Cal denied berth in NCAA Division II playoffs
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The season for the California University of Pennsylvania football team officially came to a close on Sunday evening, as the Vulcans were not among the seven teams in Super Region One selected to participate in the NCAA Playoffs.
Kutztown, which captured its first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship in a decade, was chosen as the region’s top seed and earned a first-round bye. Shepherd, Notre Dame (Ohio), New Haven (Conn.), Bentley (Mass.), Slippery Rock and Findlay rounded out the remainder of the Super Region One playoff field.
Shepherd earned the second seed and will host seventh-seeded Findlay, which captured the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Championship yesterday and likely benefited from earned access ruling. Notre Dame received the third seed after earning a share of a fourth-straight Mountain East Conference (MEC) Championship and will face Slippery Rock, which lost in yesterday’s PSAC Championship. In the final first-round contest, NE-10 Champion New Haven earned the fourth seed and will host fifth-seeded Bentley in a rematch from two weeks ago which greatly impacted the regional field, as Bentley entered the game undefeated and the top seed in the regional rankings.
The Vulcans finish the year with a 9-1 overall record and tied for first place in the PSAC West standings with a 5-1 divisional mark. Cal U opened the year with eight-consecutive victories, marking the program’s longest winning streak since the 2016 season, and reached as high as No. 3 in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Top 25 poll. The Vulcans were the only one-loss team in NCAA Division II to not be selected to the NCAA Playoffs this season.
Findlay earned its second all-time appearance in the NCAA Playoffs likely by virtue of earned access, which allows a team ranked eighth or ninth to bump the team positioned at seven in the final regional rankings. The ruling was created to help assure all conferences within a super region have representation in the NCAA Playoffs.
Football is the lone NCAA Division II sport to implement earned access, as the majority of the NCAA sports feature automatic qualifiers to championship events.
Cal U had previously qualified for the NCAA Playoffs every time it has earned at least nine wins in a year with the exception of 1946, as the NCAA Division II Championships started in 1973.
Cal defeated Bloomsburg 24-9 Saturday in its final game. The lone loss came against Slippery Rock, 38-26, last week.