Changes Open Up Men's D2 College for Fall 2023

08.23.2023College Men

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The Men’s D2 college playoffs this fall will look quite different from 2022 or 2021.

Oh, sure, the actual number of teams won’t be all that much different, but who those teams are will be.

NCR Finalizes Championship Dates, Venues for 2023-24

Consider the 2021 final four, in which Thomas More, Northern Iowa, Norwich, and Adrian faced off. Both Adrian and Thomas More are now in higher divisions. In fact, of the 20 teams entered into NCR’s D2 playoffs, at least five are now in higher divisions.

In 2022, two more final four teams found ended up moving up a division over this summer. Over the past two years seven playoff teams are now no longer in D2.

Add to that the movement of conferences, including the formation of a Liberty D2 conference that could shake up the seedings, and you’ve got a new-look process.

So as we look to the season we want to keep all of those changes in mind, and also keep in mind as NCR ponders how many seeds go to what conference, it’s worth remembering that sometimes the top-performing teams from those conferences are now in D1 or D1AA. That’s the story for the Gateway and the Southern. And it’s also worth noting that in the quarterfinals last year three of the four games were decided by a try or less. The average score for those three games was 25-21.

OK, so let’s have a quick look at the schedule as far as we have it. Right now we don’t have the games for the West Coast teams or the High Peaks Conference in the West. But we’ve got everything else. So here goes:

(Some of these conferences are hybrid conferences and we've labeled the small-college teams with (SC).)

Some big games to note:

UW-Whitewater at Marquette
Norwich at Coast Guard
UMass Lowell at Vermont
MIami Ohio at Middle Tennessee State
Ferris State at Central Michigan
Chicago at Illinois State
SLU at Washington
Northern Iowa at UW-Whitewater
Boston University at Norwich
Marist at RPI
Coast Guard at Vermont
Marist at SUNY Oswego
Loyola at Chicago
RPI at SUNY Oswego
North Dakota State at MSU Mankato

Also - we had the wrong sequence of games for NEWCRC - we've fixed that. Note that NEWCRC has realigned now with an eight-team conference where all eight teams are in action for seven weeks straight. This is one of the most competitive and difficult conferences out there.

