Written by John Sacco
For observers and reporters
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
NCAA Division III football and baseball postseason slots will soon be expanded.
The NCAA Division III Administrative Council announced Thursday that it has approved expanding the number of teams participating in the football playoffs from 32 to 40 teams. The matter now moves to the President's Council.
According to D3football.com, “Once approved by the Management Council, the Chairman’s Council will not normally override it.”
At the same time, D3baseball posted on X (formerly Twitter): “The report also includes expanded baseball slots, which, assuming final approval, would result in 64 teams in 2025.”
The news received positive responses from Presidents Athletic Conference members Washington and Jefferson College and Waynesburg University.
The PAC football and baseball champions now receive automatic bids to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
“This is a positive for Division III and will give us more access to teams that deserve to be in the national playoffs,” said W&J Athletic Director Scott McGuinness. “The number of at-large bids has decreased in recent years due to the increase in automatic bidding. This may not solve all problems, but it will help us get the best teams competing for national championships. It's a step in the right direction.”
In 2023, there were 28 Pool A (automatic qualifiers) and four at-large bids to the Football Playoffs. By comparison, 10 years ago there were 24 Pool A qualifiers and eight open bids. In 2005, there were 21 Pool A qualifiers and 11 at-large bids.
The expansion would extend the football postseason by one week and potentially postpone the national championship game until after Christmas. Usually held on the second weekend of December.
“We think there are more opportunities for the team,” Waynesburg University athletic director Tim Fusina said. “This could be very beneficial to the football conference.
“This will provide opportunity and uniformity across Division III in all sports.”
Fushina said large picks could be determined by a computerized system. This could give some good teams that have been on the outside a chance to compete in the postseason. ”
A season ago, Grove City won the PAC football title, with one-loss Carnegie Mellon taking second place. The Tartans were a legitimate playoff team after winning their conference and postseason games in 2022, but with only four at-large bids, they likely weren't even considered.
CMU wasn't a big pick.
Tartans coach Ryan Larsen has previously said he is in favor of expanding the playoffs and believes it would benefit the PAC, especially given the conference's performance in the past two NCAA tournaments and the ECAC bowl game in recent years. said.
In baseball, expanding to 64 would result in four quadrants of regional teams of 16, providing an even double-elimination regional league.
Currently, some regional tournaments are double-elimination, while others are five-game series between two teams.
“Obviously there was a desire to expand the play-offs to include teams that missed out on the play-offs,” McGuinness said. “We feel we have enough quality to expand.”
