The Mercer Bears earned the program’s first-ever trip to the FCS football playoffs Sunday. The Bears (8-3) will face off with Gardner-Webb (7-4) in the first round at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Five-Star Stadium.
The winner of that game will advance to face No. 1 overall seed South Dakota State. The complete field can be found here.
Gardner-Webb is coached by former Mercer assistant coach Tre Lamb.
The Bears restarted their program in 2013 with a 10-2 season under Bobby Lamb, Tre Lamb’s uncle, in the Pioneer League. Mercer joined the Southern Conference in 2014.
Drew Cronic took over the program in 2020 and led the Bears to a 5-6 season. Mercer went 7-3 in 2021 and 7-4 in 2022.
Check out Coach Cronic’s thoughts on the FCS selection here.