As Washington & Jefferson piled up the points in a 42-9 victory at Waynesburg yesterday, the W&J assistant coaches kept giving coach Mike Sirianni updates on significant scores from around the country.

The news was mostly good.

If things break W&J's way, the Presidents (9-1, 5-1) can expect to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs when they're handed out today. But nothing is guaranteed when a selection committee of athletic directors and coaches are making decisions.

"I don't know what they're going to do. We did what we had to do. We won," Sirianni said. "We know we're one of the best 32 teams in the country."

The 32-team playoff field will comprise 23 conference champions that received automatic bids, three independents and conference teams without automatic bids and six other teams.

Thomas More, which defeated W&J, 35-29, received the automatic bid as champion of the Presidents' Athletic Conference.

W&J has been to the playoffs the past four seasons and eight of the past nine.

The knock against W&J this season is a soft schedule consisting of teams with a combined winning percentage slightly below 40 percent.

"We can't control the strength of our schedule," Sirianni said. "We played two bad quarters of football -- the second and third against Thomas More. Every team has some down time in a season. The second and third quarters killed us. I don't want our guys thinking it's been a disappointing season if we don't make the playoffs. They know there is going to be football next week. We just don't know where we'll be playing."

If W&J doesn't get a bid to the playoffs, the Presidents are almost assured of getting an invitation to play in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Southwest Bowl on Saturday.

W&J took care of business against Waynesburg on a chilly, blustery day as Bobby Swallow passed for 250 yards and four touchdowns and Curt Jones rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns.

Waynesburg's touchdown came on Scott Cree's 88-yard kickoff return. Quarterback Brad Dawson completed 19 of 41 passes for 170 yards.

"We didn't talk about, 'Let's blow them out,' " Sirianni said. "We knew all we needed to do was win the game."

While W&J won nine of 10 games and is ranked 18th in the American Football Coaches Association poll, Waynesburg (5-5, 2-3) struggled without star running back Robert Heller. He was out for the season with an ankle injury in the opening game and has left school. As a freshman last season, Heller led all NCAA divisions with 197.8 yards rushing per game and was third in Division III scoring with 14.7 points per game.

Washington & Jefferson has won four consecutive games against Waynesburg to lead the series, 33-3.