Hey! No pointed remarks

Eastern Washington University football fans who will want to know what’s happening in Bozeman on Saturday will need to make arrangements to get updates on the Montana-Montana State game before heading to Woodward Field for the Eagles’ regular-season finale.

But for those who do find out, Eastern advises them to keep quiet.

“We don’t need the score announced until after the game,” said EWU coach Paul Wulff, who has asked Eastern athletic department officials not to broadcast the score over the public address system. “We need to worry about the task at hand.”

Eastern will make the I-AA playoffs if MSU beats visiting Montana. That would throw the Big Sky Conference into a three-way tie at the top, with the Eagles holding the tiebreaker for the automatic playoff berth by virtue of beating both the Bobcats and Grizzlies.

The game in Bozeman starts at 11 a.m. Eastern kicks off against UC Davis at 2 p.m.

“I’ve thought about it,” Wulff said of the MSU score. “Obviously there is interest in that, but that interest isn’t going to do us any good for our game. We want to win the game, period. We want to give ourselves a chance for an at-large berth. That’s how we have to look at it.”

Although Eastern can make a strong case for an at-large berth, I-AA experts don’t provide much hope because one of the guiding criteria is seven wins against Division I competition. If the Eagles beat UC Davis they’ll be 7-4, but one win was over Division II Western Oregon.

Eastern is in the top 16 of the power rankings. Eight conferences receive automatic berths, and eight at-large berths will be announced Sunday on ESPN News at 10 a.m.

“My reason for optimism is this is the best I-AA conference in America,” Wulff said. “If they look at that seriously and only take one team. … If they truly want the best 16 teams in the playoffs, they’re going to take us.”