Division III closer to expanded football, baseball playoffs
Associated Press
In this March 18 photo, the NCAA logo is at center court as work continues at e Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh for the NCAA college basketball tournament.
By John Sacco
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
The NCAA Division III football and baseball postseason brackets are expected to be expanded soon.
The NCAA Division III Management Council announced Thursday that it has approved football’s playoffs expansion from 32 to 40 teams. The matter now moves to the Presidents Council.
According to D3football.com, “typically, once it receives Management Council approval, the Presidents Council does not overrule it.”
At the same time, D3baseball posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “the report also includes an expansion for the baseball bracket. It would be 64 teams in 2025 assuming final approval.”
The news was met with positive reactions from Washington & Jefferson College and Waynesburg University, both members of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.
Currently, the PAC football and baseball champions receive automatic bids to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
“It’s a positive for Division III, giving more access to deserving teams into the national playoffs,” said Scott McGuinness, athletic director for W&J. “In recent years, the increase of automatic bids has reduced the number of at-large bids. This may not solve all the issues but it’s a step in the right direction in getting the best teams to compete for the national championship.”
In 2023, there were 28 pool A (automatic qualifiers) and four at-large bids for the football playoffs. By comparison, 10 years earlier there were 24 pool A qualifiers and eight at-large bids. In 2005, there were 21 Pool A qualifiers and 11 at large bids.
The football expansion will add a week to the football postseason, which could push the national championship game until after Christmas. It is typically played on the second weekend of December.
“We view it as having more opportunities for our teams,” said Tim Fusina, Waynesburg University’s athletic director. “This could be extremely beneficial to the football conference.
“This would provide opportunities and uniformity across Division III in all sports.”
Fusina said the at-large picks could be determined by a computerized system. This will allow some good teams who have been on the outside looking into get a chance to compete in the postseason.”
A season ago, Grove City won the PAC football title with one-loss Carnegie Mellon finishing second. The Tartans, who won the conference and a postseason game in 2022, were a legitimate playoff team but were likely not even considered with only four at-large bids available.
CMU was not an at-large pick.
Tartans’ coach Ryan Larsen previously said he was in favor of playoff expansion and thinks it will be a boon to the PAC, especially with the conference’s performance in the past two NCAA tournaments and in ECAC bowl games in recent seasons.
In baseball, expansion to 64 would give the regionals four quadrants of 16 – providing uniform double-elimination regionals.
Currently, some regionals are double-elimination brackets while others feature a five-game series between two teams.
“Obviously, there has been a desire to expand the playoffs to include playoff-quality teams that have been left out,” McGuinness said. “The feeling is there is enough quality to expand.”