Albany State Edges Out Tuskegee in SIAC Coaches Pre-Season Football Poll

Atlanta, GA - During the 1999 SIAC Football Roundup, this past weekend at the Marriott at Gwinnett Place Hotel, the coaches game their predicted order of finish for the final SIAC football campaign of this century. Topping the list was Albany State University who nudged out Tuskegee University.

Head Coach Hampton Smith and the Golden Rams of Albany State have won five SIAC gridiron titles in the 1990's. They won five straight titles from 1993-1997. The team that stopped another SIAC football title from floating into Albany, Georgia via the Flint River was Tuskegee University.

Head Coach Rick Comegy and his Golden Tigers of Tuskegee University put the nation's winningest black college football program back on the map last season. They captured their 18th SIAC Football Championship last season and it was the first outright crown won by TU since 1974. They tied for 1st place in 1987 and 1991. Albany State went 9-2 (5-1 in the SIAC) and barely missed out on making a SIAC record sixth straight apearance in the NCAA Division II Playoffs. Tuskegee went 10-2 (6-0 SIAC) and defeated CIAA foe Livingstone College in the 2nd Annual Pioneer Bowl at the end of the 1999 campaign.

Both Albany State and Tuskegee garnered three first place votes, but the Golden Rams mustered 74 total points compared to 71 for the Golden Tigers. Following ASU and TU in the pre-season poll was Fort Valley State University and Kentucky State University. The FVSU Wildcats, a team that represented the SIAC in the NCAA Division II Playoffs in 1998 and was a touchdown away from the national semi-finals, collected 64 points and one first place vote. The KSU Thorobreds, winners of the Inaugural Pioneer Bowl in 1997, received 59 points and one first place vote.

Rounding out the upper half of the 10-team pre-season poll is Savannah State University with 42 points.

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