HICKORY, NC - The Lenoir-Rhyne football team is listed among the 10 Super Region II teams currently under consideration for NCAA postseason play. The first set of regional rankings were unveiled on Monday by the NCAA Division II Football Committee.

Super Region II is comprised of 45 teams from the South Atlantic Conference (SAC), Gulf South Conference (GSC), Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC). 

This first list does not rank teams numerically, but puts 10 teams in alphabetical order that are under consideration. The committee will rank the teams in numerical order for the first time with the second set of regional rankings, which will be announced Monday, November 4. 

There are multiple factors taken into consideration to determine the playoff fields, including in-region winning percentage, winning percentage against Division II opponents, weighted strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, results against common opponents, results against teams above .500, results against ranked teams and the NCAA performance indicator. A regional committee considers all of that data before ranking 10 teams each week.

The Bears currently have the fourth highest performance indicator score (26.875), sitting just behind Johnson C. Smith (30.000), Valdosta State (28.000), and Carson-Newman (27.429). The top four teams in the final regional rankings earn at least one home game in the NCAA playoffs, with the No. 1 seed earning a first-round bye. The top seven teams in the final rankings will earn a spot in the playoffs, unless any one of the four conferences in the region are not represented in the top seven. If that happens and the conference in question has a team ranked eighth or ninth, that team will move into the No. 7 seed via the "earned access" rule. 

Lenoir-Rhyne currently sits at 7-1 on the season, and hold a 5-1 mark in SAC play. This weekend the Bears host Wingate in a pivotal conference battle. Kickoff for this contest, which is set to be a blackout, is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Moretz Stadium.