Truman travels to Central Missouri to renew old rivalry Thursday night

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In what will mark the final football game of the centennial season between founding members of the MIAA, Central Missouri will face Truman on national television Thursday night.

TRUMAN STATE AT CENTRAL MISSOURI Watch: Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. ET Stats: C. Missouri | Truman | National

Central Missouri and Truman will play under the lights and in front of the national TV audience as they are the CBS Sports Network’s Division II National Game of the Week. The Mules have won two consecutive games after dropping their season opener while the Bulldogs are 3-0 to open the season for the first time since 1994 and tied atop the league standings.

The Bulldogs enter the weekend with the third best scoring offense and scoring defense in the conference. Conrad Schottel is averaging 226 passing yards per game with eight total touchdowns while both Garrett White and Will Mosquera have four rushing touchdowns. On defense Richie Schumacher has 20 total tackles and Michael Elliot has three interceptions.

Central Missouri enters the weekend ranked third in the league in passing offense. Colter Smith is averaging 278 yards per game through the air and LaVance Taylor has four rushing touchdowns. Defensively Joe Carter has a team high 23 tackles. Taylor racked up 275 all-purpose yards in the 35-28 win at Lindenwood on Saturday night. That total is the fourth highest single-game total in school history.

The Mules have won five consecutive games against Truman and this will be 96th meeting between the two teams, and the final meeting as conference foes. The Bulldogs are leaving the MIAA after this season to join the GLVC. This is the fourth oldest series in Division II football dating back to 1905 — the last 66 games in the series have been consecutive. The last year these two teams did not meet on the gridiron was 1945 as World War II was ending.