The Division II Football Committee is recommending that conference champions ranked in the top eight (but outside of the top six) of the final super-regional rankings be granted earned access into the postseason championship.

The proposal, which must be approved by the Division II Championships Committee, gives deserving teams that fall just short of the top six a way into the tournament.

Division II football doesn’t have automatic qualification because of the smaller size of its bracket (24 teams). Currently, the top six teams in the four super-regional rankings advance to the postseason, unless earned access is invoked. But the committee wants to make sure conference champions receive access to the bracket as long as they rank either seventh or eighth in one of the four super regions.

“Based on feedback from the membership and from the American Football Coaches Association Convention meetings, there was some suggestion that we look at revising the selection criteria,” said Division II Football Committee Chair Kevin Buisman. “The committee felt this was viable, could be easily implemented and was consistent with the principle of offering participation opportunities to all the Division II football-playing conferences.”

Another recommendation, which would also need Championships Committee approval, is to have an alternate official at each playoff site.

There were two instances in the 2008 postseason where Division II playoff games had to finish with a six-person crew instead of the normal seven-person crew. The committee is proposing a change in case an official becomes too ill or injured to call the entire game.

The alternate official would be assigned from the host institution’s local area.

“We want to keep it to a flat fee so there wouldn’t be any overnight lodging, per diem or travel costs,” said Buisman, who is the director of athletics at Minnesota State Mankato.

With budgets being tightened due to the economy, the committee believes it has come up with a way to ensure that playoff games have the proper number of officials.

“The backup official at each site will also help in game administration in terms of recording penalties and evaluating officials, but if called upon, we could put him into the game to keep a seven-person officiating crew,” Buisman said.

Another recommendation the committee must have approved is a proposal to increase the squad size for the championship game from 54 to 58 but maintain the overall travel party to 70 people.

This proposal would allow more student-athletes to participate in the championship without having any budgetary impact.