AFCA Division II Top 25<\/a> (if you’re so inclined), on to the conference recaps.<\/p>\nGulf South<\/strong>: #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.\u00a0 UNA hosts #19 Valdosta State Thursday night in a Very Big Game.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nMid-America<\/strong>: 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.\u00a0 However, the two teams might be evenly matched.\u00a0 Central’s only loss was to an FCS team, while NWMSU lost to Texas A&M-Kingsville. \u00a0 #17 Missouri Western pays a visit to Central this weekend, while Northwest hosts 5-2 Emporia State.\u00a0 The remaining schedule includes Fort Hays State at Nebraska-Omaha, Missouri Southern at Truman, and Washburn visiting the surprisingly average Pittsburg State Gorillas.<\/p>\nGreat Lakes IAC<\/strong>: Oh, look, Grand Valley State is ranked #1.\u00a0 What a surprising development.\u00a0 They’ll probably stay there, as they host winless Lake Erie on Saturday.\u00a0 They’re tied at 5-0 in conference with unranked Ferris State (5-1 on the season).\u00a0 Ferris visits Northern Michigan.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Other games include Indianapolis at Saginaw Valley State, Tiffin at Northwood, and 1-5 Findlay at winless Ohio Dominican.<\/p>\nSouth Atlantic<\/strong>: If you just went by the polls, the Sally would be the one of the worst conferences in D-II.\u00a0 Not only is nobody ranked, nobody’s even close.\u00a0 That the polls and the Massey Ratings are so wildly divergent is sort of an indictment of someone.\u00a0 I’m not sure who to scowl at, though, as looking at things subjectively it really is<\/em> a bad season for the SAC, with no team truly impressing.\u00a0 At the same time, though, every single team in this league is still at or above .500 on the season, which explains the ratings.\u00a0 Three teams are tied at 2-0 in conference.\u00a0 One of them will fall by the wayside Saturday as Mars Hill hosts Newberry.\u00a0 The third might as well; Catawba faces a home game against always-tough Carson-Newman.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nNorthern Sun<\/strong>: Three teams are locked at 5-0 in conference.\u00a0 #2 Minnesota-Duluth, at 6-0, hosts 1-5 Mary, so they’re not going anywhere.\u00a0 #14 Augustana, also 6-0 on the year, (SD) is at Winona State, and 5-1 but unranked St. Cloud State hosts SW Minnesota.\u00a0 (St. Cloud’s loss was to Augustana, but it was actually a non-conference game in the season opener.\u00a0 Neither team will face a single opponent outside the NSIC this year.)\u00a0 Wayne State (NE), a game back at (5-1, 4-1), hosts Concordia-St. Paul.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nGreat Northwest<\/strong>:\u00a0 I’m not sure why Massey has the GNAC ranked this high, and I’ll just leave it at that.\u00a0 In my Total Vote calculations, they’d rank next-to-last.\u00a0 Humboldt State (5-1, 3-0) leads the pack and they are the class of the conference.\u00a0 They’re at home against Dixie State, whose only win on the season came against Simon Fraser.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Central Washington visits Western Oregon to round out the schedule.<\/p>\nLone Star<\/strong>:\u00a0 It’s a tale of two divisions.\u00a0 In the east, Northeastern State (OK) leads the pack at 2-0; they’re 3-3 overall, and that tells the whole story.\u00a0 Out west, on the other hand, #5 Abilene Christian is 6-0, and three other teams are 5-1.\u00a0 Abilene has a light road game against Incarnate Word, while Northeastern visits 1-5 SW Oklahoma State.\u00a0 #7 West Texas A&M visits #9 Texas A&M-Kingsville in the game of the week, while #15 Midwestern State hosts Angelo State.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nPennsylvania<\/strong>:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Out west, unbeaten #4 California (PA) is all alone at 3-0.\u00a0 They’re a game up on Slippery Rock (5-1,2-1), and they’ll be hosting them on Saturday.\u00a0 Kutztown hosts Millersville in a game they should win, and which won’t help their poll position any.\u00a0 Bloomsburg has a similarly easy road game against Shippensburg, and CW Post hosts East Stroudsburg in, again, a very winnable contest.\u00a0 Other games: Cheyney at West Chester, Clarion at Indiana (PA), Mercyhurst at Edinboro, and Gannon at winless Lock Haven.<\/p>\nWest Virginia<\/strong>:\u00a0 Two unbeatens with soft schedules make for… well, the WAC, right?\u00a0 Well, get ready, because this is probably the Division II game of the week.\u00a0 #18 Shepherd (6-0, 4-0) hosts #21 West Virginia Wesleyan (6-0, 3-0) this weekend.\u00a0 Winner is a decent bet to win the conference, obviously.