WACO, Texas – After receiving votes in seven iterations of the AFCA poll in 2019, Carson-Newman football is at long last back in the top 25.
The Eagles are ranked for the first time since the 2018 preseason poll, breaking a 22-week absence from the national rankings. Carson-Newman checks in in the final poll for the regular season of 2019 in 25th.
Carson-Newman has won four consecutive games, the fourth longest active winning streak in Super Region II.
The Eagles carry that surge into the NCAA playoffs this week for the 26th time in program history. Carson-Newman is 39-20-1 all-time in postseason play.
The Eagles will be playing their first ever game in the state of Maryland and their first ever game against 11th-ranked and third-seeded Bowie State.
The 22-week absence from the national rankings is Carson-Newman's second-longest such drought from the AFCA poll.
The previous high-water mark came with a span of 19 polls missed from 2011 to 2012. The Eagles were ranked in the first three weeks of the 2011 season before falling out until late in the 2012 season when they regained a foothold in the top 25 in the third from the last poll of that year. Carson-Newman missed 26 national rankings before earning the preseason spot last year.
By comparison, Carson-Newman missed a grand total of 11 polls from 1995-2008. The Eagles were ranked the entirety of the 1995-2000 seasons, missing the final eight weeks of the 2001 rankings to snap a streak of 81 consecutive weeks in the top 25. Then, from 2002-2006, the Eagles spent a series of 65 straight weeks ranked before falling out the final three weeks of the rankings in 2006.
The Eagles are 3-2 all-time when occupying the 25th spot in the national rankings. C-N is 102-37 when ranked since the year 2000.
Carson-Newman matches wits with Bowie State in the opening round of the NCAA playoffs Saturday at 1 p.m. Coverage starts at noon on the Eagle Sports Network with the AEC Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
