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Understanding the Football Playoffs

Forget what you learned last year, or any of the previous 10 or more years. All that is out the window.


NOVEMBER 6, 2024 | written by STEVE ULRICH

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☀️ Good Morning Wednesday. Let’s sports, shall we?

Headlines
📺️ Understanding the Football Playoffs
🏅 Troha Named to Board of Governors
🏐 Fly Like An Eagle
🏑 Conference Championship Week
🏀 Eight Names to Know

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TOP STORY
1. Understanding the Football Playoffs

by Pat Coleman, D3sports.com

“Most years, we dedicate some space on the website or some time in our podcast to really give newcomers to Division III football a bit of a primer as to how the playoffs are structured, how at-large bids are determined, the whole 10 yards. But this year, let’s face it — we’re all newbies in some manner. Nobody has ever actually put together the Division III football bracket in this manner.

So, forget what you learned last year, or any of the previous 10 or more years. All that is out the window. You’ve been hearing about NPI — the NCAA Power Index? If you’ve been hearing angry things, well, hey, we don’t love the system either, but it’s what we have, so we’re going to give it to you straight. Patrick Coleman and Greg Thomas spend the top of the show detailing what we know about the 40-team playoff bracket, how it will be constructed, what it means to be a Top Eight seed and more. Then Logan Hansen will talk a little more about what goes into the NPI and how it’s calculated, and lastly we’ll take your questions in our mailbag segment, and there were a lot of questions, so we took several more than usual.”

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