I spent the weekend researching how NCAA Division II handles their football playoff. I learned a lot. First, a bit of background. If you already know this stuff, apologies.
The NCAA has a championship committee for each division. Each sport has a committee for the purpose of recommending to the championship committee who should compete for the championship. In Division II, there are 7 required criteria, all objective, that the sports committees look at. Additionally, each sport can choose up to 3 additional criteria from a criteria pool. All but one of the additional criteria are objective, that is, based on data, although one is an index and another is an âindicatorâ and neither is used by football. The one subjective criterion is only used by Womenâs Rowing so I am not concerned about it here.
For playoff purposes, the sports committees totally disregard the opinion poll, AFCA, I think itâs called. Instead, all 160+ D-2 schools are divided geographically into 4 regions. Each region has a sports committee for each sport who rank each team in the region according to the criteria for the sport - 7 required and up to 3 more from the pool.
The first such ranking for any sport comes out late in the season after enough contests have been completed to provide good data. At the end of the season, the top teams or individuals are selected for the championship. For D-2 football, 7 teams from each region make the playoffs. The number 1 seed gets a first round bye.
And off they go. In a few weeks they have a champion that no sane person can argue with. Thatâs 27 total playoff games that could very easily be worked into the existing bowl structure, maybe alternate the semiâs and championship game among the big bowls so no one gets their wallets hurt. I know there are 41 bowls, so the 14 left out will have to find a way to survive or just die.
Here are the criteria used for picking the championship teams for D2 football. All of the pool criteria are listed so you know what they ARENâT using. Nowhere in the criteria does winning your conference come in to play. I like that.
Division II Football Playoff Selection Criteria
The 7 required criteria are 1-7 below, the 3 additional criteria, 8-10.
- Availability of Student Athletes
- Application of Nullification (use of ineligible athlete)
- Overall Division II In-Region Winning Percentage
- Overall Division II Winning Percentage
- Overall Division II Strength of Schedule (Opponentsâ Average Winning Percentage and Opponentsâ Opponentsâ Average Winning Percentage)
- Division II Head to Head Competition
- Results Versus Division II Common Opponents
- Division II Record on the Road
- Division II Results Versus Teams with .500 Record or Better
- In-Region Division II Non-Conference Won-Lost Record
Here is the pool of all available âAdditional Sports Specific Selection Criteriaâ.
- Division II Record on the Road
- Division II Results Versus Teams with .500 Record or Better
- Division II Results Versus Teams with a Winning Record
- In-Region Division II Non-Conference Won-Lost Record
- In-Region Strength of Schedule (Opponentsâ Average Winning Percentage and Opponentsâ Opponentsâ Average Winning Percentage)
- Late Season Performance
- Performance Indicator (PI)
- In-Region Rating Percentage Index (RPI)
- Results Versus Division II In-Region Common Opponents
- Results Versus Ranked Division II Opponents (this is a ranking compiled by the regional sports committees using the criteria for that sport. It shows, if the playoffs started today, who would be in. It is first published well into the season)
- Other Comments (Only Sport using this criterion is Womenâs Rowing)
NCAA.org lists Fairness as one of their 3 priorities. Here is what they say:
Maybe the UH lawyers out there can comment on the merits of filling suit against the NCAA for not providing equal opportunity for ALL D-1 FBS student athletes to earn a championship.