Ronnie Huckeba and the Harding football team has twice before sat uneasy on the day after the end of the regular season.
The Bisons and their veteran coach had no such feeling Sunday.
Divisin II playoffs glance
WHAT Super Region Three
WHEN 1 p.m. Saturday
WHERE First Security Stadium, Searcy
RECORDS Harding 11-0; Central Missouri State 9-2
COACHES Ronnie Huckeba (67-39 in 10th season at Harding and overall); Jeff Svoboda (56-24 in seventh season at Central Missouri State, 107-44 in 14th season overall)
TICKETS $10 for adults, $5 for students
Because of their dominance displayed through a record-setting regular season, they had a good idea of how the NCAA Division II bracket would look when unveiled Sunday afternoon.
Harding watched the show as a team anyway, but had a good idea that it would get the No. 3 seed in Super Region Three, and play a first-round game at home vs. Central Missouri State.
All of those things came true when the bracket was unveiled, and the Bisons will host a playoff game for the first time at 1 p.m. Saturday.
In two previous playoffs appearances, in 2012 and 2014, Harding was assigned road games and lost.
"It was a completely different atmosphere," said Huckeba, comparing Sunday to 2012 and 2014. "It was very business-like. We expected to be there. Were weren't sitting there with anticipation.
"It was, 'OK, let's go play Central Missouri and let's go to work.'"
Harding (11-0), which finished off the school's first undefeated regular season with a 42-7 victory over Arkansas Tech on Saturday, will play in the playoffs for the third time since 2012.
Harding 35-0 in 2012 and 59-42 in 2014, but Huckeba said he he has a good feeling about this team. Nobody would blame him of that, either, considering the Bisons beat all but one opponent by 15 points or more and had an outright Great American Conference title wrapped up before Saturday's season-finale was even played.
Harding leads Divison II with 388.5 yards rushing per game.
But the Bisons defense has contributed.
Harding leads Division II in total defense (227.8 yards allowed), rushing defense (69.7) and scoring defense (11.2). They're 11th in Division II in scoring offense (41.6), making them one of four teams to be ranked in the top 11 in both.
"We believe in our football team. Big time," Huckeba said. "We believe that we have a talented football team capable of making a run."
One of the others is Northwest Missouri State, which earned the No. 1 seed in Super Region Three and received a bye to the second round. It will play either No. 4 Emporia (Kan.) State or No. 5 Minnesota-Duluth. If Harding wins Saturday, it will advance to play either No. 2 Sioux Falls (S.D.) or No. 7 Azusa Pacific.
Southern Arkansas entered Saturday ranked eighth in the Super Region Three rankings, and No. 7 Azusa Pacific lost its season finale. But SAU (9-2), wasn't selected. Instead, the Muleriders will play in the Live United Bowl, Dec. 3 in Texarkana. The Muleriders accepted the bid Sunday, but the opponent isn't yet known.
Harding will be the GAC's lone playoff representative.
Central Missouri (9-2) finished third in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association while winning its final six games of the season.
Sports on 11/14/2016