FCS program who earned home field advantage in first-round chooses to play on the road instead

Illinois State and Brock Spack enjoyed a 9-3 season and were one of 24 teams selected to take part in the FCS playoffs.

As the 12-seed, the Redbirds should be hosting Southeast Missouri State this weekend, but they will instead play on the road, and that's a calculated decision.

That will be puzzling for a lot of folks, who will wonder why Illinois State will be the only higher seed in perhaps any postseason playoff anywhere to opt to play on the road.

Hancock Stadium, the home base for Illinois State, will serve as the host for the Illinois High School football finals for eight games this weekend, 

For decades, Illinois State gave up the opportunity to host the games to avoid exactly this type of conflict, so that they would be able host first-round FCS playoff games instead. 

But Spack, who has been with the program fifteen years, hosting those playoff games on campus is an advertisement that you can't simply can't duplicate.

"I thought it was more important that we get the state high school football championships back on campus. They needed to hear it from me that we would go on the road if we had to that first week.

"This is where the state championships belong. They were here when I was in high school, and this is where everyone wanted to end up," Spack told local outlet WMBD. 

"You can't pay for this kind of advertisement for our community, for our university, and for our athletic and our football program."

The top eight seeds of the bracket enjoy a first-round bye, and Spack wasn't shy about reminding his guys of that.

"If you want a bye, you've got to play better. Just play better, and you'll get a bye." Spack shared.

The good new is that playing on the road has been a good thing for Spack's program this year. The Redbirds have won five straight games following their season-opening road loss to Iowa earlier this year.