Delegates from the NCAA's football-sponsoring conferences in Division II on Friday voted to award automatic bids to each of the division's conferences to the postseason football tournament, the NCAA announced Friday.
Division II football had been the only team sport in the NCAA's entire postseason portfolio that did not provide an avenue for automatic qualification, instead relying on a committee format. (The FBS postseason falls outside of the NCAA's purview.) Football was also the only postseason format in Division II that did not provide automatic representation for each conference.
Division II has 15 conferences and 28 spots in its postseason tournament. The last conference champion not awarded a spot in the playoffs was Newberry College, champions of the South Atlantic Conference in 2022. The SAC still got two teams in the field that year, but neither won their division, much less the conference. Setting aside the 2020 season, the Northeast-10 and the Great Northwest (which no longer sponsors football) in 2019 were the last D2 conference not to put any teams in the field.
"It will provide more schools with the ability to access the football championship due to winning their conference championship," said Darius Satterfield, a football and golf student-athlete at Elizabeth City State who serves on the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. "Winning your conference championship is worthy of a postseason selection, and all football student-athletes should get the opportunity to fight for a chance to win a national championship."
Interestingly, the NCAA noted that the vote passed with a 60 percent margin, which means six of the 15 conferences voted against the proposal. The proposal was sponsored by the Northeast-10, and co-sponsored by the CIAA, the Great Lakes Valley Conference, and the PSAC. With those four off the table, six of the remaining 11 leagues voted against the idea.
Regardless, the new format will go into effect for the 2025 football season.
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