While Georgia Southern came up just short of earning a berth in the Sun Belt championship game, that didn’t make Saturday night’s 29-20 win at Paulson Stadium over archrival Appalachian State any less sweet.

The victory gave the Eagles their first eight-win season since 2021 and prevented App from becoming bowl eligible for the 2024 season. Georgia Southern (8-4, 6-2 Sun Belt) will find out next Sunday where they will play their bowl game.

Marshall came back from down 17-0 to defeat James Madison, 35-33, in two overtimes to win the Sun Belt East Division. They will face Louisiana in the Sun Belt championship next Saturday night.

On Saturday, Jalen White capped his final home game for the Eagles with 125 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 18 carries to lead Georgia Southern over the Mountaineers, who finish the season at 5-7.

On the opening drive of the game, J.C. French threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Josh Dallas with 8:47 left in the first quarter. Holder Matthew Daniel, also Georgia Southern’s punter, took a snap in a swinging-gate formation and ran for the 2-point conversion to make it 8-0 and the Eagles never trailed.

Joey Aguilar threw a 9-yard TD pass to Eli Wilson with almost 9 minutes left in the second quarter but Appalachian State failed to get the 2-point conversion and the Mountaineers trailed 8-6.

White scored on a run from the 4 to cap an 11-play, 84-yard drive with 2:51 left in the second quarter and gave the Eagles a 15-6 lead at halftime.

Aguilar hit Makai Jackson in the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown that made it a two-point game late in the third quarter but Georgia Southern responded when White ran for a 3-yard TD early in the fourth quarter.

Appalachian State lined up for a short field-goal attempt but a high snap recovered at the GS 43 gave the Eagles possession. On third-and-3, Nate Johnson jumped on a fumble caused by his strip-sack of French, Aguilar hit Jackson for 40-yard gain to the 1 and Ahmani Marsh ran it in to make it 22-20 with 8:16 to play.