8/26	New Mexico State	at	El Paso RFC	NCR Ind.
9/2	George Washington	at	George Mason	Cardinals
9/2	Washington & Lee	at	George Mason	Cardinals
9/2	Colgate	at	Cornell	Non-Conference
9/9	Hampden Sydney	at	George Mason	Cardinals
9/9	St. Louis Univ.	at	Southern Illinois	Gateway
9/9	James Brown	at	Pitt State	Gateway
9/9	Drury	at	UMS&T	Gateway
9/9	SUNY Oswego	at	Albany	Liberty
9/9	RIT	at	RPI	Liberty
9/9	Marist	at	Cornell	Liberty
9/9	East Stroudsburg	at	Villanova	MARC North
9/9	Bucknell	at	TCNJ	MARC North
9/9	Lehigh	at	Scranton	MARC North
9/9	Georgetown	at	York	MARC South
9/9	Towson	at	Shippensburg	MARC South
9/9	Mount St. Mary's Dev.	at	UMBC	MARC South
9/9	Xavier (SC)	at	Franciscan	Non Conference
9/9	SUNY Fredonia	at	Kent State	Non Conference
9/9	IUP	at	West Chester	Non Conference
9/9	John Carroll	at	WVU	Non Conference
9/9	GVSU	at	Purdue	Non-Conference
9/9	ND State	at	St. Thomas	Northern Lights
9/9	MSU Mankato	at	MSU Moorhead	Northern Lights
9/9	UM Duluth	at	UW Stout	Northern Lights
9/9	St. John's	at	St. Scholastica	Northern Lights
9/9	Georgia Tech	at	Ole Miss	SCRC
9/9	Memphis	at	Valdosta State	SCRC
9/9	Mississippi State	at	Auburn	SCRC
9/15	GVSU	at	U. Notre Dame	Non-Conference
9/16	Kent State	at	Xavier (SC)	Allegheny
9/16	Miami OH	at	Eastern Kentucky	Allegheny
9/16	Western Kentucky	at	Marshall (SC)	Allegheny
9/16	S. Indiana (SC)	at	MTSU	Allegheny
9/16	Old Dominion	at	Hampden Sydney	Cardinals
9/16	William & Mary	at	VCU	Cardinals
9/16	St. Louis Univ.	at	Washington University	Gateway
9/16	James Brown	at	Drury	Gateway
9/16	UIC	at	Loyola	Great Midwest
9/16	Illinois State	at	Northern Illinois	Great Midwest
9/16	SUNY Oswego	at	RIT	Liberty
9/16	Cornell	at	RPI	Liberty
9/16	Albany	at	Marist	Liberty
9/16	Bloomsburg	at	TCNJ	MARC North
9/16	East Stroudsburg	at	Scranton	MARC North
9/16	Lehigh	at	Bucknell	MARC North
9/16	UMBC	at	York	MARC South
9/16	Drexel	at	Georgetown	MARC South
9/16	Shippensburg	at	Mount St. Mary's Dev.	MARC South
9/16	New Mexico State	at	UNM	NCR Ind.
9/16	IUP	at	Rio Grande	Non Conference
9/16	St. Thomas	at	St. John's	Northern Lights
9/16	UW Stout	at	MSU Moorhead	Northern Lights
9/16	St. Scholastica	at	UM Duluth	Northern Lights
9/16	Auburn	at	Georgia Tech	SCRC
9/16	Ole Miss	at	Tennessee Tech	SCRC
9/16	Mississippi State	at	Memphis	SCRC
9/16	Western Carolina	at	Charlotte	SoCon Non-Conf
9/16	Vermont	at	Coast Guard	NEWCRC
9/16	UNH	at	UMass Lowell	NEWCRC
9/16	Bentley	at	Boston University	NEWCRC
9/16	Norwich	at	Maine	NEWCRC
9/17	George Mason	at	Richmond	Cardinals
9/22	Longwood	at	George Mason	Cardinals
9/22	Furman	at	Western Carolina	SoCon Non-Conf
9/22	Appalachian St	at	Wake Forest	SoCon Non-Conf
9/23	Western Kentucky	at	Miami OH	Allegheny
9/23	WVU	at	Marshall (SC)	Allegheny
9/23	Eastern Kentucky	at	S. Indiana (SC)	Allegheny
9/23	MTSU	at	Xavier (SC)	Allegheny
9/23	VCU	at	Old Dominion	Cardinals
9/23	Washington University	at	Southern Illinois	Gateway
