By Jim Workman
What will it take for a second West Virginia Conference football team to make the NCAA Division II playoffs?
It hasn’t happened yet.
That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t have already occurred.
Despite having a 9-2 record and being ranked No. 19 in the nation by the American Football Coaches Association, the University of Charleston was not invited to participate in the playoffs when the pairings were announced Sunday.
Twenty-four teams made it. How could the No. 19 ranked team not be in the mix?
“It’s frustrating,” said WVIAC associate commissioner Will Prewitt. “There are some things structurally that can be examined. I’m on the NCAA championship committee, so I know that the committee is always reevaluating the way the system works. We’re always striving to find some kind of balance.”
Change is needed. But that doesn’t help this year.
West Liberty is the lone member of the West Virginia Conference in the playoffs. The Hilltoppers are the No. 1 seed in Super Region 1 and ranked No. 9 nationally by the AFCA.
UC lost to West Liberty 48-42 in double overtime on Oct. 24. The Golden Eagles were 8-0 and ranked No. 11 in the nation at the time.
Charleston dropped another heartbreaker the following week to Glenville State 14-12 on Oct. 31, as the potential game-winning UC field goal was blocked at the final gun.
Convinced they still had a shot at a postseason berth, the Golden Eagles pounded West Virginia Wesleyan 57-25 last Saturday.
But it proved to be not enough, the selection committee decided.
Even though four of the six Super Region I teams have 8-3 records — Edinboro, East Stroudsburg, California (Pa.) and Fayetteville State.
While UC is essentially two plays away from being 11-0.
One might understand University of Charleston football coach Tony DeMeo’s frustration.
“I think it’s really a travesty of justice,” DeMeo said. “It’s an absurd situation. We’re ranked 19th in the country and we don’t get in? We lost to the No. 1 ranked team in our region in double overtime and lose to another team on the last play of the game. It’s hard to believe that we’re not in.”
“They talk about strength of schedule?” DeMeo added. “We went out of our way to schedule as tough as we could. We scheduled a team (Tusculum) that beat us by 40 points last year and went to the playoffs. And we scheduled a team (St. Augustines) that was ranked in the Top 20 at the beginning of the year. Because they have a bad year (this year), we get penalized? I find that hard to believe.
“Strength of schedule is an afterthought. It would be like getting a hit (in baseball) and at the end of the year, someone decides that the pitcher wasn’t very good, so they take away the hit. It’s a crazy way to look at things.”
Although it has never happened since the conference went to NCAA Division II in 1994, one would have to believe that some seasons, the WVIAC would have two teams worthy of a postseason berth.
“This is one of them,” said DeMeo. “The proof in the pudding is this: we won our three non-conference games this year, pretty handily. Shepherd beat the No. 2 team in the region (Shippensburg) 34-23, and we beat Shepherd (30-17) for their worst loss on their home field since 2000.”
Shippensburg is the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champion. Shepherd finished fourth in the WVIAC.
At Division I, there’s always a debate about the lack of a playoff system to determine a national champion.
But is there a flaw in the D-II process?
“The object is to find the best team in the country,” said DeMeo. “You should take the best six teams in each region.”
Based on the AFCA poll, the region should have finished No. 1 West Liberty (ranked No. 9 with 405 votes), No. 2 Shippensburg (No. 17 with 246 votes), No. 3 Charleston (ranked No. 19 with 147 votes) and No. 4 Californi, Pa. (No. 22 with 90 votes) — with room at No. 5 and 6 for automatic bid teams.
“Look at some of the teams that got in,” DeMeo said. “Fayetteville State got 15 votes (in the AFCA poll). Edinboro got five votes. East Stroudsburg didn’t get any votes. They all got in. Cal finished ranked No. 22 and they got in ahead of us. Shippensburg finished No. 17 and we were No. 19, and they were the second seed.
“Based on the coaches poll, we should not be lower than sixth (in the region).”
Even No. 25 ranked Bloomsburg, yet another PSAC member, may have a beef. It’s ranked No. 25 nationally by the AFCA and missed the playoffs.
The process is not written in stone obviously. The committees can get a team in that it feels needs to be in. Case in point:
Western Alabama got in the playoffs with four losses. Its signature win, however, was over former No. 1 ranked North Alabama.
That was enough to get its ticket punched.
Even the Western Alabama head coach admitted this week that he was surprised to get a playoff berth.
One disadvantage is that Super Region I encompasses four conferences — the WVIAC, PSAC, Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the Northeast 10 — to pick its six teams from, while the rest of the regions only have three.
“It’s a large region,” Prewitt said. “I just think that the conference was a victim of bad luck. The PSAC plays 10 conference games each year and they win over 60 percent of their non-conference games — which aren’t many.
“With our nine football playing members (in the WVIAC), we’re having to schedule three non-conference games each year to play 11. It’s a roll of the dice when strength of schedule is so important. UC beat Tusculum, who went from nine wins (in 2008) to three wins. St. Augustines was nationally ranked and they end up winning only four games.
“Respect doesn’t come overnight,” Prewitt added. “But I think we’re finally getting to that point. If we end up having 9-2 teams not getting in the playoffs year after year, I know we have some trouble. We’re trying to see if we can get some changes made.”
— E-mail: jworkman@
register-herald.com
