My conference rankings for Division II… well, let’s just say they’re not nearly as instructive as the rankings I did for FCS.  That’s because the Division II poll only has 26 voters, which creates the exact opposite situation that the FCS poll creates as far as using total votes as a metric.

So, for Division II, I will resort to utilizing Ken Massey’s ratings:

  1. Gulf South (.622)
  2. Mid-America (.526)
  3. Great Lakes IAC (.442)
  4. South Atlantic (.233)
  5. Northern Sun (.213)
  6. Great Northwest (.202)
  7. Lone Star (.183)
  8. Pennsylvania (-.028)
  9. West Virginia (-.137)
  10. Rocky Mountain (-.137)
  11. Southern (-.374)
  12. Northeast 10 (-.390)
  13. Central (-.584)
  14. Great Lakes FC (-.631)

(I’ll post my rankings as a comment to this post.)

The first tier should come as no surprise.  Those three leagues have contributed the vast majority of the teams that end up playing in Florence for the Division II title the last several years.  Yet only four teams from those three conferences are in the top 10 in the current poll.  That’s because some weaker conferences have teams which are head-and-shoulders above the other teams in their conference, and it’s sort of a down year for the MIAA and GLIAC.

There’s a clear second tier here as well, although the last conference in that tier, the Lone Star, is suffering a horrible, horrible year.  Normally, they’d be more closely aligned with the top tier.

Anyway, after you take a gander at the AFCA Division II Top 25 (if you’re so inclined), on to the conference recaps.

Gulf South: #3 North Alabama (6-0, 3-0) trails #12 Delta State (5-1,4-0) by half a game, but can probably still be considered to be the front-runner.  UNA hosts #19 Valdosta State Thursday night in a Very Big Game.  On Saturday, Delta hosts Harding, winless Southern Arkansas visits Arkansas Tech, West Georgia travels to Arkansas-Monticello, Henderson State is at West Alabama, and Ouachita Baptist has the week off.

Mid-America: Again, the “best” team isn’t in front, as #6 NW Missouri State (4-1, 4-0) trails #11 Central Missouri (6-1, 5-0) by half a game.  However, the two teams might be evenly matched.  Central’s only loss was to an FCS team, while NWMSU lost to Texas A&M-Kingsville.   #17 Missouri Western pays a visit to Central this weekend, while Northwest hosts 5-2 Emporia State.  The remaining schedule includes Fort Hays State at Nebraska-Omaha, Missouri Southern at Truman, and Washburn visiting the surprisingly average Pittsburg State Gorillas.

Great Lakes IAC: Oh, look, Grand Valley State is ranked #1.  What a surprising development.  They’ll probably stay there, as they host winless Lake Erie on Saturday.  They’re tied at 5-0 in conference with unranked Ferris State (5-1 on the season).  Ferris visits Northern Michigan.  Three teams are tied a game off the pace; #8 Hillsdale (5-1, 4-1) hosts Michigan Tech (4-1, 4-1) while Wayne State (5-1,4-1) hosts Ashland.  Other games include Indianapolis at Saginaw Valley State, Tiffin at Northwood, and 1-5 Findlay at winless Ohio Dominican.

South Atlantic: If you just went by the polls, the Sally would be the one of the worst conferences in D-II.  Not only is nobody ranked, nobody’s even close.  That the polls and the Massey Ratings are so wildly divergent is sort of an indictment of someone.  I’m not sure who to scowl at, though, as looking at things subjectively it really is a bad season for the SAC, with no team truly impressing.  At the same time, though, every single team in this league is still at or above .500 on the season, which explains the ratings.  Three teams are tied at 2-0 in conference.  One of them will fall by the wayside Saturday as Mars Hill hosts Newberry.  The third might as well; Catawba faces a home game against always-tough Carson-Newman.  Other games feature Lenoir-Rhyne at Brevard, with the loser taking sole possession of last place, and Tusculum (winless in conference, undefeated elsewhere) at Wingate.