\u00a0 Seton Hill visits Charleston, Glenville State travels to Concord, and West Liberty State is at West Virginia State.\u00a0 Fairmont State has a non-conference match at North Carolina-Pembroke.<\/p>\nRocky Mountain<\/strong>:\u00a0 Colorado State-Pueblo was unbeaten and ranked last week.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Mines will host Mesa State Saturday while Kearney travels to Pueblo hoping to keep pace.\u00a0 Adams State is at Western New Mexico, Chadron State visits New Mexico Highlands, and winless Western State travels to Fort Lewis.<\/p>\nSouthern:<\/strong> One unbeaten, two ranked teams at 5-1, and an awful Massey Rating for the conference.\u00a0 Blame the bottom third.\u00a0 #10 Albany State (6-0, 5-0) sits atop the chart.\u00a0 They’ve got what should be an easy game at Benedict.\u00a0 There’s a three-way tie behind Albany.\u00a0 #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.\u00a0 Morehouse goes on the road to beat up on winless Stillman.\u00a0 The bottom part of the league features Miles visiting winless Lane and Clark Atlanta traveling to Kentucky State.<\/p>\nNortheast Ten<\/strong>: Good basketball league.\u00a0 Football?\u00a0 Honestly, they’re usually a lot better than this too.\u00a0 However, their position here is, to put it bluntly, well-earned.\u00a0 Only one NE-10 team even received a single vote<\/em> in the poll this week, and that was in 25th.\u00a0 The recipient of said largesse, New Haven (5-1,3-1), visits American International (3-3, 3-1) on Friday for the conference lead.\u00a0 Also at 3-3\/3-1 is Southern Connecticut State, who lost to New Haven last week.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Also on the docket: Assumption at Merrimack, Stonehill at winless Pace, and St. Anselm taking a week off.<\/p>\nCentral<\/strong>:\u00a0 Well, they do have one ranked team, at least.\u00a0 That team is in third place in their own division, though.\u00a0 In the North, Elizabeth City State holds the cards at 3-0.\u00a0 They visit Virginia State, which trails them by a game, on Thursday night.\u00a0 Between the two at 3-1 sits Bowie State, who will host 1-5 Lincoln (PA) on Saturday.\u00a0 Bowie, by the way, was 0-3 out of conference, so there’s all sorts of potential chaos afoot here.\u00a0 The remaining game in the North sees Chowan visit St. Paul’s.\u00a0 In the South, St. Augustine’s is in front at 4-0.\u00a0 They’ll stay there for the moment, as they’ll be traveling to Ohio for a road non-conference game against Central State.\u00a0 At their heels, at 3-0, is Shaw, who’ll be hosting Fayetteville State.\u00a0 And finally, we stumble across the ranked team, #25 Winston-Salem State at 4-1, who host winless Livingstone.\u00a0 Johnson C. Smith visits Virginia Union in a cross-division tilt for the weekend’s remaining contest.<\/p>\nGreat Lakes FC:<\/strong> The GLFC is… was… is, I guess, a league which basically has been a catchbin for teams in the midwest with no conference affiliation.\u00a0 It’s now down to four teams, as most of its members have said “screw this” and moved to the NAIA.\u00a0 Not a single team in this league received even one vote in this week’s poll.\u00a0 (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.)\u00a0 Anyway, this week:\u00a0 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).<\/p>\nIndependents<\/strong>:\u00a0 None ranked, although North Carolina-Pembroke has received votes.\u00a0 They host Fairmont State Saturday.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nA note to the uninitiated<\/strong>:\u00a0 As you’re looking things over, pondering the question of who might be playoff-bound, a caveat.\u00a0 The Division II playoffs are a 24-team tournament consisting of the top six teams from each of four regions, and there are no<\/em> automatic bids for conference champions.<\/p>\nSort of.<\/p>\n
Within each of the four regions, teams are ranked by regional selection committees.\u00a0 In theory, the top six teams go to the playoffs.\u00a0 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<\/em> conference, #5 gets punted, and so on).\u00a0 This does not necessarily have to be the actual conference champion, just the highest-ranked team.<\/p>\nAnd yes, this has created controversy in the past.\u00a0 I am certain this shocks and amazes you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My conference rankings for Division II… well, let’s just say they’re not nearly as instructive as the rankings I did for FCS.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-division-ii","category-division-news-and-notes","tag-d2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p185sV-c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}