The NCAA announced the field today for the 2014 Division II Football Playoff. The championship match will be held on December 20 at Sporting Park. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com.
Familiar faces fill the 24-team bracket with perennial contenders Pittsburg State University (Pittsburg, Kansas) and Northwest Missouri State University (Maryville, Missouri) earning No. 3 and No. 5 seeds, respectively. Those two schools have combined for eight Division II Football Championships and one of Pittsburg State or NW Missouri State have played in the championship match in eight of the past 10 years.
For the first time since 1985, the NCAA Division II Football Championship will not be played at Braly Municipal Stadium in Florence, Alabama. 2014 is the first of four consecutive years where the championship match will be played at Sporting Park.
The Pittsburg State Gorillas finished the year with a 10-1 record and a share of its 12th Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship. The Gorillas will open the tournament at home Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. CT against Harding University at Carnie Smith Stadium.
The NW Missouri State Bearcats are the defending Division II football champions and have advanced to the championship match a record 18 times. The Bearcats will open the tournament on the road Saturday afternoon against the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
Next month's match will be the first American football match played at Sporting Park, home of two-time MLS Cup champion Sporting Kansas City.
