We're zooming into 2025, but what a fall season it was. First-time champions, rubber matches and a dynasty was officially born. Now that we are a third of the way through our 2024-25 national championships, let's put the fall in perspective with a look back at the champions.
Ferris State's unthinkable run
The 2024 DII football season was one with many plot twists. There were four straight different No. 1 teams. The two-time defending national runners-up didn't even make the tournament despite finishing 8-3, and programs like Miles, Virginia Union and Ashland won their first DII football championship games.
Yet, when the dust cleared, four DII football powerhouses were left standing in the national semifinals and we wound up with the rubber match between Ferris State and Valdosta State. As it was in 2021, the 2024 matchup was all Ferris State, giving the Bulldogs their third national championship since that 2021 victory.
It isn't simply that the Bulldogs keep winning, it is how they are doing it that has made them the current DII football dynasty. The three championship game wins came at an average score differential of 34.3 points. When the Bulldogs won in 2021, not one team came within 20 points of them. In 2022, Ferris State had some close games, but once the semifinals began, it wasn't even a contest. This year, not one game was within one score as it won its four DII football championship games by an average of 35 points.
This is a program that has made 70 percent of the national quarterfinals over the past decade. Head coach Tony Annese has done it with different quarterbacks every time and has had a standout defensive lineman turn into a superstar annually with one of the best offensive lines in the game. It was Grand Valley State in the aughts, then Northwest Missouri State in the 2010s. No matter what happens for the rest of the 2020s, the decade belongs to Ferris State.
Lynn-sanity: The Fighting Knights's magical Saturday
It was quite the fall for Lynn. The Fighting Knights won two national championships in one day — not a bad way to head into the holiday break at all.
The DII men's soccer championship semifinals was an interesting field. There was McKendree who pretty much shattered every program record with its first lossless season, its first regional championship, and its first trip to the national semifinals. Then there were two of the winningest programs in the sport's history in Charleston (WV) and Lynn and a CSU Pueblo team making its third straight semifinal appearance.
For the third time in the last decade, Lynn was facing off against Charleston (WV) for the title. Lynn first defeated the Golden Eagles in the championship match in 2014 to win its third DII men's soccer national championship. Three years later, Charleston evened the score, winning the 2017 championship match — but it was Lynn that took the rubber match this year, winning 3-2. The Fighting Knights finished without a loss, ending the season 20-0-2. That was head coach John Rootes' best season, which says something — Rootes is fifth all-time in DII winning percentage.
Later that night, Lynn's women's volleyball team made program history. Lynn, like almost every other Sunshine State Conference school, has lived in the shadow of Tampa, the second winningest program in DII women's volleyball history with half of its national championships coming in the past six tournaments. The Fighting Knights flipped the switch in a thrilling South Region championship, erasing a 2-1 deficit to Tampa and winning the final two sets to advance to their first-ever DII women's volleyball championship finals.
The final eight had one thing in common: None had ever won a championship. The Fighting Knights looked like they were on a mission, sweeping its way to the championship match winning six straight sets. It looked to be more of the same, as Lynn jumped out to a 2-0 lead over upstart San Francisco State, but the Gators came storming back in dominating fashion, setting up the thrilling 15-13 final stanza, won by Lynn and giving the program its first national championship in the sport.
Cal Poly Pomona parties like it's... oh, you get it
To say it was a long time coming for the Broncos is an understatement. Cal Poly Pomona last made a trip to the national championship match in 1999. There the team lost to Franklin Pierce 3-1 leaving the Broncos still national championship-less.
Twenty-five years later, the Broncos faced the very same Franklin Pierce program that crushed their 1999 title hopes in the semifinals — and left no doubt this time. Cal Poly Pomona won 4-0, getting a pair of goals from Angelina Rivas. The Broncos next opponent was a Minnesota State team in uncharted territory. The Mavericks were making their first-ever championship match appearance and had one of the best defenses in women's soccer at any level, statistically speaking. A penalty kick in the 47th minute from Marisa Salazar put the Broncos ahead for good and brought Cal Poly Pomona its first DII women's soccer title.
Saint Anselm ends PSAC's 12-year run atop DII field hockey
Since 2011, the DII field hockey championship game has been a PSAC party. In fact, the entire 2000s have been that way, as a PSAC program has won the national championship all but three times (Bentley in 2001 and Mass-Lowell in 2005 and 2010).
The streak is over as Saint Anselm defeated the defending national champion Kutztown Golden Bears in a 1-0 overtime thriller. It was the first overtime in the national championship game since 2018 and the third straight to be decided by just one goal. The Hawks, who made their first national championship game appearance just five years earlier in a loss to West Chester, brought home their first title and the NE10's first title in over a decade.
What a wild one it was. St. Anselm was held shotless through regulation and fired off four shots in overtime before Maddie Davis hit the game-winner. That goal set the Hawks' program records for career goals (38) and points (102). Head coach Carolyn King-Robitaille has turned around the program slowly and has now reached the pinnacle — the Hawks were a combined 49-139 from their debut in 2001 until she took over in 2012. They are 169-76 since and can now add national champion to the list.
Adams State's Damon Martin logs another championship
The first national champions of the fall season came on the muddy tracks of the cross country courses. Head coach Chris Siemers picked up his fourth DII men's cross country national championship of the last decade for Colorado School of Mines, edging out Wingate 63-66. It was yet another rubber match of sorts, as it was the third straight year Colorado School of Mines and Wingate were among the top two. Colorado School of Mines has wins in 2022 and 2024 over the Bulldogs, while Wingate edged out the Orediggers in 2023.
On the women's side, the Adams State Grizzlies won the national championship... again. It was their sixth title since 2014 and head coach Damon Martin's 21st DII women’s cross country team title. That is the most in DII history and tied for second-most across all levels of college sports. Martin got right back to work, coaching the Grizzlies' indoor track and field teams, where he has won five more women's titles, including the past two. He also has a men's indoor and outdoor title as a head coach. When you add in his 10 DII men's cross country titles, Martin has 38 total — fourth all-time across every level and sport.
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