Northern Sun: Three teams are locked at 5-0 in conference.  #2 Minnesota-Duluth, at 6-0, hosts 1-5 Mary, so they’re not going anywhere.  #14 Augustana, also 6-0 on the year, (SD) is at Winona State, and 5-1 but unranked St. Cloud State hosts SW Minnesota.  (St. Cloud’s loss was to Augustana, but it was actually a non-conference game in the season opener.  Neither team will face a single opponent outside the NSIC this year.)  Wayne State (NE), a game back at (5-1, 4-1), hosts Concordia-St. Paul.  In other games, Bemidji State visits Minnesota State-Moorhead, Upper Iowa travels to Mankato to face the other Minnesota State, and winless Northern State is at Minnesota-Crookston.

Great Northwest:  I’m not sure why Massey has the GNAC ranked this high, and I’ll just leave it at that.  In my Total Vote calculations, they’d rank next-to-last.  Humboldt State (5-1, 3-0) leads the pack and they are the class of the conference.  They’re at home against Dixie State, whose only win on the season came against Simon Fraser.  The Clan, in turn, has only won one game this season, that against crosstown rivals British Columbia last week in the Shrum Bowl; they have the week off to celebrate.  Central Washington visits Western Oregon to round out the schedule.

Lone Star:  It’s a tale of two divisions.  In the east, Northeastern State (OK) leads the pack at 2-0; they’re 3-3 overall, and that tells the whole story.  Out west, on the other hand, #5 Abilene Christian is 6-0, and three other teams are 5-1.  Abilene has a light road game against Incarnate Word, while Northeastern visits 1-5 SW Oklahoma State.  #7 West Texas A&M visits #9 Texas A&M-Kingsville in the game of the week, while #15 Midwestern State hosts Angelo State.  The remainder of the schedule: SE Oklahoma State at Central Oklahoma (usually a very good team, horrible this year), Eastern New Mexico at East Central, and in a cross-divisional game, Tarleton State visits Texas A&M-Commerce.

Pennsylvania:  In the east, there’s a three-way tie at 3-0 between unbeaten (but only ranked #23) Kutztown, 5-1 Bloomsburg, and 4-2 CW Post.  Out west, unbeaten #4 California (PA) is all alone at 3-0.  They’re a game up on Slippery Rock (5-1,2-1), and they’ll be hosting them on Saturday.  Kutztown hosts Millersville in a game they should win, and which won’t help their poll position any.  Bloomsburg has a similarly easy road game against Shippensburg, and CW Post hosts East Stroudsburg in, again, a very winnable contest.  Other games: Cheyney at West Chester, Clarion at Indiana (PA), Mercyhurst at Edinboro, and Gannon at winless Lock Haven.

West Virginia:  Two unbeatens with soft schedules make for… well, the WAC, right?  Well, get ready, because this is probably the Division II game of the week.  #18 Shepherd (6-0, 4-0) hosts #21 West Virginia Wesleyan (6-0, 3-0) this weekend.  Winner is a decent bet to win the conference, obviously.  Seton Hill visits Charleston, Glenville State travels to Concord, and West Liberty State is at West Virginia State.  Fairmont State has a non-conference match at North Carolina-Pembroke.

Rocky Mountain:  Colorado State-Pueblo was unbeaten and ranked last week.  They lost to Colorado Mines, who entered the poll at #24 as a result and now shares a 5-1, 4-0 record with #13 Nebraska-Kearney atop the conference.  Mines will host Mesa State Saturday while Kearney travels to Pueblo hoping to keep pace.  Adams State is at Western New Mexico, Chadron State visits New Mexico Highlands, and winless Western State travels to Fort Lewis.