9/23	Drury	at	Pitt State	Gateway
9/23	Central Missouri	at	James Brown	Gateway
9/23	Ferris	at	Calvin	Great Lakes
9/23	CMU	at	SVSU	Great Lakes
9/23	Oakland	at	GVSU	Great Lakes
9/23	Loyola	at	Illinois State	Great Midwest
9/23	Northern Illinois	at	UIC	Great Midwest
9/23	Marquette	at	Northern Iowa	Great Midwest
9/23	UW-Platteville	at	UW-Whitewater	Great Midwest
9/23	RIT	at	Cornell	Liberty
9/23	Marist	at	SUNY Oswego	Liberty
9/23	East Stroudsburg	at	Bloomsburg	MARC North
9/23	Villanova	at	Bucknell	MARC North
9/23	TCNJ	at	Lehigh	MARC North
9/23	York	at	Towson	MARC South
9/23	UMBC	at	Georgetown	MARC South
9/23	Shippensburg	at	Drexel	MARC South
9/23	New Mexico Tech	at	New Mexico State	NCR Ind.
9/23	UW Stout	at	St. Thomas	Northern Lights
9/23	UM Duluth	at	MSU Mankato	Northern Lights
9/23	St. John's	at	ND State	Northern Lights
9/23	Memphis	at	Georgia Tech	SCRC
9/23	Tennessee Tech	at	Auburn	SCRC
9/23	Valdosta State	at	Mississippi State	SCRC
9/23	Coastal Carolina	at	College of Charleston	SoCon Non-Conf
9/23	UNC Wilmington	at	Elon	SoCon Non-Conf
9/23	Coast Guard	at	Norwich	NEWCRC
9/23	Bentley	at	UNH	NEWCRC
9/23	Vermont	at	UMass Lowell	NEWCRC
9/23	Maine	at	Boston University	NEWCRC
9/29	MIami OH	at	IUP	Allegheny
9/30	Kent State	at	WVU	Allegheny
9/30	MTSU	at	Eastern Kentucky	Allegheny
9/30	Marshall (SC)	at	Xavier (SC)	Allegheny
9/30	S. Indiana (SC)	at	Western Kentucky	Allegheny
9/30	William & Mary	at	Old Dominion	Cardinals
9/30	George Mason	at	William & Mary	Cardinals
9/30	VCU	at	Longwood	Cardinals
9/30	Central Missouri	at	Drury	Gateway
9/30	Pitt State	at	UMS&T	Gateway
9/30	CMU	at	GVSU	Great Lakes
9/30	SVSU	at	Calvin	Great Lakes
9/30	Ferris	at	Oakland	Great Lakes
9/30	Northern Illinois	at	Loyola	Great Midwest
9/30	Illinois State	at	UIC	Great Midwest
9/30	UW-Whitewater	at	Marquette	Great Midwest
9/30	UW-Milwaukee	at	UW-Platteville	Great Midwest
9/30	SUNY Oswego	at	Cornell	Liberty
9/30	RIT	at	Marist	Liberty
9/30	RPI	at	Albany	Liberty
9/30	Bucknell	at	Bloomsburg	MARC North
9/30	Villanova	at	Lehigh	MARC North
9/30	Scranton	at	TCNJ	MARC North
9/30	Shippensburg	at	York	MARC South
9/30	Mount St. Mary's Dev.	at	Towson	MARC South
9/30	Drexel	at	UMBC	MARC South
9/30	New Mexico State	at	UTEP	NCR Ind.
9/30	Southern Illinois	at	Lindenwood B	Non-Conference
9/30	MSU Mankato	at	UW Stout	Northern Lights
9/30	MSU Moorhead	at	St. John's	Northern Lights
9/30	St. Scholastica	at	ND State	Northern Lights
9/30	Georgia Tech	at	Valdosta State	SCRC
9/30	Memphis	at	Tennessee Tech	SCRC
9/30	East Carolina	at	Appalachian St	SoCon D2
9/30	Western Carolina	at	UNC Wilmington	SoCon D2
9/30	Bentley	at	Coast Guard	NEWCRC
9/30	Boston University	at	Vermont	NEWCRC
9/30	UNH	at	Norwich	NEWCRC
9/30	UMass Lowell	at	Maine	NEWCRC
10/1	George Mason	at	Old Dominion	Cardinals
10/6	Bloomsburg	at	Scranton	MARC North
10/6	TCNJ	at	Villanova	MARC North
