Kansas Wesleyan will play Dickinson State on Saturday in Dickinson, North Dakota in the first round of the NAIA Football Championship Series.
The No. 19-seeded Coyotes will leave Thursday for the game against the 9-1 Blue Hawks who are the 14th seed and were ranked 14th in the final NAIA coaches' poll that was released Sunday. Gameday looks to be chilly with a forecast high of 31.
None of that matters to KWU co-interim head coach Chris Snyder, though.
"It doesn't matter where you go," he said Sunday night following the announcement. "To be (Kansas) Conference champs and to be able to go to the playoffs is great. We don't have the luxury of picking wherever.
"We just want to make it about the players these next few days and making it a trip they're going to remember for the rest of their lives. The bus ride up there, wherever we stay ... it's all experiences. I'm just happy for the kids."
The Coyotes (7-4) qualified for the postseason by winning the KCAC's Gene Bissell Division with a 5-0 record. They started the season 2-4 but have won their last five including a 23-3 victory over Sterling on Saturday in Sterling.
KWU's last trip to the playoffs was in 2021.
Snyder knows his team faces a stiff challenge. The Blue Hawks have won seven in a row since losing to Wisconsin-Stout on September 14. They defeated Dakota State 38-7 Saturday in Dickinson.
"We're not even sharing film until Sunday night," he said. "We'll be traveling for two days up there so it's a different dynamic. We've preached the last few weeks about adversity, and we'll preach it again about travel and weather but to really just enjoy it.
"The only good thing is by this time of the year is you've seen every kind of offense and defense so nothing's too crazy."
This will be the second postseason meeting between KWU and Dickinson State. The Coyotes rallied for a 43-40 victory over the Blue Hawks in the 2018 quarterfinals played at Graves Family Sports Complex.
Dickinson State led 34-28 after three quarters but the Coyotes won in dramatic fashion on Demarco Prewitt's five-yard touchdown run and his two-point conversion pass to Charlie Simmons with 46 seconds left.
Snyder says the Coyotes have gained confidence in recent weeks.