2010 NJCAA Football Bowl Matchups Announced
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 16, 2010
Contact: Mark Krug, NJCAA Director of Media Relations &
Assistant Executive Director
p: 719-590-9788
f: 719-590-7324
e: mkrug@njcaa.org
w: www.njcaa.org
2010 NJCAA Football Bowl Matchups Announced
#1 Butler vs. #2 Navarro will play for 2010 NJCAA Football Championship at Citizen's Bank Bowl
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Nov. 16, 2010) - The selection of teams for participation in this year's NJCAA football bowl games have been announced by the representatives of each contest. The nine sanctioned NJCAA postseason events will take place Nov. 20th through Dec. 5th.
The Citizen's Bank Bowl will again be the talk of the bowl season. For the second consecutive year the game will host the NJCAA Football Championship as No. 1 Butler Community College (Kan.) will take on No. 2 Navarro College (Texas) on Dec. 5th. The game will be played at Carnie Smith Stadium in Pittsburg, Kan., which is one the premier football stadiums in the nation and home to Pittsburg State University of the NCAA Division II ranks. Last season, Blinn College (Kan.) defeated Fort Scott Community College (Kan.) in the first-ever Citizen's Bank Bowl, which also was sanctioned as the NJCAA Football Championship.
Butler (11-0) will be playing for its third national championship in four seasons, having captured titles in 2007 and 2008. Navarro (10-1) will be playing for its first national title since their 1989 championship season. The two squads are quite familiar with each other as they opened the 2010 season back in August in a contest played at Wichita's Cessna Stadium. The Grizzlies got past the Bulldogs 16-10 and never looked back, winning 11 straight games and claiming both the Kansas Jayhawk CC Conference and Region 6 Championship crowns. The Grizzlies have been ranked No. 1 in the NJCAA poll for the past seven weeks.
After the loss, Navarro won 10 consecutive games and locked up their fourth-straight Southwest JC Football Conference regular season title and also won their first conference playoff championship since 2007. The Bulldogs have been ranked in the top 10 in the NJCAA poll all season and have held the No. 2 post for the past three weeks.
The 2010 NJCAA Football Championship at the Citizen's Bank Bowl will be broadcast live online via NJCAA TV (www.njcaa.org/tv) and PSB LIVE (www.psblive.com) through the NJCAA's official broadcasting partner Panhandle Sports Broadcasting. Fans can also listen to the game live at www.991espn.com.
For ticket information and more visit www.citizensbankbowl.com.
The NJCAA bowl season will kick off Nov. 20th with the North Star Bowl where No. 12 Rochester CTC, Minn. (10-1) will face No. 18 Iowa Central Community College (6-3). The Yellow Jackets of Rochester were the champions of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference, while Iowa Central finished third in the Midwest Football Conference - West Division. The game will take place at UCR Regional Sports Stadium in Rochester, Minn. Fans can watch the game live at http://www.roch.edu/media/live/channelthree.html. For more information on the North Star Bowl visit http://www.rochsports.org/2010northstarbowl.php.
The Graphic Edge Bowl will have two games taking place Nov. 21st at the UNI Dome in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. College of DuPage, Ill. (6-5) will play Coffeyville Community College, Kan. (6-4) in the first game. DuPage was runner-up in the Midwest Football Conference - East Division this season while Coffeyville tied for third place in the Kansas Jayhawk CC Conference. The feature game will have MFC - West Division Champion and No. 8 Ellsworth Community College, Iowa (8-2) versus No. 14 Lackawanna College, Pa. (8-2) who took second place in Northeast Football Conference this season. Fans can watch the game live online at www.ihigh.com/iccac. For more on the Graphic Edge Bowl visit http://www.iccac.org/f/2010_Graphic_Edge_Bowl.php.
