Washington and Jefferson College and California (Pa.) have earned spots in the NCAA football playoffs.
The Presidents and Vulcans are glad to be back.
This will mark W&J’s first NCAA Division III postseason berth since 2018. California’s last time in the NCAA Division II playoffs was 2017.
Both the NCAA Division II and III football postseason brackets were revealed Sunday afternoon and evening. Play in both divisions begins this coming weekend.
Seventeenth-ranked W&J, fresh off a regular season-ending 45-0 win over Allegheny Saturday, earned a share of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) championship with Grove City and Carnegie Mellon. All three finished with a record of 9-1.
The Presidents earned their first PAC title since 2018 and 27th overall in program history.
The 17th-ranked Vulcans (8-2), winners of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s West Division, dropped a 21-14 decision Saturday to No. 3-ranked Kutztown in the PSAC championship game.
California will host East Stroudsburg (10-1) Saturday at Adamson Stadium in the first round of the NCAA Division II Super Regional. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.
W&J, who has won six straight, will have a week off before playing Nov. 30 at noon because the Presidents won the three-way tiebreaker between the 9-1 teams and earned a bye.
W&J will travel to Ashland, Va. to play Randolph-Macon (9-1). Ironically, the Presidents played at Randolph-Macon in 1984 – the Presidents’ first NCAA playoff game, a dramatic 22-21 victory. W&J is 4-1 all-time versus the Yellow Jackets.
California had won eight consecutive games after dropping its season-opener at Charleston, W.Va., 23-19. Charleston is 11-0. The Vulcans played five of their first six games on the road.
The Vulcans were left out of the 2022 national playoffs despite a 10-1 record.
“This is why we play to compete for the conference championship and a chance to play in the national playoffs,” said Gary Dunn, California football coach. “This is what these guys work for year round.
“We knew we had a good group returning and these kids wanted to play for championships. Our losses were to the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the region. I didn’t see how they could keep us out.”
Dunn led Cal to the NCAA playoffs in 2016 and 2017.
Ironically, W&J and Cal won their biggest games of the season Oct. 19. The Washington County schools knocked off undefeated, nationally-ranked opponents – Grove City and Slippery Rock -respectively.
“I give credit to our fifth-year and senior leadership for us coming back from a pretty devastating loss to CMU (30-27 in OT),” said Mike Sirianni, who has led the Presidents to the NCAA playoffs 12 times in his 22 seasons. “Our team was laser focused against Allegheny, knowing we needed one more win to get a part of the PAC title and make the playoffs. We’re happy to be in the playoffs. We’ll prepare the way we always do for each opponent.
“We understand, bowl games are rewards; playoff games are opportunities.”
If W&J defeats Randolph-Macon, it would meet either King’s College, Ursinus College or Salisbury University in the round of 16.
The Vulcans, if victorious, would meet the winner of the Charleston-Ashland matchup.
Since the three PAC teams all went 1-1 against each other during the regular season — W&J defeated Grove City, 27-19; Grove City defeated Carnegie Mellon 17-10; Carnegie Mellon defeated W&J 30-27 in OT — the deciding tiebreaker to determine the PACs’ automatic qualifier for the NCAA playoffs is scoring margin in games involving tied teams.
That tiebreaker elevated W&J into the NCAA playoffs with a scoring margin of plus-5 in their games against Grove City, whose margin was -1, and Carnegie Mellon, whose margin was -4.
“This is truly an unprecedented and historic season for PAC football.” said Joe Onderko, PAC commissioner. “Our league has steadily been gaining in strength for years, which many observers throughout D3 have observed and noted.
“The expansion of the bracket to 40 teams, coupled with the shift to NPI (ratings) in selecting at-large teams, ended up really being a “perfect storm” for the PAC in having three teams in the national playoffs for the first time in league history.
“The PAC had five teams getting national Top 25 votes at different times this season and has had five different teams win at least a share of the league title in the past eight seasons. I think that the consistent level of competitiveness in PAC play has created a rising tide effect that has resulted in the league overall getting steadily stronger each season.”
This marks the eighth time the PAC has had multiple conference champions in football and first since Carnegie Mellon and Westminster were co-champions in 2021. This is just the second time the league has had three teams share the title, with the first being in 1998 when Grove City, W&J and Waynesburg tied for the championship.
Other PSAC teams to make the playoffs are Kutztown (11-0) and Slippery Rock (9-1).
Notable
Westminster (7-3), the fourth-place finisher in the PAC, will meet Marietta in the initial Opendorse Bowl Series 6 p.m. Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, in the Extra Points Bowl. The top teams from the PAC and Ohio Athletic Conference not qualifying for the national playoffs earned the bowl bid.
CMU hosts Centre (Ky.) Nov. 30 while Grove City will play at Johns Hopkins on the same date. All three PAC teams received byes into the round of 32.