10/7	Eastern Kentucky	at	Western Kentucky	Allegheny
10/7	IUP	at	Kent State	Allegheny
10/7	MIami OH	at	MTSU	Allegheny
10/7	S. Indiana (SC)	at	Marshall (SC)	Allegheny
10/7	Richmond	at	VCU	Cardinals
10/7	Pitt State	at	Central Missouri	Gateway
10/7	SVSU	at	GVSU	Great Lakes
10/7	Ferris	at	CMU	Great Lakes
10/7	Calvin	at	Oakland	Great Lakes
10/7	UIC	at	Northwestern	Great Midwest
10/7	Chicago	at	Illinois State	Great Midwest
10/7	Northern Iowa	at	UW-Whitewater	Great Midwest
10/7	UW-Milwaukee	at	Marquette	Great Midwest
10/7	Lehigh	at	East Stroudsburg	MARC North
10/7	Georgetown	at	Towson	MARC South
10/7	UMBC	at	Shippensburg	MARC South
10/7	Drexel	at	Mount St. Mary's Dev.	MARC South
10/7	Buffalo	at	RIT	Non-Conference
10/7	Lindenwood B	at	St. Louis Univ.	Non-Conference
10/7	ND State	at	UM Duluth	Northern Lights
10/7	MSU Moorhead	at	St. Thomas	Northern Lights
10/7	St. Scholastica	at	MSU Mankato	Northern Lights
10/7	Ole Miss	at	Memphis	SCRC
10/7	Mississippi State	at	Georgia Tech	SCRC
10/7	UNC Wilmington	at	Coastal Carolina	SoCon D2
10/7	Appalachian St	at	Western Carolina	SoCon D2
10/7	Coast Guard	at	Boston University	NEWCRC
10/7	UMass Lowell	at	Norwich	NEWCRC
10/7	Vermont	at	UNH	NEWCRC
10/7	Maine	at	Bentley	NEWCRC
10/13	Northwestern	at	Chicago	Great Midwest
10/13	GVSU	at	Trine	Non-Conference
10/14	Kent State	at	Miami OH	Allegheny
10/14	Western Kentucky	at	MTSU	Allegheny
10/14	Marshall (SC)	at	Eastern Kentucky	Allegheny
10/14	Xavier (SC)	at	S. Indiana (SC)	Allegheny
10/14	Old Dominion	at	Longwood	Cardinals
10/14	VCU	at	George Mason	Cardinals
10/14	GVSU	at	Calvin	Great Lakes
10/14	Oakland	at	CMU	Great Lakes
10/14	SVSU	at	Ferris	Great Lakes
10/14	Northern Iowa	at	UW-Milwaukee	Great Midwest
10/14	Marquette	at	UW-Platteville	Great Midwest
10/14	Albany	at	RIT	Liberty
10/14	Marist	at	RPI	Liberty
10/14	TCNJ	at	East Stroudsburg	MARC North
10/14	Scranton	at	Bucknell	MARC North
10/14	York	at	Drexel	MARC South
10/14	Mount St. Mary's Dev.	at	Georgetown	MARC South
10/14	Towson	at	UMBC	MARC South
10/14	Washington University	at	Lindenwood B	Non-Conference
10/14	MSU Mankato	at	St. John's	Northern Lights
10/14	UW Stout	at	ND State	Northern Lights
10/14	MSU Moorhead	at	UM Duluth	Northern Lights
10/14	St. Thomas	at	St. Scholastica	Northern Lights
10/14	Georgia Tech	at	Tennessee Tech	SCRC
10/14	Valdosta State	at	Ole Miss	SCRC
10/14	Coastal Carolina	at	East Carolina	SoCon D2
10/14	Boston University	at	UNH	NEWCRC
10/14	UMass Lowell	at	Bentley	NEWCRC
10/14	Vermont	at	Norwich	NEWCRC
10/14	Coast Guard	at	Maine	NEWCRC
10/15	Loyola	at	Chicago	Great Midwest
10/15	Northwestern	at	Northern Illinois	Great Midwest
10/15	Villanova	at	Bloomsburg	MARC North
10/20	Illinois State	at	Northwestern	Great Midwest
10/20	Chicago	at	UIC	Great Midwest
10/21	Allegheny East #3	at	Allegheny East #2	Allegheny
10/21	Allegheny South #3	at	Allegheny South #2	Allegheny
10/21	Allegheny South #4	at	Allegheny South #1	Allegheny
