For the first time in Tuskegee University’s history, the Golden Tigers are changing a Thanksgiving tradition and are heading to the first round of the NCAA football playoffs.

“There’s a very, very, very simple reason,” said Patrice Benson, who works in the athletic director’s office.

The Division II school from Tuskegee, Ala., has never before participated in the tournament, not because it wasn’t eligible, but because of a time-honoring Thanksgiving tradition. For most of the last century, the Tigers have played their rival school, Alabama State, in the annual Turkey Day Classic. This year they decided it was time for a change and intentionally backed out of the agreement.

Mike Stewart, the sports information director at Tuskegee University, said the football program is highly successful. Going into this season, the program had 644 wins, which is the most in Division II, Stewart said. It also boasts 29 conference championships in its history, he added, but because of the annual Thanksgiving game against Alabama State, the team has always had to forfeit playoff eligibility.

“Traditionally, we would play them every year, and that would be something that all alumni would go to Montgomery (Ala.) for,” Stewart said, noting that it has always been a high-selling game. “But the thing is, financially, it wasn’t making a lot of sense for us because our revenue share of the money kept going down.”

According to the football team’s website, the most recent Super Regional standings ranked Tuskegee as seventh, thanks to this season’s 8-2 record. The team is the defending conference champions, but lost a key game in conference play by five points. The players worried that losing that game might make them ineligible for the playoffs.

Head coach Willie Slater said he is ready to make history as a Golden Tiger. Before he became the head coach at Tuskegee in 2006, he said he has visited the stadium 14 times — 13 of which he came home with a win. Because both teams have historically high winning records, Stewart said that the football program expects a high turnout at the game.

The playoff game will be played in Tom Braly Municipal Stadium in Florence, Ala., the same place where the Division II national championship game has been played since 1986. Kickoff is at noon on Sunday, with the Tigers vs. the Lions from North Alabama — who currently have the most conference appearances with 18.

Tuskegee’s men’s basketball team had a scheduled regular-season game vs. North Alabama on campus that same day, but it has been postponed to begin at 5 p.m. so that fans are able to actively watch both.

“There are some alumni and fans that are upset that we have broken tradition,” Stewart said, “but our conference is 100 years old, and when you’ve won 29 conference championships that’s the most out of anybody in the conference, playing Alabama State kind of got old.”

The Golden Tigers have already made school history by choosing to participate in their first-ever playoff game. Just how far they get in the tournament remains to be seen.

Said Stewart: “The only way to know is to play.”

Published on November 21, 2013 at 1:19 am

Contact Kristin: klross01@syr.edu | @kriskross22