The NCAA News - News Features

Division II

Parity makes title race interesting

EVENT: 1996 Division II Football Championship.

OVERVIEW: After being dominated for the past three seasons by North Alabama, Division II football has been turned upside down in 1996 -- then shaken side-to-side and tumbled down a steep hill. While the three-time defending champion Lions have struggled to a 5-4 record (through games of November 2), no fewer than six teams have lost after reaching the top spot in the weekly poll. As a result, the division is littered with strong teams that have one or two losses and are one bad game away from dropping out of playoff contention or one good game away from finding the momentum to win the title .... Texas A&M-Kingsville has reached the top of the poll despite losing two of its first three games. The Javelinas' defense solidified after a shaky start and was allowing just 210 yards per game, a good sign for a team that traditionally puts on an offensive show in the playoffs .... The two biggest surprises are Northwest Missouri State and Nebraska-Omaha. Northwest Missouri State, which has not appeared in the championship since 1989, averaged 42.2 points in winning its first nine games, but only two of its wins were against teams that have appeared in the top 20. Nebraska-Omaha, absent from the playoffs since 1984, overcame an early one-point loss to Mankato State to win its next six games and become a legitimate top-five team.

FIELD: The 16-team field includes four teams from each of four regions.

DATES AND SITES: First-round (November 23), quarterfinal (November 30) and semifinal (December 7) games will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The championship game will be December 14 in Florence, Alabama.

TELEVISION COVERAGE: ESPN2 will televise the championship game live at 1 p.m. (Eastern time) December 14. The game will be replayed on ESPN at 1 p.m. December 16.

INFORMATION/RESULTS: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1351 for bracket/schedule and 5090 for championship-game results. Game scores and pairings also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championship-game results will be published in the December 23 issue of The NCAA News.

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES: This year's title game will be the 11th straight in Florence.