The University of Central Arkansas, 8-2, is the Southland Conference champion.

Eastern Illinois, 7-3, is the Ohio Valley Conference champion.

The two teams will play a non-conference game in Conway on Saturday night that will determine seeding and possibly a bye or home game for the Bears in the NCAA FCS playoffs, which begin next weekend.

If the Bears win, UCA officials believe that the school will have an excellent chance to get one of 12 first-round byes in the 20-team playoffs and have a good chance of hosting a second-round game.

"We're playing for some things that are intangible right now and you are concerned about complacency coming off winning a championship," UCA coach Clint Conque said at Monday's weekly Bearbacker luncheon."The best motivation may be that if we win, our players may get the chance to have three days off for Thanksgiving instead of playing on Thanksgiving weekend. Our players can buy into that."

The Bears clinched a share of the Southland Conference two weeks ago and earned the league's automatic berth over Sam Houston State because of a head-to-head victory.