Wins will fix Central’s poll standing

To Blaine Bennett, it’s simple. All his Central Washington Wildcats must do to reach the Division II  playoffs is win.

This despite Central’s No. 7 ranking in this week’s first regional poll. The final regional rankings determine the DII playoff field, with the top six in each region advancing.

CWU, 5-1 with its only loss to Bowl Championship Subdivision powerhouse Montana, 38-35 on a late field goal, was ranked 11th in this week’s national coaches poll and sixth by D2Football.com.

The regional rankings were released Monday. The national polls came out Tuesday.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Bennett said of the regional poll. “It makes for good news material and stuff for people to talk about. But my feeling is that if you’re in the top 10, you’re within range. In our situation, what we have to do is go ahead and beat everybody in our league.

“If we do that, we’ll be in the playoffs. If we don’t, we won’t.”

Beating everyone in the GNAC, Bennett explained, means winning the remaining five games on the Wildcats’ schedule, which also means eventually beating their four conference opponents twice each and adding a non-league triumph at Azusa Pacific.

A win-out scenario also means two victories over archrival Western Washington, with the first meeting scheduled for Saturday night at Qwest Field in Seattle.

“We need to run the table to be in the playoffs for sure,” Bennett said. “At 10-1, we’ll be in. If we’re 9-2, we’ll be a bubble team and you could make a case for us getting in. If we’re 8-3, we’re not getting in.”

Central’s current region includes the former South Central and West regions. Conferences represented in the region include the Lone Star Conference, Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the GNAC.

While the first two leagues get automatic playoff berths for their champions, the GNAC does not because it doesn’t contain the requisite six teams.

Bennett credited CWU’s comparative low regional ranking to a lack of knowledge about the GNAC in particular and the Pacific Northwest in general among the voters.

“Most of the people who vote in the poll simply don’t know Central or the GNAC or even the University of Montana and what they’ve done over the years,” Bennett said. “I’ve recruited Texas, so I’m familiar with it. But YAKIMA — if you haven’t, you probably wouldn’t know Texas A&M Kingsville from Lewis & Clark.”

Bennett also said two offensive starters will miss Saturday night’s Western game. Nick Finer, a junior right guard, was found to have suffered a broken ankle in Saturday’s 49-14 win over Dixie State and will be out for the season while tight end Jared Bronson will be sidelined with a shoulder ailment.

Running back J.R. Hasty, who tweaked an ankle injury against Dixie, should be ready, Bennett said.