After this year’s NCAA DIII football playoff bracket was released, there was immediate backlash toward the selection committee. The heat they’ve been catching for the last three weeks has come from the left side of the bracket in this year’s 32-team field.
Defending champs on the road
The most puzzling part of this year’s bracket involves our own Cardinals. The defending national champions weren’t given the top seed in the upper left quadrant, which stunned many personalities around the DIII world.
In the initial reaction article from D3football.com breaking down the field, it was one of the main things they pointed out.
“How about North Central? The defending champions, at 10-0, aren’t even the top seed in their bracket, and will have to contend with Trinity or Hardin-Simmons the second weekend should North Central get past Belhaven in the first round.”
Still seeking respect
Despite the Cardinals not having lost a game since the 2021 Stagg Bowl, they still haven’t earned the respect of the NCAA. Many are saying this is because the Cardinals did not play a D3 opponent in Week 0. In the opening week of the season, NCC faced off against an NAIA school: Roosevelt University from Chicago.
The Cardinals handled the Lakers with ease, 41-7. Unfortunately, since Roosevelt is not an NCAA-affiliated school, the committee couldn’t view the Cardinals as the 10-0 team that they are. NCC finished 9-0 against NCAA opponents, so that’s the record that they were seeded on.
This 9-0 finish for the Cards is still perfect in terms of winning percentage. However, only having nine games on file damaged their overall strength of schedule. This led NCC to receive the number two seed in the “UW-La Crosse Bracket.”
Former Cardinal football player and two-time national champion, Jack Grupka, ’23, was flabbergasted when the bracket was revealed. The former offensive lineman viewed it as a sign of disrespect not only to the program but to the school as well.
“The program has now been to three straight national title games and it still can’t get the respect and recognition it deserves. There are travel guidelines that they have to keep in mind when making it as well, so that’s why one side is so loaded compared to the other,” said Grupka.
The left side as a whole featured five of the top six teams in the final regular season top 25 poll, and six overall in the top 10. This could lead to a less-than-ideal national championship game in terms of entertainment value.
Keeping the students in mind
NCC head coach, Brad Spencer, had a different approach when looking at how unfair the bracket shook out this season. The second-year head coach turned his focus to a team that should have gotten one at-large bids into the tournament.
Linfield University was one of the best teams in D3 football all season long. Heading into the final week of the regular season, Linfield was undefeated and ranked eighth in the nation. After a loss, Linfield was moved to 21 in the rankings and was no longer in consideration for the playoffs. One loss knocked out a team that was most certainly one of the nation’s top 32 according to Coach Spencer.
“If you want to have a playoff with your top 32 teams in, then how do you have six teams in the top 25 not in this playoff? Including the number four team in the nation (Linfield). To me, that’s who should be in. They’re ranked number four, five or six most of the year, they lose their last game and they’re out. So is that a true championship?” asked Spencer after NCC’s Second Round Playoff victory over Trinity (TX).
Coach Spencer goes on to talk about how leaving teams like this out is bad for the overall competitive nature of the playoff. Not to mention it hurts the experience for these student-athletes as well.
The best teams should be in the playoffs, it’s as simple as that. These student-athletes work so hard year-round for opportunities to compete for a national championship. For that to get ripped away from them is just wrong.
The DIII playoff committee will have plenty to talk about over the offseason. Shifting focus in their formatting might be something they want to put atop their to-do list.
