Fact:  There are 148 colleges in the United States playing football at the NCAA Division II level.

Fact:  There are 119 colleges in the U.S. playing Division I football.

Of those 119 D-I teams, 62 get to play in the postseason because of the 10 gazillion college bowl games that now allow meager 6-6 teams to enjoy one last stand (okay, there are only 31 bowl games, but you get my point).

Of the D-II squads, however, only 30 move on to postseason play.  Twenty-four teams advance to the playoffs in search of the national title, while six have the opportunity to play in one of three bowl games.  That means just 20 percent of the student-athletes playing Division II football get to taste postseason play.  Compare that to more than half of the “big boys” getting one last day in the sun.

My point? It’s time for conferences in NCAA-II to unite and form some more bowl alliances.  As I said, currently there are three (two legitimate):  The Mineral Water Bowl in Excelsior Springs, Mo. pits the top ranked teams not making the playoffs from the MIAA and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference; the Pioneer Bowl is played between the historically black conferences, the Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; and the Dixie Bowl, which had Dixie State against someone else as Dixie was making the transition to a four-year school (this one doesn’t count; one team is already in, and who knows how long the game will last). 

In my eyes, that is absurd.  What this means is that, while Division I teams that beat up three Little Sisters of the Poor colleges to boost their record get a chance at the postseason (and more acclaim, more money and more recruiting opportunities).  Meanwhile, squads in D-II that go 9-2 or 8-3, but get stuck in the numbers game, get to stay home.  Think back just four years ago when five teams (FIVE TEAMS) tied for the MIAA title!  This year, from three to five teams from the league could go 8-3 or better, and next season when the University of Nebraska-Omaha enters the race, it is only going to get tighter. 

Yet, by all accounts, the MIAA may only get one team in the NCAA Division II Playoffs this season, which means one team goes to the Mineral Water Bowl, and up to three teams at 8-3 are stewing in their turkey dinners and getting a one week head start on Christmas shopping.

Now, does that sound equitable? Not when Northern Illinois and Middle Tennessee State get to slide into bowl games at 7-5.

My solution is simple:  Add seven more bowl games at the NCAA Division II level. Sound crazy?  Not really.  Just ask the organizers of the Mineral Water Bowl how much the game has brought to Excelsior Springs, and ask the teams how gratifying it is to get one last opportunity to take latent playoff frustrations out on someone else for 60 minutes.

Here’s how it will work.  D-II is divided into four regions with six teams from each making the playoffs.  The Mineral Water Bowl allows for two teams from the Midwest Region, so that takes care of one region.  The Pioneer Bowl stands alone as a tradition; don’t mess with it.  That means you add one more bowl game to the Midwest Region, and two bowl games to the remaining three regions.  As a result, 14 teams (two more in the Midwest, four more in the Northeast, South, and West) are afforded one more chance to strap it on.

The competitors that play in these games are chosen from the teams ranked No. 7-10 in the final regional bowl.  If you have two teams from the same conference ranked in two of those spots, they play in opposite bowl games (say the MIAA has the No. 7 and 8 teams; No. 7 plays in the Mineral Water Bowl, No. 8 goes to the Mark Twain Bowl).  If there are three teams from one conference ranked No. 7-10, well, bully for that conference.

I don’t have all the details worked out just yet.  My point is these young men have battled all season for the playoffs.  In powerful conferences like the MIAA, seven weeks through the season, a team’s postseason dreams could already be dashed.  Let’s give these players something else to shoot for.

In the process, the name and quality of Division II football are spread, and the communities into which these bowls are placed benefit from having some quality student-athletes make a visit.  Economies in small towns will be served.  In the playoffs, teams visit nursing homes, children’s hospitals and veteran’s facilities.  This experience can be shared in the bowl cities. 

Is it going to be an arduous process? Yes.  Will it cost some money? Absolutely.  Are these student-athletes, and D-II football as a whole, worth it?

Undoubtedly.