New Region

[bisonguy]

Wow, talk about being all-inclusive! Thanks for the info, RD17.

Let me see if I have this correct:

Let's say next year the final Northwest Region poll looks like this:

1)St. Cloud State

2)Grand Valley State

3)North Dakota

4)Saginaw Valley State

5)Nebraska Omaha

6)Central Wahington

7)Western Washington

8)Minnesota Duluth

9)Winona St

10)Augustana

Then the playoff field would be SCSU, GVSU, UND, SVSU, UNO, and Winona-

because Winona is in the top 10, the NSIC would get an autobid, and would therefore bump out the #6 seed

If I have this right, that's seriously messed up. They should just give three autobids to each region, one for each qualifying conference. The remaining three spots would be at-large picks from the regional poll.

[RD17]

bisonguy,

You're scenario is exactly how it will work. I looked at the final regional polls from this year and the only one where the top 6 would have been different is the south. Here's the final south region poll:

1. North Alabama (11-0)

2. Valdosta State (10-1)

3. Carson-Newman (10-1)

4. Southern Arkansas (9-2)

5. Catawba (9-2)

6. Albany State (Georgia) (9-2)

7. Tusculum (9-2)

8. Fayetteville State (8-3)

9. Delta State (9-2)

10. Winston-Salem State (7-3)

The top 4 would remain unchanged, but Catawba would have been bumped out of the playoffs. Albany State is the highest ranked team from the SIAC and Fayetteville State is the highest ranked CIAA team. If something like this happens next year, people are going to be angry.

[UNA]

bisonguy,

You're scenario is exactly how it will work. I looked at the final regional polls from this year and the only one where the top 6 would have been different is the south. Here's the final south region poll:

1. North Alabama (11-0)

2. Valdosta State (10-1)

3. Carson-Newman (10-1)

4. Southern Arkansas (9-2)

5. Catawba (9-2)

6. Albany State (Georgia) (9-2)

7. Tusculum (9-2)

8. Fayetteville State (8-3)

9. Delta State (9-2)

10. Winston-Salem State (7-3)

The top 4 would remain unchanged, but Catawba would have been bumped out of the playoffs. Albany State is the highest ranked team from the SIAC and Fayetteville State is the highest ranked CIAA team. If something like this happens next year, people are going to be angry.

Correct me if I am wrong but does it not state that the conference champion gets the automatic bid not the highest regionally ranked team from that conference? That could cause some interesting scenarios as well.

[CoteauRinkRat]

The new regions will be something that will take a few years to get used to. I'm not sure about some of the autobid's bumping higher seeded teams out of the playoffs though.

[UNA]

"By Division II policy, we don't have automatic qualifiers except for sports that have 48 or more teams in a tournament," said Murray. "As a result, we came up with a new concept called earned access.

"The concept is this. When the final regular-season poll is taken in each of four regions (Northeast, South, Midwest and West), if your conference has a representative in the top 10, your conference will automatically earn access to the NCAA tournament."

First off, of the 24 teams to be chosen for the field, six will come from each of the four regions. Since there are 14 conferences in Division II football, that leaves 10 more slots to be filled.

[Bisonfan1234]

Someday D2 will get it right and take the top 16 teams in the nation as ranked by an unbiased computer forumla.

[Bisonfan1234]

I don't understand why you think Bently shouldn't be in the play-offs?!

Yes, i would rather see NDSU in there vs. Bently, but i'll stick to the region format since that's the way it is now.

Just because Bently has no scholorships doesn't mean they suck. In fact all it means is they have "official" scholorships. I'm sure every player on the team is being compensated in one way or another.

[RD17]

Someday D2 will get it right and take the top 16 teams in the nation as ranked by an unbiased computer forumla.

I've stated before that a computer formula would be a better way of picking the teams for the D2 playoffs, but after looking at it more closely I'm not so sure. The problem in D2 is that so many conferences play 9 or even 10 conference games so there just aren't enough non-conference matchups to get an idea of the relative strength among the teams.

I-AA probably has a better overall selection process, but they award automatic bids to teams from traditionally weak conferences and send 10-1 teams on the road in the opening round while 8-3 teams get to play at home.