The Fordham University football Rams learned they will travel to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for the first round of the 2007 NCAA Division I Football Championship. The game will be played on Saturday, Nov. 24, at 12 p.m. at the University of Massachusetts’ McGuirk Stadium and will televised live on ESPNU, as well as broadcast live on WFUV-FM (90.7 FM) and on the Web at wfuv.org.

“This is a great day for Fordham University and Fordham football,” said head coach Tom Masella. “This is what we worked hard all year for and to see a bunch of guys set goals and attain those goals gives us a great deal of pride and excitement.”

Fordham, the 2007 Patriot League champion, finished the regular season with an 8-3 overall record, 5-1 in the league. Massachusetts, the Colonial Athletic Association champion, closed out the regular season with a 9-2 overall record, 7-1 in the CAA, winning the CAA title by virtue of a tie-breaking coin flip with the University of Richmond.

The NCAA berth completes a tremendous turnaround for the Fordham football program, which finished the 2006 season with a 3-8 overall record, and was picked to finish sixth of seven teams in the Patriot League this fall. This is the second NCAA Division I Championship appearance for the Rams, who also won the Patriot League title in 2002. That year, Fordham upended Northeastern University (coached by current UMass head coach Don Brown), 29-24, in the first round before falling to Villanova University, 24-10, in the quarterfinals.

The 2007 Rams are a perfect 5-0 on the road this fall, including Patriot League wins at Colgate and Lafayette, which entered the season as the three-time defending league champion, as well as a season-opening win at Rhode Island, the team that handed Massachusetts its only CAA loss.