NCAA Regional Rankings
 
INDIANAPOLIS – The Slippery Rock University football team moved up one spot to No. 6 in the third set of NCAA Super Region One rankings that were announced Monday evening by the Division II Football Committee.
 
The Super Region rankings will be used to determine which seven teams from each of the four NCAA Super Regions will qualify for the NCAA Playoffs following this upcoming weekend's games. This set of rankings will be the final public ranking before the official playoff field is announced Sunday, Nov. 14.
 
Super Region One includes all teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, the Mountain East Conference, the Northeast-10 Conference and the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Just seven of those 45 teams will make the NCAA Playoff field.
 
Slippery Rock moved up one spot this week thanks to a convincing 38-26 win over previously undefeated California (Pa.), which was ranked fourth in the regional rankings last week.
 
Bentley, which was ranked No. 1 last week, also lost to New Haven last week to shakeup the top of the poll. Kutztown moved up to the No. 1 spot, followed by Shepherd, Notre Dame (Ohio), New Haven and Bentley in the top five. Slippery Rock slides in at No. 6 and Cal U drops to No. 7 in the final qualifying spot right now. Shippensburg sits No. 8, followed by Tiffin at No. 9 and Findlay at No. 10.

The top eight teams in this week's regional rankings are most likely vying for only six spots. Tiffin and Findlay will play each other this week and the winner of that game is almost certainly going to either be ranked No. 8 or No. 9 in the final rankings, which will knock the No. 7 team out of the playoffs via the Division II "earned access" rule. That rule states that if any conference in a super region does not have one of the top seven teams, but does have a team ranked No. 8 or No. 9, that team gets to move up to the No. 7 slot. If the playoffs started tomorrow, it would be Cal U that gets bumped as No. 9 Tiffin would move up to that spot.
 
The Rock have a strong case to qualify for the postseason even if they were to lose to Kutztown in the PSAC Championship game this weekend, but could eliminate all possibility of being on the bubble with a victory Saturday. The PSAC is the only conference in the region that plays a championship game and pits its top team from two divisions against each other in the final week of the season.
 
Slippery Rock will get a significant bump in strength of schedule this week playing on the road at No. 1 Kutztown, which owns a 9-1 record. If The Rock were to win this week and string back-to-back wins against two teams ranked in the top four in the region, SRU would have an excellent shot at moving into the top four in the final rankings and earning a home game in the opening round of the playoffs. The teams ranked Nos. 2-4 this week are playing opponents with a combined record of 1-27, which will cause a drop in each team's strength of schedule.
 
For the second year in a row, Kutztown enters a week 11 home game against Slippery Rock as the No. 1 team in the region. Last year, Slippery Rock upset Kutztown at home to win the PSAC title and took over as the No. 1 team in the region for the 2019 playoffs. That spot is crucial, as only the No. 1 seed in each super region gets a first round bye in the playoffs.
 
Slippery Rock and Kutztown will kick off Saturday at 12:05 p.m. in the only matchup this week that features two teams currently ranked in the top seven of the regional standings.
 
The NCAA will announce the 28-team playoff field in a live show at www.NCAA.com Sunday evening at 5 p.m.
 
NCAA SUPER REGION ONE RANKINGS – NOV. 8

Rank	Team	DII W-L	OWP-OOWP*	This Week
1	Kutztown	9-1	0.544	vs. No. 6 Slippery Rock (9-1)
2	Shepherd	9-1	0.551	vs. Clarion (0-9)
3	Notre Dame (Ohio)	9-1	0.525	vs. Alderson Broaddus (1-9)
4	New Haven	8-1	0.536	at Franklin Pierce (0-9)
5	Bentley	8-1	0.507	vs. Assumption (5-4)
6	SLIPPERY ROCK	9-1	0.452	at No. 1 Kutztown (9-1)
7	Cal U	8-1	0.477	at Bloomsburg (3-7)
8	Shippensburg	8-2	0.495	vs. Mercyhurst (4-6)
9	Tiffin	7-2	0.480	at No. 10 Findlay (7-3)
10	Findlay	7-3	0.545	vs. No. 9 Tiffin (7-2)

* Weighted Strength of Schedule Combines: Opponent Winning Percentage (OWP) AND Opponents' Opponent Winning Percentage (OOWP)




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