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District Roundup: W&J, IUP play Saturday; California gets bye in playoffs
Monday, November 12, 2007
By Phil Axelrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

California and Washington & Jefferson received bids to the NCAA playoffs yesterday -- as expected.

But IUP received a bid in a mild surprise, and Slippery Rock and Waynesburg were uninvited.

NCAA Division II First Round schedule, Saturday
  • No. 6 IUP (8-2) at No. 3 West Chester (9-2), TBD.
  • No. 1 California (11-0), bye.
NCAA Division III First Round schedule, Saturday
  • No. 8 North Carolina Wesleyan (8-2) at No. 1 W&J (10-0), noon.
NCCAA Victory Bowl, Saturday
  • Malone (7-4) at Geneva (8-2), 6 p.m.

Geneva (8-2) already knew it will host Malone in the National Christian College Athletic Association Victory Bowl at 6 p.m. Saturday.

California, 11-0 for its first undefeated regular season since going 8-0 in 1958, will have to wait a week to make its first appearance in the Division II playoffs. The Vulcans have a bye in the first round.

Seeded No. 1 in the Northeast Region, California will host the Southern Connecticut State-Bryant winner in a second-round game Nov. 24.

California, whose 11-game win streak is longest in school history, won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division title after sharing it the past two seasons.

The Vulcans, ranked sixth in the American Football Coaches association poll, received an at-large bid to the playoffs because the PSAC East and West champions do not receive automatic bids.

California won't be the only representative from the PSAC West in the playoffs. IUP (8-2), which got a bid despite a 41-35 loss to Bloomsburg Saturday, is seeded sixth in the Northeast Region. IUP will play at No. 3 West Chester (9-2) in the first round Saturday at a time to be announced today.

IUP will be making its 14th trip to the playoffs, first since 2002, when it lost, 62-21, to Grand Valley State in the second round. The Crimson Hawks were runners-up in the playoffs in 1990 and 1993.

While California and IUP are preparing for the playoffs, PSAC West rival Slippery Rock is putting away its uniforms despite a 9-2 record. Slippery Rock's losses were to California and IUP.

Top-seed W&J (10-0), which earned an automatic bid to the Division III playoffs as champion of the Presidents' Athletic Conference, will play host to No. 8 North Carolina Wesleyan (8-2) at noon Saturday at Cameron Stadium in the first round.

North Carolina Wesleyan, the USA South champion making its first appearance in the playoffs, has won eight consecutive games after losses to Wesley, 34-31, and Widener, 27-17.

Waynesburg (8-2), which lost to Washington & Jefferson, 22-21, and finished second in the PAC, was hoping to receive an at-large bid.

First published on November 12, 2007 at 12:00 am