The Pioneer football team and the Pioneer men’s soccer team both expected to make playoffs, but because of decisions made by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the teams were outvoted and their seasons ended abruptly.

Without a traditional conference the soccer team finished the 2015 regular season with a 10-4-3 record. Two of the four losses were against teams who finished the year in the top 20 national poll and all three of the ties ended in 1-1 decisions.

“It was a good year for soccer in the state of Wisconsin. And unfortunately for us it cost us a bid that we felt we deserved,” head men’s soccer coach Enzo Fuschino said.

The football team finished their regular season 8-2 overall and 6-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The team ended up ranked No. 7 in the south region and No. 16 in the latest American Football Coaches Association’s national poll.

“We stumbled against two very great teams, but still felt that we were well deserving to be selected as one of the 32 [playoff] teams. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way,” head football coach Mike Emendorfer said.

The 2015 Division III Men’s Soccer Tournament participants included 42 automatic qualifiers (Pool A), one at-large berth (Pool B), and 18 at-large berths (Pool C). Because the University of Wisconsin teams do not have a conference they must have a strong enough record to earn the at-large berth. Both UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh earned at-large berths while the Pioneers did not, despite defeating the two playoff contenders.

“They plug numbers in and it is all mathematical and I think Oshkosh was ahead of us in a couple categories,” Fuschino said. “I think that is the problem when you play in a very competitive environment, a competitive conference.”

The 32-team football playoff contenders are accrued by 25 conference champion automatic bids (Pool A), one bid set aside for independent conferences (Pool B) and six at-large bids (Pool C). The at-large bids are determined through various calculations including results against ranked opponents, strength of schedule, win-loss percentage through the last quarter of the season, among others.

The Pioneers’ two losses came against teams ranked No. 1 (UW-Whitewater) and No. 5 (UW-Oshkosh) at the time of competition. The men also defeated No. 13 North Central in week three of the regular season. UW-Oshkosh received the automatic bid for winning conference and UW-Whitewater received one of the six at-large bids. Sixteen teams that made the 2015 playoffs, ended the regular season ranked lower than the Pioneers.

“I’d like to see it changed where you take the best 32 teams and you don’t get an automatic qualifier,” Emendorfer said. “What I think it came down to, behind the scenes, is that the committee didn’t want to take three teams from our conference.”

Emendorfer and Fuschino said their teams were both disappointed and changes need to be made regarding playoff selections, but they also said that in order to avoid a committee controlling their fate, they must win more.

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