R-E-S-P-E-C-T:

Raiders get home playoff game: Colgate hosts Massachusetts Saturday (CRAIG MUDER, Nov 24, 2003, Observer-Dispatch)

The Raiders learned Sunday that they will host Massachusetts Saturday in first-round playoff game at Andy Kerr Stadium. Colgate got into the playoffs via the Patriot League's automatic berth - and was awarded the No. 4 seed in the 16-team field.

Saturday's game, which starts at 12:30 p.m., will mark the first playoff game in Hamilton since the Raiders hosted Boston University in 1982 -- and just Colgate's sixth playoff berth ever. [...]

The Minutemen (10-2, 8-1 in the Atlantic 10) are ranked No. 7 in the country. UMass's only two losses this year came against Delaware, another member of the I-AA playoff field, and Division I-A Kansas State. [...]

If Colgate wins, the Raiders would host the winner of Saturday's Montana/Western Illinois game Dec. 6.

The Raiders will enter Saturday's game with the longest active winning streak in Division I: 18 games. Tailback Jamaal Branch, a leading candidate for the Walter Payton Award -- I-AA football's version of the Heisman Trophy -- rushed for a school-record 280 yards and three touchdowns against the Crusaders, leaving him with a school-record 2,026 yards and 25 touchdowns on the season.

"I'm biased, but for what Jamaal has done for us, he's deserving of consideration for the Payton Award," Biddle said. "Regardless of what league he's playing in, he's won games for us.

The BU game in 1982 was played in the kind of ice and freezing cold that makes football nearly tolerable.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 24, 2003 11:10 AM