LUT WILLIAMS BCSP Editor
The best two teams in the SIAC and the best two in the CIAA are set to do battle Saturday in their respective 2024 conference championship football games.
Neither championship game however will represent the first time these teams have met this season. At 11 a.m. at Sloan-Alumni Field in Fairfield, Alabama, homestanding regular season champion Miles (8-2, 8-0 SIAC) will meet Clark Atlanta (7-2-1, 6-2) for the second time this season. The game will be carried live on ESPNU. The two teams met on Oct. 19 atClark Atlanta’s homecoming with Miles spoiling the festivities with a 49-28 win.
Later this Saturday, at 3 p.m. in Salem, Va., longtime rivals Virginia State and Virginia Union meet for the second time in a week and 115th time in their storied history in the CIAA title game. Just this past Saturday (Nov. 9), VSU won a season-ending home game over VUU 35-28 to earn a spot in the title game.
SIAC Championship Game
Miles is resurgent in its third year undereight-year NFL veteran and Alabama product Sam Shade. Shade took over leading the Golden Bears after former head coach Reginald Ruffi left after the 2021 season to become head coach at Tuskegee. Ruffin, now the athletics director at Tuskegee, had won four SIAC titles and seven West Division crowns in ten years (2011-2021 at the helm of the Miles program.
It took Shade a minute to get Miles going as his first team in 2022 went 1-9. Last season, his
Golden Bears turned things around and finished 7-3 overall, tied for second in the SIAC at 6-2.
This season after dropping its first two games on the road at West Alabama and Alabama State,
the Golden Bears have run off eight straight victories.
Redshirt junior QB Kamren Ivory has been steady as the Golden Bears’ field general. He has completed 54.3% of his passes for 1,392 yards, 13 TDs with just five interceptions. He did not start or play in the first meeting with CAU but has started and practically played all the way in every game since. Miles leads the league in scoring defense (16.5 points per game) anchored by linebackers Jeremiah Hudson-Davis and Jamichael Rogers. Freshman defensive back Lashon Young leads the SIAC with seven interceptions.
Miles will face a Clark Atlanta team in a resurgence of its own under new head coach Teddy Keaton. Keaton led new SIAC member Allen from 2018-2023 and led the YellowJackets to a 7-3 mark last season after it officially joined the league in 2022-23.Before Keaton’s arrival, CAU had posted a 28-91 mark over the last 12 seasons with two winless seasons.
Keaton brought with him from Allen prolific passer David Wright III and prolific pass catchers Armone Harris and Jamal Jones. Wright led the SIAC in passing this season with 2,915 yards and 32 touchdowns. Jones (67) and Harris (65) combined for 132 receptions, 18 TDs and almost 1,700 receiving yards. Of note, the pass-happy Panthers with Wright at the controls also led the league with 12 interceptions.
CIAA Championship Game
Like the SIAC did after the 2022 season, the CIAA abolished its North/South divisions this season resulting in the former North Division rivals facing off in this year’s title game.
They come in pretty evenly matched as the tight 35-28 VSU win from a week ago indicates. VUU QB Mark Wright (1,965 yards, 66.7%, 18 TDs, 5 ints.) and VSU’s Romelo Williams (2,173 yards, 61.3%, 20 TDs, 6 ints.) are the most efficient passers in the conference. Wright threw three picks in last week’s game.
The VUU ground attack, led by league rushing leader and all-American Jada Byers (1,497 yards, 23 TDs), leads the league with VSU third at 165.7 yards per contest. VUU is first in scoring (45.2 ppg.) with VSU second (32.1). They both surrender about 15 points per game.
VUU won its first title in 21 years and first under Dr. Alvin Parker last season. VSU will be looking for its first crown under third-year head coach Dr. Henry Frazier II and first since 2017.
Once again, the BCSP has broken down the championship game match ups by their 2024 schedules and history (above and below this story) and their team and individual statistics and rank in their conferences (see STAT CORNER).
What’s left now are the games to be played and the outcomes to be determined. Those outcomes will have some bearing on which teams will play on in the NCAA Div. II playoffs that begin on Nov. 23.
0-–o0Entering Saturday’s championship games, Miles, with an 8-1 Div. II record and 8-1 record in the region, is ranked sixth in Super Region II. Virginia Union, 7-2 in Div. II and 6-1 in the Region, is ninth. VSU and Clark Atlanta are not currently ranked in the Top Ten.
Both SIAC and CIAA teams are in Super Region II along with teams from the Gulf South Conference (GSC) and South Atlantic Conference (SAC).
Only the top seven teams from each of the nation’s four Super Regions will make the 28- team Div. II championship playoff field.
