ALBANY, Ga. – For the second time in four weeks, the Benedict College Tigers and Albany State Golden Rams will meet. But this time, it is for all the marbles.
 
The Tigers and Golden Rams will face off in the 2025 SIAC Football Championship on Saturday at the ASU Coliseum. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. The game will be available on ESPN+ (subscription required). Live stats will be available here. Tickets are available here.
 
Reaching the championship game is a tremendous achievement for head coach Ron Dickerson Jr., in his second season with the Tigers. When he arrived on campus in February 2024, the Tigers were coming off back-to-back SIAC and HBCU national championships, but Dickerson didn't have enough players that spring to conduct normal practices. Dickerson and his staff worked hard at recruiting and rebuilding the program, and after a respectable 4-6 record in his first season, the Tigers opened this season with back-to-back shutouts and kept rolling through the first seven games.
 
That set up a heavyweight bout with Albany State on Oct. 25, and the Golden Rams took advantage of several Benedict mistakes for a 31-3 victory. Dickerson said the Tigers will have to play their very best on Saturday to knock off the Golden Rams, something they did not do in the previous meeting.
 
"As we say, our best is good enough to beat anybody. There's a good chance we'll lose if we play average," Dickerson said. "We played very average the last time we played them and I say that because they're a really good team and that's no disrespect to them. We just didn't capitalize on offense, defense or special teams. We acted like it was the first game and we didn't play Benedict football."
 
Benedict had a season-low 59 yards rushing and 217 yards of total offense in that game, while giving up a season-high 493 yards to the Golden Rams. The Tigers have spent a great deal of time rewatching and analyzing that game and aim to correct their failings.
 
"We were watching just some of the good and the bad of what went on in the first game," Dickerson said. "And if we just capitalize on that, then we'll have an opportunity to be very successful."
 
Although Benedict has advanced to the SIAC championship for the third time in the past four years, this marks a tremendous achievement for Dickerson's squad, who have bought into Dickerson's mantra of VISION.
 
"I had to start from scratch, "Dickerson said. "Congratulations to the previous team, but this staff has done a great job of putting this together. But these young men bought into, my vision, my standard and they've done really well."
 
And Saturday will not likely end the season for the Tigers. The NCAA Division II football championship selection show will be 6 p.m. on Sunday on NCAA.com, and Benedict is expected to make the playoff field.