Illinois State Makes D1 History with Semifinals in FCS Football, MBB, WBB
Illinois State became the first Division I school to reach postseason semifinals in football, men's basketball, and women's basketball in the same academic year.
No Division I athletic department has done what Illinois State is completing this academic year: three sports, three postseason semifinals, in the same calendar of games.
The football team carried the achievement furthest. Entering the FCS playoffs unseeded, the Redbirds defeated four ranked opponents without a single home game, including No. 1 North Dakota State, before beating No. 9 Villanova 30-14 in the semifinal on Victor Dawson's 155 rushing yards and a pair of Tommy Rittenhouse touchdown passes to Daniel Sobkowicz. No FCS team had ever reached the championship game by winning exclusively on the road. Illinois State came within one play of doing more than that. In Nashville on January 5, the Redbirds erased a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit against Montana State, and Rittenhouse's 10-yard scoring pass to freshman Dylan Lord in overtime gave Illinois State a lead. Montana State's Hunter Parsons blocked the subsequent extra point. The Bobcats scored on their possession to win 35-34, the first overtime finish in FCS Championship Game history. Lord finished with 13 catches for 161 yards and two touchdowns. The Redbirds ended 12-5.
The women's basketball program gave the run a second act on April 1. Doneelah Washington posted 21 points and 11 rebounds to carry Illinois State past South Dakota 67-60 in the WNIT Fab Four at Vermillion, advancing the Redbirds to the WNIT Championship game.
The men's basketball team plays Auburn tonight in the NIT semifinals at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, one win from a title game of their own.
Together, the three programs represent something the NCAA record books have not seen before at the Division I level. The football program's unseeded run to a nationally televised championship game, where freshman Lord became an overnight prospect against a Montana State defense that ended a 41-year title drought, now anchors every recruiting conversation Illinois State coaches carry on the road. All-American receiver Sobkowicz's departure opens a void, but Lord's emergence under the brightest stage FCS football offers signals what Normal, Illinois can deliver to prospects who track a path toward the NFL. The Redbirds' football program went from projected first-round exit to the sport's final game in a single postseason; that is the pitch that no opponent-schedule matrix can argue against.
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