| Year Game Played: | 1998 |
| Game Name: | NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship |
| Subheader: | I-AA National Championship Game |
| Visitor Name Short: | Georgia Southern |
| Visitor Nickname: | Eagles |
| Home Nickname: | Minutemen |
| Visitor School: | Georgia Southern University |
| Home Name Short: | UMass |
| Football Season: | 1998 |
| Home School: | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| Visitor Record: | 14–0 |
| Home Record: | 11–3 |
| Visitor Conference: | SoCon |
| Home Conference: | Atlantic 10 |
| Visitor 1Q: | 7 |
| Home 1Q: | 21 |
| Visitor 2Q: | 14 |
| Visitor 3Q: | 12 |
| Visitor 4Q: | 10 |
| Home 2Q: | 17 |
| Home 3Q: | 0 |
| Home 4Q: | 17 |
| Visitor Coach: | Paul Johnson |
| Home Coach: | Mark Whipple |
| Visitor Rank Tsn: | 1 |
| Visitor Seed: | 1 |
| Home Rank Tsn: | 12 |
| Home Seed: | 11 |
| Date Game Played: | December 19 |
| Stadium: | Finley Stadium |
| City: | Chattanooga, Tennessee |
| Referee: | John W. Keys (Big Sky)[1] |
| Attendance: | 17,501 |
| Us Network: | ESPN |
| Different Previous: | 1997 |
| Different Next: | 1999 |
The 1998 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was a postseason college football game between the Georgia Southern Eagles and the UMass Minutemen. The game was played on December 19, 1998, at Finley Stadium, home field of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The culminating game of the 1998 NCAA Division I-AA football season, it was won by UMass, 55–43.[2]
The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the 1998 I-AA Playoffs, which began with a 16-team bracket.[3]
See main article: 1998 UMass Minutemen football team. UMass finished their regular season with an 8–3 record (6–2 in conference); two of their losses had been to rival Connecticut,[4] with one considered a non-conference game. Seeded 11th in the playoffs, the Minutemen defeated sixth-seed McNeese State, 14-seed Lehigh, and second-seed Northwestern State to reach the final. This was the second appearance for UMass in a Division I-AA championship game, having lost to Florida A&M in the 1978 inaugural title game.
See main article: 1998 Georgia Southern Eagles football team. Georgia Southern finished their regular season with an 11–0 record (8–0 in conference).[5] The Eagles, seeded first, defeated 16-seed Colgate, eighth-seed Connecticut, and fourth-seed Western Illinois to reach the final. This was the sixth appearance for Georgia Southern in a Division I-AA championship game, having four prior wins (1985, 1986, 1989, 1990) and one prior loss (1988).