The NCAA Division II Football Playoffs field has been announced and two HBCU schools — one from the CIAA, one from the SIAC — will be going to the NCAA playoffs.
Miles College, the newly crowned SIAC champions, received the no. 4 slot in the NCAA Super Region II and will host Carson Newman.
Virginia Union, the newly crowned CIAA champions, will travel to Wingate University in North Carolina.
Miles College went 9-2 en rout to the SIAC Championship, winning nine consecutive games after an 0-2 start. It will be looking for its NCAA Playoff first win in school history on Saturday.
VUU went 8-3 overall this season — 8-2 against Division II competition. The game against Wingate is a rematch of the 2022 playoff game that was hosted in Richmond. Virginia Union has made the NCAA Division II playoffs for the third consecutive season.
HBCU teams on the outside-looking-in at the playoffs include Johnson C. Smith and Winston-Salem State.
Johnson C. Smith went 8-2 during the 2024 season and was thought to have a solid shot at a bid into the playoffs. That win total is the best in school history as the team got off to an 8-0 start with a win over Winston-Salem State on Oct. 26. JCSU appeared to have the inside track on a CIAA championship game bid, but it lost its final two games to Fayetteville State and Livingstone College to find itself watching two schools — Virginia Union and Virginia State — that it had beaten. Those three wins against VUU, VSU and WSSU were not enough to overcome their losses, however.
WSSU finished the season 7-3 overall, 7-2 against Division II competition. It was ranked in the regional rankings throughout the month of November, but did not make the field.
They did Winston Salem State and JC Smith wrong
Biased and favoritism continue
HBCU’S have got to start putting the NCAA on notices for it favoritism