Division II Playoff Bracket
 
INDIANAPOLIS – The Slippery Rock University football team earned an at-large bid in Super Region One for the upcoming NCAA Division II Playoffs when the Division II Football Committee unveiled the 28-team playoff field Sunday evening.
 
Slippery Rock will travel to No. 3 seed Notre Dame (Ohio) for the opening round of the playoffs next Saturday, Nov. 20. It will mark the third straight year the two teams will meet in the NCAA Playoffs and the first time the game will be earlier than the quarterfinals. Notre Dame won the 2018 quarterfinal matchup and Slippery Rock won the 2019 quarterfinal game. More information regarding kickoff time, tickets and game coverage will be announced early in the week.
 
Kutztown was named the No. 1 seed in the region and earned the first round bye as a result of its victory over Slippery Rock in the PSAC Championship game Saturday. Shepherd is the No. 2 seed and will host Findlay in the opening round. New Haven earned the No. 4 seed and will host Northeast-10 Conference rival Bentley in the first round.
 
The winner of the New Haven and Bentley game will visit Kutztown in round two, while the winner of the SRU and Notre Dame game will play the winner of the Shepherd and Findlay game at the highest remaining seed. In order for SRU to play another home game this fall, it would have to win at Notre Dame and have Findlay defeat Shepherd in the first round, which would send Findlay to SRU in round two.
 
Slippery Rock edged 9-1 Cal U for the final available playoff spot in the region thanks to a higher strength of schedule and a head-to-head win over the Vulcans. The Rock's weighted strength of schedule finished at 0.488, while Cal's was 0.474. That, combined with the head-to-head win, kept SRU ahead of Cal in the final rankings. Cal most likely found itself in the No. 7 spot and fell victim to the Division II "earned access" rule, which states that if a conference does not have a top seven team in the final rankings, but has a team ranked eighth or ninth, that team moves up to the No. 7 spot and qualifies for the playoffs.
 
In the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, Tiffin was No. 9 last week and Findlay was No. 10, but the Oilers won the head-to-head meeting last week, likely solidifying the earned access bid.
 
The PSAC led all conferences in the region with three selections, while the Northeast-10 earned two bids and the Mountain East Conference and GMAC both got one team into the tournament.
 
Slippery Rock is making its third straight postseason appearance and is one of just three teams from Super Region One that has been in each of the last three tournaments, joining Kutztown and Notre Dame. The Rock have reached the regional final and NCAA quarterfinals in each of the last two years and went to the national semifinals in 2019.
 
SRU will be playing in the NCAA Division II Playoffs for the sixth time in the last eight seasons and the ninth time since the program moved to Division II. The Rock are 9-8 all-time in Division II playoff games and have made two appearances in the national semifinals.
 
Slippery Rock closed the regular season with its 12th straight winning record at 9-2 after picking up a third straight PSAC Western Division title this fall. The Rock's senior class will enter its third postseason with a 41-9 career record over the last four seasons.
 
NCAA SUPER REGION ONE PLAYOFF FIELD

Seed	Team	DII W-L	First Round Game
1	Kutztown	10-1	BYE
2	Shepherd	10-1	vs. Findlay
3	Notre Dame (Ohio)	10-1	vs. Slippery Rock
4	New Haven	9-1	vs. Bentley
5	Bentley	9-1	at New Haven
6	SLIPPERY ROCK	9-2	at Notre Dame (Ohio)
7	Findlay	8-3	at Shepherd

 

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