10/21	Richmond	at	Old Dominion	Cardinals
10/21	George Mason	at	Hampden Sydney	Cardinals
10/21	UMS&T	at	James Brown	Gateway
10/21	Oakland	at	SVSU	Great Lakes
10/21	Calvin	at	CMU	Great Lakes
10/21	GVSU	at	Ferris	Great Lakes
10/21	UW-Platteville	at	Northern Iowa	Great Midwest
10/21	UW-Whitewater	at	UW-Milwaukee	Great Midwest
10/21	Cornell	at	Albany	Liberty
10/21	RPI	at	SUNY Oswego	Liberty
10/21	Bloomsburg	at	Lehigh	MARC North
10/21	Bucknell	at	East Stroudsburg	MARC North
10/21	Scranton	at	Villanova	MARC North
10/21	York	at	Mount St. Mary's Dev.	MARC South
10/21	Georgetown	at	Shippensburg	MARC South
10/21	Towson	at	Drexel	MARC South
10/21	New Mexico State	at	Albuquerque RFC	NCR Ind.
10/21	ND State	at	MSU Mankato	Northern Lights
10/21	St. Thomas	at	UM Duluth	Northern Lights
10/21	St. John's	at	UW Stout	Northern Lights
10/21	St. Scholastica	at	MSU Moorhead	Northern Lights
10/21	Auburn	at	Ole Miss	SCRC
10/21	Tennessee Tech	at	Mississippi State	SCRC
10/21	Coastal Carolina	at	Appalachian St	SoCon D2
10/21	Boston University	at	UMass Lowell	NEWCRC
10/21	Norwich	at	Bentley	NEWCRC
10/21	UNH	at	Coast Guard	NEWCRC
10/21	Maine	at	Vermont	NEWCRC
10/22	Loyola	at	Northwestern	Great Midwest
10/22	Northern Illinois	at	Chicago	Great Midwest
10/28	Allegheny South SF	vs	Allegheny South SF	Allegheny
10/28	Allegheny East QF Winner	vs	Allegheny East #1	Allegheny
10/28	Hampden Sydney	at	VCU	Cardinals
10/28	Gateway SFs	at	Gateway SFs	Gateway
10/28	GMW South 2	at	GMW North 1	Great Midwest
10/28	GMW North 2	at	GMW South 1	Great Midwest
10/28	Liberty 4	at	Liberty 1	Liberty
10/28	Liberty 3	at	Liberty 3	Liberty
10/28	MARC Semi-finals	at	TBD	MARC
10/28	MARC Semi-finals	at	TBD	MARC
10/28	GVSU	at	Michigan	Non-Conference
10/28	Auburn	at	Memphis	SCRC
10/28	Ole Miss	at	Mississippi State	SCRC
10/28	Tennessee Tech	at	Valdosta State	SCRC
10/28	Western Carolina	at	Coastal Carolina	SoCon D2
10/28	UNC Wilmington	at	East Carolina	SoCon D2
10/28	Coast Guard	at	UMass Lowell	NEWCRC
10/28	Bentley	at	Vermont	NEWCRC
10/28	Norwich	at	Boston University	NEWCRC
10/28	Maine	at	UNH	NEWCRC
10/29	Gateway Finals	at	Gateway Finals	Gateway
11/4	Allgheny Final			Allegheny
11/4	GMW Final	at		Great Midwest
11/4	GMW 3rd-4th	at		Great Midwest
11/4	Liberty Final	at		Liberty
11/4	MARC Finals	at	TBD	MARC
11/4	MARC 3rd Place	at	TBD	MARC
11/4	UNM	at	New Mexico State	NCR Ind.
11/4	Valdosta State	at	Auburn	SCRC
11/4	NC State	at	Lander	SoCon D1
11/4	Appalachian St	at	UNC Wilmington	SoCon D2
11/4	East Carolina	at	Western Carolina	SoCon D2
11/4	NEWCRC #2	at	NEWCRC #1	NEWCRC
11/11	NCR Play-in	vs	NCR Play-in	NCR Playoffs
11/18	NCR Round of 16	at	TBA	NCR Playoffs
11/20	NCR QFs	at	TBA	NCR Playoffs
12/9	NCR SFs	at	Houston	NCR Playoffs
12/11	NCR Final	at	Houston	NCR Playoffs

Changes Open Up Men's D2 College for Fall 2023

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