAA Division I-AA) playoffs Sunday when pairings were announced.

BCU head coach Brian Jenkins was quite confident Saturday that his team would be selected to the playoffs as an at-large participant, but he also knew there was the possibilty BCU might be left out. After the Wildcats defeated Florida A&M 26-16 in the Florida Classic in Orlando, Jenkins provided his own foresight on the selection process.

“I’m hopeful that people take notice and do the right thing and put us in the playoffs,” Jenkins. “Not only should we get one (an invite), we belong. You know, I’m gonna say this, If we get overlooked and they take another team with a lesser record … that would be catastrophic, to me, in this division of college football. Something is wrong.”

Jenkins, obviously in no mood to have much conversation about the snub, said Sunday, through the BCU sports information department, "It's really unbelievable."

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