Sunday afternoon, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team will find out its fate.
Is there a Football Championship Subdivision playoff berth approaching for the 7-4 Mocs? There should be.
They closed their regular-season schedule Saturday with a 66-10 loss at Football Bowl Subdivision power Alabama, but this has nothing to do with that result, obviously.
Let’s take a macro view of the season, although I understand some fans would like to take a micro view and can point to the failures: the final 20 points the Mocs gave up when falling 41-27 at North Alabama in the season opener; the 52 points given up in a two-point (yeah, two-point) loss to Western Carolina at Finley Stadium; and the offensive struggles down the stretch in a 17-14 loss to Furman in the home finale two weeks ago.
If the Mocs had beaten Furman, they would have earned the Southern Conference’s automatic bid into the 24-team playoffs (instead of the Paladins) and made this column pointless. The Mocs went 6-2 in league play, finishing in a tie for second with Mercer — a team the Mocs beat 22-10 — and a game ahead of Western Carolina, which dropped three of its final five games, including a shocking 27-24 loss to Virginia Military Institute on Saturday.