One loss does in Thomas More's playoff hopes.

And KHSAA lets in 0-10 teams...

Wow.

How is that even possible?

I don't know much about D3 football but is their schedule considered weak? 9 blowout victories and one blowout loss to Washington-Jefferson. WJ is traveling to play a #1 seed.

One loss does in Thomas More's playoff hopes.

Didn't same also happen to TMC a few years ago?

If two teams tie for first place, then it's decided on head to head competition.

 

TMC finished 7-1 in conference play, tied for first place in their conference with W&J, however in head to head competition W&J beat TMC in the middle of the season, qualifying W&J to move on to the D3 Tourney.

 

LINK: The Official Website Of The PAC - 2013 Football Standings

 

Congrats to the Saints and their Seniors, they had a solid team this season.

And KHSAA lets in 0-10 teams...

 

So which do you want:

 

9-1 teams left out or 0-10 teams getting in and one extra round of playoff games?

So which do you want:

 

9-1 teams left out or 0-10 teams getting in and one extra round of playoff games?

 

Neither...

And KHSAA lets in 0-10 teams...

 

So which do you want:

 

9-1 teams left out or 0-10 teams getting in and one extra round of playoff games?

 

 

 

Neither...

 

Once you start down the road to selectivity, there is always the risk of a deserving team getting left out. I prefer to err on the side of letting as many teams as possible compete in the tournament/playoffs

I have not researched the D-III playoff system and how teams qualify or get excluded, but maybe the system worked perfectly to only advance those teams that deserved to advance.

Playoffs

1. How are the Division III football playoffs set up?

 

2. What conferences get automatic bids?

 

3. How are the at-large bids determined?

 

4. How is a three-way tie broken for first place in a conference?

 

5. How are the playoffs structured?

 

6. Which regions will be paired up in the national semifinals?

 

7. What dates are playoff games?

 

8. What is a regional game?

 

9. How has each conference performed in the playoffs?

 

10. How many players can be on a playoff roster?

 

Answers

1. How are the Division III football playoffs set up?

 

For 2013: Automatic bids to go the champions of 24 conferences.

 

There are three bids set aside solely for Pool B teams, that is, teams who are independents or in conferences without automatic bids.

 

The leftover Pool B teams get dumped into Pool C, and those teams get considered for the remaining five bids.

 

What does this mean? Pool C will be very tight and only the best one-loss teams are likely to make it.

 

2. What conferences get automatic bids?

 

American Southwest Conference; Centennial Conference; College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin; Eastern Collegiate Football Conference; Empire 8; Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference; Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; Liberty League; Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association; Middle Atlantic Conference; Midwest Conference; Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; New England Football Conference; New Jersey Athletic Conference; North Coast Athletic Conference; Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference; Northwest Conference; Ohio Athletic Conference; Old Dominion Athletic Conference; Presidents' Athletic Conference; Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; Upper Midwest Athletic Conference; USA South Athletic Conference; and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

 

3. How are the at-large bids determined?

 

These are the selection (and seeding) criteria:

 

The following primary criteria (not in priority order) will be reviewed:

● Won-lost percentage against Division III opponents;.

 

● Division III head-to-head competition;

 

● Results versus common Division III opponents;

 

● Results versus ranked Division III teams as established by the rankings at the time of selection. Conference postseason contests are included (ed note: there are none of these in 2013);

 

● Division III strength of schedule

-- Opponents’ average winning percentage (OWP), weighted 2/3.

-- Opponents’ opponents’ average winning percentage (OOWP), weighted 1/3.

 

● Should a committee find that evaluation of a team’s won-lost percentage during the last 25 percent of the season is applicable (i.e., end-of-season performance), it may adopt such criteria with approval of the Championships Committee.

 

If the evaluation of the primary criteria does not result in a decision by the committee, the following secondary criteria (for ranking and selections) will be evaluated:

● Non-Division III win-loss percentage

● Results versus common non-Division III opponents

● Non-Division III Strength of Schedule

 

When all criteria are equal among teams with undefeated records in the primary criteria, the NCAA Division III Football Committee can use a team’s performance in the previous championship season as criterion.

 

Additionally, input is provided by regional advisory committees for consideration by the Division III football committee. In order to be considered for selection for Pools B or C, an institution must play at least 50 percent of its competition against Division III in-region opponents. Coaches’ polls and/or any other outside polls or rankings are not used as a selection criterion by the football committee for selection purposes.

 

4. How is a three-way tie broken for first place in a conference?

 

You'd have to ask the conference in question. Each conference sets its own tiebreakers.

 

5. How are the playoffs structured?

 

Since 2005: There are four brackets of eight teams apiece. The brackets are set by the NCAA committee, grouping eight teams together in a roughly geographic manner.

 

The NCAA reserves the right to seed the bracket in the interest of avoiding having to pay for extra airplane flights in the first round. If two schools are within 500 miles' driving distance, then the road team travels by bus. If the distance is longer than 500 miles then the NCAA must fly one team to play the other.

