Viking football realigns with NCAA's Northwest Region

WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY - SPORTS INFORMATION OFFICE

Wed.,May 19, 2004 Director:Paul Madison Assistants:Butch Kamena, Jeff Hoffman

FOOTBALL

Viking football realigns with NCAA's Northwest Region

Division II alters post-season alignment, qualification process

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - A change in the post-season qualification process for NCAA Division II football has led to Western Washington University being placed in a new region for the 2004 season.

Beginning this fall, the NCAA II playoffs will expand from 16 teams to 24. Each of four regions will now have six teams qualify for the post-season, meaning that the regular season will conclude one week earlier and there will be one additional week of playoffs to lead up to the national championship game. This year's title game will be played Dec. 11 at Florence, Ala.

While the number of teams qualifying for post-season play changes, the NCAA is also changing its regional alignment. Western Washington, along with the other three football-playing members of the Great Northwest

Athletic Conference, had been a member of the West Region in recent history. In addition, teams from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference

(RMAC) and Lone Star Conference (LSC) were aligned in the West. However, the change implemented by the NCAA will provide a whole new geographic look to regular season schedules and the playoff process.

Western and the remainder of the GNAC is now part of a 35-member

Northwest Region, while former regional foes from the RMAC and LSC are now in the Southwest Region. Moving to the Northwest Region this year are teams from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), North Central Conference (NCC), and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). The GLIAC has produced the last two national champions - Grand Valley State in 2002 and 2003 - while NCC member North Dakota won the 2001 national title.

For 2004, in-region contests for Division II football schools will be calculated differently from past years as well. In addition to games versus teams from one of the regional conferences or Northwest Region independents Saint Joseph's (Ind.) and Tiffin (Ohio), there are several additional criteria that make a Division II game an in-region contest. The NCAA's criteria warranting an in-region game are as follows: (1) game versus opponents in the defined region; (2) game versus opponents in your state that is not in your defined region; (3) game versus opponents in states contiguous to your defined region; (4) California, Oregon, and Washington schools are to be considered contiguous to all Southwest Region states.

All 10 of Western’s 2004 regular-season games are considered in-region.

The NCAA also has adopted an “earned access concept” which guarantees leagues with a team ranked in the top 10 regionally one of the six playoff berths. This is similar to an automatic berth, except the berth does not automatically go to the league champion.

The “earned access concept” does not affect GNAC schools because they are considered independents since the league has just four football-playing institutions.



Paul Madison
Sports Information Director
Western Washington University
Office - 360-650-3108
Email - paul.madison@wwu.edu
FAX - 360-650-3495