September 03, 2008
By Gary Brown
The NCAA News
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Now that the Division II football season is underway, the Division II Management Council is reminding the football community of an adjustment in the way regions will be named for selection purposes.

Previously labeled geographically, regions now will be renamed “super regionals” and be categorized numerically so as to not create confusion with the geographically based labels in Division II’s regionalization model.

Thus, effective with the 2008 championship, the four “super regionals” for football selection purposes are:

• Super Regional One (composed of the Atlantic and East regions)

• Super Regional Two (South and Southeast regions)

• Super Regional Three (Central and Midwest regions)

• Super Regional Four (South Central and West regions)

(THE EIGHT BASKETBALL REGIONS ARE PAIRED TO FORM THE FOUR FOOTBALL SUPER REGIONS)

“The Division II Management Council wanted to distinguish the organization of the championship from the new regionalization model,” said Council Chair and New Haven Athletics Director Debbie Chin. “Since the previous regional nomenclature for selection purposes used some of the same geographical references as the regionalization model, we felt it best to avoid as much confusion as possible by changing the football regions to a numerical format.”

For example, Chin said, three of the former region names recommended originally by the Division II Football Committee in the four-region football selection format were Central, Southeast and West, names that also represent three of the eight regions in the Division II regionalization model. The Management Council’s move to rename the football regions alleviates what Chin said was bound to be confusion as Division II members adjust to the new regionalization model.

Chin also said the quarterfinal-round contests in the new Division II Football Championship labeling format could now also be known as super-regional championship games.

The super-regional matchups in the semifinals have been established as follows through 2010:

• 2008 – Super Regional Two vs. Super Regional Four/Super Regional One vs. Super Regional Three

• 2009 - Super Regional Three vs. Super Regional Two/ Super Regional One vs. Super Regional Four

• 2010 - Super Regional Three vs. Super Regional Four/ Super Regional Two vs. Super Regional One