Four NJCAA bowl games will take place on Saturday, Dec. 4th. In Sandy, Utah No. 6 Iowa Western Community College (9-1) will take on No. 13 Snow College, Utah (9-2) in the seventh edition of the ZIONS Bank Top of the Mountains Bowl. For the third straight season the game will be held at Rio Tinto Stadium, which is home to the Real Salt Lake Soccer Club of Major League Soccer (MLS). The Reivers of Iowa Western had an unbelievable showing in just their second season of NJCAA football. IWCC captured the Midwest Football Conference - West Division regular season championship and was ranked in the top five of the NJCAA poll for eight weeks. The Snow Badgers will be playing in their eighth consecutive bowl game and their seventh in the Top of the Mountains Bowl. Snow claimed a share of the Western States Football League crown with a 7-1 mark in the league, marking the fifth straight season the Badgers have won or shared the league title. For more information on the event visit www.topofthemountainsbowl.com.
In the second edition of the Central Bank Salt City Bowl No. 10 Hutchinson Community College, Kan. (9-2) will host No. 17 Eastern Arizona College (8-3) at Gowans Stadium in Hutchinson. The Blue Dragons were runner-up in both the Kansas Jayhawk CC Conference regular season and the Region 6 playoffs. Both of their losses came against top-ranked Butler. Hutchinson will be making its fourth bowl appearance since 2003. The Gila Monsters finished third in the Western States Football League behind No. 4 Arizona Western and No. 13 Snow. EAC has won eight or more games the past four seasons and will be appearing in their first bowl game since representing the United States in 2007 at the Chihuahua Bowl in Chihuahua, Mexico. For additional information on the Salt City Bowl visit www.saltcitybowl.com.
Copperas Cove, Texas will host No. 4 Arizona Western College (10-1) and defending national champion No. 16 Blinn College, Texas (7-3) in the 10th edition of the C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl. AWC won the Western States Football League for the second straight year and has been ranked in the top 10 nearly the entire season. The Matadors have one of the best offensive players in the NJCAA in running back Reggie Bullock. He leads all rushers with 1,707 yards and 19 touchdowns. Blinn looks to end 2010 on a high note after coming up short in defense of their 2009 national championship. The Bucs finished second in the regular season standings of the Southwest JC Football Conference.
The oldest continuous NJCAA football bowl game, The Valley of the Sun Bowl, will feature the Gauchos of Glendale Community College, Ariz. (6-4) for the second consecutive year. The No. 19 Gauchos will take on No. 15 Central Lakes College, Minn. (10-1) at Matt O. Hanhila Stadium in Glendale in the 30th edition of the event. The Raiders of Central Lakes won the Minnesota College Athletic Conference South Division title but then fell to rival Rochester (Minn.) in the league's championship game. Glendale got off to a 5-0 start and was ranked as high as No. 6 during the season. They clinched a berth in the Valley of the Sun Bowl with a fourth place finish in the Western States Football League, which was the highest finish among conference members from Maricopa County (Phoenix).
Along with the Citizen's Bank Bowl, the Mississippi Bowl will take place Sunday, Dec. 5th at Indian Stadium in Biloxi, Miss. The third annual event will feature No. 3 Grand Rapids Community College, Mich. (10-1) and No. 7 Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (9-2). Over the past two seasons the Raiders of GRCC have twice won Midwest Football Conference - East Division championship and finished at No. 3 in the final NJCAA regular season rankings. Mississippi Gulf Coast clinched their third Mississippi Assn. of Community & Jr. Colleges Championship in the last four seasons last week with a decisive 31-17 win over Copiah-Lincoln (Miss.). The Bulldogs will be making their fifth straight bowl appearance and their second in the Mississippi Bowl (2008). Visit www.mississippibowl.com for more information. Fans can watch game online at www.psblive.com.
Additional information on each of the bowl games will be posted on the NJCAA website (www.njcaa.org) when it becomes available.
Additional information on the bowl games, including links to official bowl websites, can be found on the NJCAA Football Bowl Games webpage.
ABOUT the NJCAA
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is the governing body of two-year college athletics, offering endless athletic and academic opportunities to college students. It is the second largest national intercollegiate athletic organization in the United States with over 500 member schools in 43 states. Each year over 50,000 student-athletes compete in one of 28 different sports and the organization sponsors 48 national championship events and nine football bowl games each year. For more visit www.njcaa.org.