Southern: One unbeaten, two ranked teams at 5-1, and an awful Massey Rating for the conference.  Blame the bottom third.  #10 Albany State (6-0, 5-0) sits atop the chart.  They’ve got what should be an easy game at Benedict.  There’s a three-way tie behind Albany.  #16 Tuskegee, whose only loss is to Albany, travels to unranked but 5-1 Fort Valley State, whose only loss is to the third member of the triumvirate: #22 Morehouse, whose only loss was to… Tuskegee.  Morehouse goes on the road to beat up on winless Stillman.  The bottom part of the league features Miles visiting winless Lane and Clark Atlanta traveling to Kentucky State.

Northeast Ten: Good basketball league.  Football?  Honestly, they’re usually a lot better than this too.  However, their position here is, to put it bluntly, well-earned.  Only one NE-10 team even received a single vote in the poll this week, and that was in 25th.  The recipient of said largesse, New Haven (5-1,3-1), visits American International (3-3, 3-1) on Friday for the conference lead.  Also at 3-3/3-1 is Southern Connecticut State, who lost to New Haven last week.  They’ll take on Bentley at home, hoping for a New Haven loss which would put them in first place on the tiebreaker (they have a win over AIC already).  Also on the docket: Assumption at Merrimack, Stonehill at winless Pace, and St. Anselm taking a week off.

Central:  Well, they do have one ranked team, at least.  That team is in third place in their own division, though.  In the North, Elizabeth City State holds the cards at 3-0.  They visit Virginia State, which trails them by a game, on Thursday night.  Between the two at 3-1 sits Bowie State, who will host 1-5 Lincoln (PA) on Saturday.  Bowie, by the way, was 0-3 out of conference, so there’s all sorts of potential chaos afoot here.  The remaining game in the North sees Chowan visit St. Paul’s.  In the South, St. Augustine’s is in front at 4-0.  They’ll stay there for the moment, as they’ll be traveling to Ohio for a road non-conference game against Central State.  At their heels, at 3-0, is Shaw, who’ll be hosting Fayetteville State.  And finally, we stumble across the ranked team, #25 Winston-Salem State at 4-1, who host winless Livingstone.  Johnson C. Smith visits Virginia Union in a cross-division tilt for the weekend’s remaining contest.

Great Lakes FC: The GLFC is… was… is, I guess, a league which basically has been a catchbin for teams in the midwest with no conference affiliation.  It’s now down to four teams, as most of its members have said “screw this” and moved to the NAIA.  Not a single team in this league received even one vote in this week’s poll.  (As a side note, it’s actually sort of sad; St. Joseph’s (IN) used to be a legitimate mid-major school, and Kentucky Wesleyan’s won more NCAA basketball titles than anyone not named UCLA.)  Anyway, this week:  Urbana, who is in first place by half a game thanks to beating Kentucky Wesleyan last week, visits St. Joe’s, while Wesleyan visits Missouri S&T (which you may remember as Missouri-Rolla; they changed their name a few years ago).

Independents:  None ranked, although North Carolina-Pembroke has received votes.  They host Fairmont State Saturday.  Central State hosts Saint Augustine’s in another game I’ve already mentioned, Lincoln (MO) is at FCS Prairie View A&M, North Greenville takes a trip to D-III LaGrange, Panhandle State hosts D-III Texas College, and Southwest Baptist is idle.

A note to the uninitiated:  As you’re looking things over, pondering the question of who might be playoff-bound, a caveat.  The Division II playoffs are a 24-team tournament consisting of the top six teams from each of four regions, and there are no automatic bids for conference champions.

Sort of.

Within each of the four regions, teams are ranked by regional selection committees.  In theory, the top six teams go to the playoffs.  However, if a team is ranked 7-10, and they are the highest-ranked team from their conference, they are guaranteed a berth in the playoff, bumping someone from the top six (usually #6, but if #6 are themselves the highest-ranked team from their conference, #5 gets punted, and so on).  This does not necessarily have to be the actual conference champion, just the highest-ranked team.

And yes, this has created controversy in the past.  I am certain this shocks and amazes you.