Daytona Beach, FL – It’s deja vu in Daytona Beach for Saturday night’s 60th Annual NAIA Football National Championship.
Like last year, Southern Oregon University and Marian University of Indiana are the 2 schools battling for the crown in 2015. The game starts at 6 o’clock from Larry Kelly Field at Municipal Stadium.
Southern Oregon beat Marian last year by a 55-31 score for its first-ever national football championship at the NAIA level.
City officials hope moving the game to a Saturday night will attract more of a crowd than in 2014. That game was played in front of roughly 4,000 people on a Friday afternoon last year, mainly due to the ESPNU national broadcast. This year’s game will be streamed on ESPN3.
It’s the second time that the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics – the other major governing body of college athletics besides the better-known NCAA – will play their title game in Daytona Beach. They’ll be returning in 2016 to complete its 3-year deal with the city.
As part of Daytona’s commitment to hosting NAIA Football’s biggest event, the city plunked down $675,000 in upgrades to Municipal Stadium, including a new lighting system and a Jumbotron video scoreboard for the 10,000-seat facility. Money has also been provided by the Halifax Area Advertising Authority.
Both teams arrived at Daytona Beach earlier this week and spent time at Daytona International Speedway, where players from both teams got to take part in special competitions and “hot laps” around the 2.5 mile tri-oval.
Southern Oregon’s head coach is Craig Howard, a long-time Florida high school coach who won a state championship in 2005 at Nease High School with future Florida Gator and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow.
His Raiders are appearing in their second-ever NAIA football title game and became the 4th straight to win that trophy in their first appearance last year.
The Marian Knights – based in Indianapolis – took home the 2012 crown in their only other appearance in an NAIA football title game besides last year.
Lower seeded teams have won the NAIA football crown in 8 of the past 9 title games.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.