WALESKA, Ga. – The long wait is over. Campbellsville University Fighting Tiger football is Mid-South Conference West Division Co-Champions after shutting down No. 22 Reinhardt University, 31-14, on the road Saturday.

The conference title is CU's third in program history and first since 1997. The win also clinches a spot in the NAIA Football Championship Series for the first time since 2001. Campbellsville is co-champions with No. 10 Faulkner University (4-1 MSC West), but holds the NAIA automatic bid tiebreaker with its win last week.

Campbellsville (7-3, 4-1 MSC West) awaits its playoff pairing, which will be announced Sunday, Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. EST on the NAIA Selection Show, which will air at NAIANetwork.com.

"We're excited to be going somewhere, and we're not just going, we're going to win," CU head coach Perry Thomas said. "I'm just so proud of these guys. They worked so hard to be champions, and now they are … They've been resilient this year. We started the year off with a tough, hard-fought loss to Lindsey Wilson, and at that point, I knew we could play. These guys have just battled and battled."

One week after shutting down a potent Faulkner University offense, Campbellsville's defense held the No. 3 offense in the NAIA to 224 yards and 14 points Saturday. Reinhardt entered the game averaging 513.6 yards and 45.6 points per game. The Eagles were also forced to more three-and-outs than normal, converting less than 30 percent of their third or fourth down situations – far below their season averages.

"We always talk about the defense gets off the bus. They're the ones who have always got to show up, and I thought our defense definitely showed up today," Thomas said.

Campbellsville got on the scoreboard late in the first quarter, when junior running back AJ Strong capped a three-minute, 68-yard drive with a 23-yard touchdown run.

Reinhardt took advantage of a short field with 10 minutes left in the first half to score on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Jonathan Chamblee to LJ Stegall and even the score, 7-7.

Strong and the Fighting Tigers answered with an 8-yard TD run to make it 14-0 after a turnover at the Reinhardt 8. Strong led CU's ground game with 72 yards and two touchdowns in the win. He now has five touchdowns in the last three games – three rushing, one receiving and a blocked punt recovery.

CU scored its only passing touchdown of the game with 1:17 left in the second quarter, as Jacob Russell hit Demytreus Gipson on a short 2-yard pass, set up by a long pass to Trevon Chatman. CU looked to head into the locker room up 21-7 after a strong goal-line stand on first and goal at the 1 as time expired in the second quarter. But the Eagles were granted a timeout, giving them two seconds to punch the ball in, and they did with Ian McIntosh pushing through the pile for the Eagles' last score.

Campbellsville's 21-14 halftime remained through the third quarter, and then CU did what it's done best in the last two weeks – control the clock.

Last week, Campbellsville ate 11 minutes of clock in the final 15 of the game. Saturday, the Fighting Tigers sustained a nearly eight-minute drive to set up a 31-yard field goal by Will Ward to provide insurance at 24-14. One minute later, Steven Delgado picked off a pass and returned it to the Reinhardt 5 to setup a 1-yard touchdown run by Russell to ice the game, 31-14.

Percy Minor added an interception on the Eagles' final drive, giving CU a single-game record-tying four interceptions. James Gardner had the other two picks.

Russell managed CU's offense with 170 yards by air on 20-of-37 passing and ran for 18 yards. He also had a 34-yard punt to pin the Eagles inside the 20.

Defensively, seniors Blake Young had 6.5 tackles and Steven Delgado had six.