Weber State football enters the playoffs for a fifth straight season by hosting Southern Illinois at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Wildcats will open the FCS playoffs at home for the fourth straight season, are 4-1 all-time in home playoff games, and have won a school record 11 consecutive home games.

Weber State’s fifth consecutive appearance is the fourth-longest streak in the nation.

If either the Salukis or the playoffs in general are foreign to you, here’s a rundown of things to know.

A TRUE PLAYOFF?

For decades, the subdivision now known as the FCS has staged a playoff to determine the national championship.

Had this been a normal season, the format since 2013 has been a field of 24 teams with 10 automatic bids given to conference champions and 14 at-large selections. Typically, the top eight teams are seeded and received first-round byes, and are guaranteed home games as long as they face an unseeded or lower-seeded team.

This season, which was postponed from fall 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA decided to condense the playoffs, which match a condensed regular season. While a handful of teams played nonconference games in the fall, playoff teams mostly played from three to eight regular-season spring games.

This year’s playoff format is 16 teams, with 10 automatic bids to conference champions and six at-large bids. The top four teams were seeded for home-field advantage purposes, but there are no first-round byes.

After seeding, home-field hosts are typically determined by a bid system where schools apply to host home games. In this year’s playoffs, the NCAA predetermined a group of schools from which the selection committee selected matchups and home sites. For first-round matchups especially, the committee tries to combine considerations of the bids/selected home site with minimizing travel when arranging the bracket.

Games are played at home sites through the semifinals. As has been the case since 2010, the national championship game will be held at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. This season’s title game is scheduled for May 16.

Below is a list of this year’s playoff participants. The bracket can be viewed online at ncaa.com/brackets/football/fcs/2021.

Top four seeds: No. 1 South Dakota State (5-1), No. 2 Sam Houston State (6-0), No. 3 James Madison (5-0), No. 4 Jacksonville State (9-2).

Automatic bids: Weber State (5-0, Big Sky), Monmouth (3-0, Big South), Delaware (5-0, Colonial), South Dakota State (Missouri Valley), Sacred Heart (3-1, Northeast), Jacksonville State (Ohio Valley), Holy Cross (3-0, Patriot), Davidson (4-2, Pioneer), VMI (6-1, Southern), Sam Houston State (Southland).

At-large selections: Eastern Washington (5-1, Big Sky), James Madison (Colonial), North Dakota (4-1, Missouri Valley), North Dakota State (6-2, Missouri Valley), Missouri State (5-4, Missouri Valley), Southern Illinois (5-3, Missouri Valley).

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS FOOTBALL

Here’s more about Southern Illinois University and the football team.

Location: Carbondale, Illinois — Incorporated in 1856, the city of about 26,000 sits about 50 miles north of where the southern tip of Illinois abuts the land where the states of Missouri and Kentucky touch.

University: Southern Illinois University was established in 1869 and has an enrollment just north of 11,000.

Nickname: Salukis — the area of southern Illinois is referred to as “Little Egypt” where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet to form the southern boundary of the state. According to Southeastern Illinois College, this may be from when early settlers traveled to that area “to buy grain after a series of bad winters and droughts. These wagon train folks recognized the similarities between themselves and the ancient Israelites who went to Egypt to buy grain grown in the rich Nile Delta.” The Saluki is a breed of speedy hunting dog that dates back to 3600 B.C. and “frequently appeared in ancient Egyptian artwork on tombs,” according to SIU.

All-time series: This is the first matchup between Weber State and Southern Illinois. As a random note, WSU hosted Southeast Missouri State for a first-time matchup to open the 2018 playoffs. SEMO is in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which is just 50 miles southwest of SIU — though, despite that, the two schools compete in different conferences.

Playoff history: Southern Illinois has appeared in the FCS playoffs eight times. The Salukis are making their first playoff appearance since 2009, a season that capped a run of seven straight playoff appearances from 2003-09. The one time outside those seven? A national championship in 1983, the program’s second competing at the I-AA (FCS) level.

Head coach: Nick Hill, who turned 36 two weeks ago, is in his fifth season as coach. Hill played one season of college basketball at Western Kentucky before transferring to play football at SIU, where he graduated in 2008. He started at quarterback and went 21-6 over two seasons, including a win at Indiana in 2006, which was the first-ever win by a Missouri Valley team over a Big Ten school.

2021 SALUKIS

Record: 5-3 (3-3 Missouri Valley)

The Salukis played once in the fall, defeating SEMO 20-17 in October 2020. Four months later, SIU started its spring season with a blowout 44-21 loss to North Dakota, then pummeled then-No. 1 North Dakota State 38-14 the next week. They outgained the Bison 443-268 in that win.

SIU went 4-1 at home, including nonconference wins over SEMO and Southeastern Louisiana, and conference wins over NDSU and Northern Iowa. SIU lost 44-3 to No. 1 South Dakota State at home.

On the road, SIU went 1-2 with a win over Youngstown State and losses to North Dakota and Missouri State.

The Salukis had their last two conference games canceled (at Illinois State, vs. Western Illinois) on April 3 and April 10, and picked up the home game against SELA on short notice for April 17. That 55-48 win may have been the difference in making the playoffs and not.

Team averages: SIU outgains opponents by an average of 423-379 but is outscored by an average of 29-26 in eight games.

Passing leader: Stone Labanowitz — 64 of 82 for 730 yards, five touchdowns and one interception in five appearances. Half of those yards (328) came in the finale start against SELA, a team that averaged giving up 521 total yards per contest.

Rushing leaders: Javon Williams Jr. (507 yards, 7 TD, 4.5 yards per carry) and Romeir Elliott (446 yards, 3 TD, 4.2 yards per carry).

Receiving leaders: Avante Cox (55 catches, 660 yards, 3 TD) and Landon Lenoir (35 catches, 428 yards, 3 TD).

Tackling leaders: Bryson Strong (58), Bryce Notree (50), Clayton Bush (39). For loss: Anthony Knighton (5 with 2 sacks), Jordan Berner (5 with 3 sacks), Blake Parzych (5 with 1 sack).