Nov 12, 2012 3 min read

One of the intriguing parts of the NCAA Division III selection process is how difficult it is to predict the playoff pairings.

When Washington & Jefferson College’s football team defeated Waynesburg, 31-14, Saturday afternoon to earn the playoff berth from the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, a few teams popped up as potential first-round opponents, including Wesley, Widener and even Mt. Union.

When the NCAA selection committee released its playoff bracket Sunday, W&J drew Johns Hopkins for a first-round game Saturday in Baltimore.

“We had teams in mind that we could play, and they were one of them,” said W&J head coach Mike Sirianni. “You just never know what (the NCAA selection committee) is going to do. I heard names like Widener, Wesley and Mt. Union. But our strength of schedule went up (to 147), so I didn’t think we would get Mt. Union.”

That could happen in the second round. The winner of the W&J-Johns Hopkins game draws the winner of the Mt. Union-Christopher Newport game. Mt. Union is making its 24th playoff appearance and has won a record 10 Division III titles.

Waynesburg and California did not receive bids to the playoffs. Waynesburg (9-1) saw its hopes for a spot in the playoffs go down in the loss to Washington & Jefferson. Rowan, at 7-2, was the second-place finisher in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. The Yellow Jackets were hurt by their strength-of-schedule ranking, which was 217th out of 239 teams. Rowan was 99th.

Waynesburg is expected to play in an ECAC Bowl Saturday. The Yellow Jackets expect to receive the invitation today.

California saw its chances at a playoff berth end in back-to-back losses in the PSAC, 28-26 to Slippery Rock two weeks ago and 40-7 to Mercyhurst Nov. 3.

Johns Hopkins won the Centennial Conference with an 8-1 record, one game ahead of Muhlenberg. The Blue Jays are making their third trip to the NCAA tournament in the past four seasons and reached the quarterfinals in 2009. Head coach Jim Margraff has a 156-80-3 record in 24 seasons and is the winningest coach in the program’s history.

“We don’t know much about them yet,” said Sirianni. “We know they have big kids. We know they have smart kids, and they will be well-coached. They have been very successful.”

The playoff game capped a successful ending to a traumatic regular season for Washington & Jefferson. Starting tailback Tim McNerney was found dead in the city of Washington Oct. 4, and the team dedicated the season to him. Winning the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title, and earning the automatic bid that came with it, meant the Presidents had to win their final four games, including one against previously undefeated Waynesburg.

W&J did that in winning or sharing their 23rd PAC championship. Now, the Presidents want to continue the season in honor of McNerney.

“The kids are excited,” said Sirianni. “We met the first part of our goal.”