 

Generally speaking, the No. 1 seed plays the No. 8 seed, the No. 2 seed plays the No. 7 seed, No. 3 plays No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5. But the committee also reserves the right to juggle first-round pairings to satisfy their travel requirements as well as keep conference foes from facing each other in the first round.

 

In general, the higher seed hosts through to the national semifinals. If two equal seeds from different brackets meet in the national semifinals, the NCAA will determine who hosts. That is announced when the brackets are released.

 

In 2009, the NCAA announced that there were no seeds and never had been. However, this contradicted the facts from previous years, in which the NCAA liaison communicated seedings to D3football.com personally.

 

6. Which regions will be paired up in the national semifinals?

 

This is not predetermined. We'll find out on Selection Sunday when the bracket is unveiled.

 

7. What dates are playoff games?

 

The Division III football playoffs are held on five consecutive Saturdays in November and December, starting with the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Games kick off at noon local time.

 

Specifically, by year:

2013: Nov. 23, Nov. 30, Dec. 7, Dec. 14, Dec. 20

 

The Stagg Bowl is held in Salem, Va., and its kickoff time is set by television. Semifinal game times were set by television in 2011 and 2012 and are expected to be in 2013 as well.

 

8. What is a regional game?

 

A game can be classified as regional in any of three ways.

 

1) Both teams are full Division III members (or third- or fourth-year provisional members) and are in the same Division III member conference or same region as definied by the Division III football committee. That list of regions is linked on the Teams menu at the top of this page.

 

2) The teams are within 200 miles of each other via the NCAA's approved mapping software.

 

3) The teams are within the same NCAA administrative region. Those regions are defined below.

 

Region 1: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont.

 

Region 2: New York, Pennsylvania.

 

Region 3: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia.

 

Region 4: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

 

If the teams are in the same region by any one of these three definitions, it is a regional game.

 

Some examples: 1. Trinity (Texas) is scheduled to play the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in a regular season game in Ireland. Is this a regional game?

Answer: Yes. It doesn't matter where the game is played, only where the schools are from. Texas and Wisconsin are both in Region 4.

 

2. Merchant Marine plays Grove City. They are in different NCAA regions and are more than 200 miles apart.

Answer: This is a regional game. Merchant Marine is in New York, Grove City is in Pennsylvania. Both are in Region 2.

 

3. Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) plays Washington U. (Mo.). Answer: This is a regional game. Although they are in different regions by every definition, both are members of the same Division III member conference, the UAA.

 

4. Albion (Mich.) plays Grand Valley State (Mich.).

Answer: This is not a regional game. Grand Valley State is not a Division III member. No game against a non-Division III member can ever be a regional game.

 

5. Centenary (La.) plays Berry

Answer: This is not a regional game. Although both teams are in the same administrative region and same Division III football region, Centenary is a second-year provisional member of Division III, not a full member or third- or fourth-year provisional member.

 

6. Johns Hopkins (Md.) plays Bridgewater (Va.) Answer: This is a regional game. Although Maryland and Virginia are in different administrative regions, both schools are in the South for football.

 

9. How has each conference performed in the playoffs?

 

A look at each conference from playoff expansion in 1999 through the second round of the 2012 playoffs:

 

Conference W L Pct.

OAC 64 17 .790

WIAC 39 13 .750

MIAC 38 21 .644

NWC 26 15 .634

ACFC (defunct) 15 11 .577

ASC 27 20 .574

NJAC 25 19 .568

MAC 19 15 .559

E8 16 14 .533

NCAC 18 16 .529

CCIW 23 21 .523

Independents 10 10 .500

SCAC 11 14 .440

PAC 11 16 .407

ODAC 10 16 .385

FFC (defunct) 3 5 .375

LL/UCAA 10 17 .370

IIAC 11 20 .355

Centennial 8 15 .348

UAA 2 5 .286

HCAC 5 15 .250

USAC/Dixie 3 14 .176

MWC 3 15 .167

SCIAC 2 12 .143

MIAA 2 13 .133

NEFC 2 16 .111

UMAC 0 2 .000

ECFC 0 3 .000

NATHC 0 5 .000

IBC (defunct) 0 8 .000

10. How many players can be on a playoff roster?

 

Starting in 2012, the limit was increased from 52 to 58 players. That list is final 10 minutes before kickoff but can be changed until then. A team can field a different roster in each round, if it desires. Both the home and road team are limited to suiting up 58 players. The team's remaining players cannot be in the team box on the sidelines during the game.

 

D3football.com

There are 239 teams and 32 make the playoffs.

There are 239 teams and 32 make the playoffs.

 

And I think 26 are automatic qualifiers that win their conference, which Thomas More didn't do. There are only six at-large spots available so even with a 9-1 record there were other Division III teams with a more worthy claim to the playoffs.

Once you start down the road to selectivity, there is always the risk of a deserving team getting left out. I prefer to err on the side of letting as many teams as possible compete in the tournament/playoffs

 

I agree that there will always be one or two teams who feel they got cheated and left out, regardless of the post-season criteria. Some of those teams will have very valid arguments. Being win-less should NEVER result in post-season play. Ever.