D1AA Playoffs: In, Out or In The Hunt

The D1AA Playoffs Who's In, Who's Out, Who's in the hunt, Heart of America, Florida, Lonestar, Northwest, Gold Coast, PAC West, Ivy League

Mar 8, 2019 by Austin Willis

We're coming close to the D1AA college playoffs for the spring, and here's where we stand.

Dartmouth punched their ticket in the fall and now they'll wait for the dominoes to fall in the D1AA playoffs to see who gets in with them.

Kansas is hoping Iowa State and Kansas State take care of business, while Florida State is on the outside looking in and praying for help from the remaining contenders.

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Gold Coast

In California, Long Beach State and San Diego are the only unbeaten teams in the hunt and they will face off on the final Saturday of the regular season. A 4-0 San Diego could be a high seed, but Long Beach stands in their way.

In The Hunt: CSULB and San Diego

Out: USC, Loyola Marymount, Claremont Colleges, Azusa Pacific

Claremont is unbeaten. They even tied Long Beach. But they compete in NSCRO so they will not play in the D1AA playoffs.

USC grossly underperformed this fifteens season, but they do have a chance to grab a win against another 0-4 team in Loyola Marymount. Azusa won't make the playoffs but they pulled off several close wins.

Florida (Multi bid eligible)

The Florida conference is what was left over when the northern SIRC teams changed divisions (two went to the SCRC, others dropped a division). It's still a good enough league to get two playoffs bids, which makes this weekend all the more interesting. Central Florida and South Florida are the two unbeaten teams and they face off this Saturday. Both teams ran ragged through their divisions and it might have been enough to grab an extra at-large bid for Florida.

In The Hunt: South Florida, Central Florida, Florida State

Florida State isn't officially out of the hunt. With two losses, FSU will have to rely on several of the top teams D1AA to lose.

Out: Miami, Florida, North Florida, Florida

Miami and North Florida only put up a combined three total tries. While Miami and North Florida had no attack, The University of Florida simply couldn't defend. The Gators gave up a disappointing league-high 278 points.

Northwest

In the NCRC, it all comes down to this weekend. Oregon State and Western Washington play for the NCRC Championship and an automatic bid to the D1AA playoffs.

Oregon State beat Oregon last Saturday for their first playoff win in eight years, thanks in large part to scrumhalf Tejas Godbole, who turned a 20-14 deficit into a 24-23 victory with a try, a conversion, and penalty goal in the closing quarter.

Now, they'll have a chance to punch their playoff ticket against a weather-worn Western Washington. WWU won their semifinal 49-0 over Washington State paced by three tries from flanker John Stone and two each from center Avery Lewis and No. 8 Matt Motylewski.

In The Hunt: Western Washington, Oregon State

Out: Every other team

Heart of America (Multi-bid eligible)

Heart of America is going to be playing a waiting game. They can secure two seeds or even three, if Kansas State and Iowa State win out and narrowly beat one another on April 7th.

Kansas job is done. They're 5-2 and they've done all they can to punch their ticket. The Jayhawks' only losses were by seven points to Kansas State and four points to Iowa State. So best case scenario they sneak in over a Florida State in the Florida Conference.

Iowa State looks like they're going to breeze into the D1AA playoffs as massive favorites in their remaining matches. Kansas State is unbeaten, and while they'll be favored; their remaining schedule is more challenging than that of the Cyclones.

In The Hunt: Kansas, Iowa State, Kansas State

Out: Truman State, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska

Truman State and Oklahoma State were held scoreless on the season. Nebraska went winless, but put up some resistance. Iowa and Missouri are out of contention, but they can make the road difficult on Kansas State and that's always fun.

PAC West

Fresno State and Chico State control their own destiny unbeaten. Fresno State took down five teams while Chico State scraped by with cancellations. They'll get to prove who's the top dog in the PAC West this Saturday.

Stanford is on the outside looking in after a close week one loss to Chico State. Stanford will be huge Chico State fans this weekend hoping for Fresno State to lose before they face off in two weeks.

In The Hunt: Fresno State, Chico State, Stanford

Out: San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State, Nevada