And now we are down to eight.

After the dust settled from the second round of the NCAA Division II football playoffs this past weekend, the quarterfinals of the national bracket (and each of the Super Region finals) are now set. The crop includes familiar D-II powerhouses, upstart names and more are looking for one thing — to lift the national championship in McKinney, Texas on Dec. 20.

• Subscribe To FloCollege To Watch Division II Football
• NCAA D2 Football Playoff Scores, Updates | UT Permian Basin Win In Overtime
• See More D2 Football Coverage On FloCollege

All eight teams have something that they’re best at, and something that could be utilized to lead them to glory. In prep for the four games to come this weekend, this is what you need to know about each team left standing.

Here’s why every remaining D-II football playoff team can win the national championship and what to watch for as quarterfinal action gets going this weekend:

Albany State Football

How They Can Win: Staying Cool Under Pressure.

The Golden Rams are back in the national quarterfinals for the first time since 2010, and part of the reason why they’re here is because of their ability to get the job done in close games while causing the right amount of chaos. 

Against D-II opponents, Albany State is 5-0 in one-score games, while it also ranks third in the country and first among remaining playoff teams in turnover margin (1.33), along with the most turnovers forced (30) in all of D-II. The only team in the country with at least 14 forced fumbles and interceptions apiece, the Golden Rams have more often than not reaped the rewards of an opportunistic defense that makes game-changing plays at just the right time.

Ferris State Football

How They Can Win: Been Here Before. 

In a bracket that features multiple teams on historic playoff runs, Ferris State’s familiarity with this stage of the season will be to its benefit. 

The Bulldogs’ dynasty, which has already seen them capture three of the past four national championships, looks as good as ever as FSU both leads the nation in scoring (53.8 points per game) by a over a touchdown’s margin and ranks in the top-10 nationally in scoring defense (17.4 points per game allowed), on top of having intercepted the most passes in the nation this season with 23. 

The consensus, continuous No. 1 team in the country all season has passed every test brought its way throughout the year, and if recent history is any indicator, the Bulldogs will be the favorites to lift the trophy once again.

Frostburg State Football

How They Can Win: Owen Doyle + KJ Smothers. 

The Cinderella team of the playoffs, unseeded Frostburg State, is on its deepest playoff run ever as a D-II school after playing in D-III less than a decade ago. 

A pair of elite tailbacks is leading the charge for the Bobcats. Doyle and Smothers could both finish the season as 1,000-yard rushers, a mark that Doyle has already reached (1,023 yards), and Smothers (901 yards) could get to this weekend with a good day against Kutztown. 

The duo is responsible for 22 touchdowns on the ground between them, and when both rush for at least 70 yards each in a game, Frostburg State is 4-0 — like what happened in the first round against Johnson C. Smith when Doyle and Smothers combined for 210 yards and three scores.

Harding Football

How They Can Win: Beware the (Flex)bone. 

In a shock to probably no one who follows D-II football, Harding’s patented flexbone offense under coach Paul Simmons once again has the Bisons atop the country’s team rushing charts and on their way to another record-crushing year. 

Harding, win or lose against UT Permian Basin in the quarterfinals this weekend, should break its own NCAA all-divisions record for rushing yards in a season (6,161 yards, 2023) as the Bisons are currently at 5,919 yards on the year, well within reach considering their eye-popping 455.3 rush yards per game average. 

By the way, when Harding set the all-time rushing record two years ago, it also resulted in its first national championship in program history, so there’s precedent for when the Bisons reach that record mark.

Kutztown Football

How They Can Win: All-Around Arsenal. 

Though the Golden Bears have qualified for the national quarterfinals three times in the past five seasons, they’ve never made the leap into the national title conversation by qualifying for a title game. But with every seeded team besides No. 1 KU now knocked out of Super Region 1 play, the path is there for the Golden Bears to get one step closer to doing just that. 

Only Kutztown and Harding rank in both the top five nationally in scoring offense and scoring defense, and it hasn’t slowed down much for KU in the postseason as the Golden Bears put up back-to-back 50-point weeks on Bentley and Assumption in the opening two rounds. Also, Judd Novak is as sure-handed of a quarterback as they come, throwing 275 passes this year to the tune of 25 touchdowns and no interceptions. 

Minnesota State Football

How They Can Win: An Opportunistic Defense. 

With three fumble recoveries and interception touchdowns apiece this season, Minnesota State ranks tied for No. 1 among all D-II teams in defensive scores — an interesting wrinkle to the Mavericks that could come in handy in win-or-go-home games, like when Ian Barau had a 30-yard scoop-and-score in the first round against Findlay as part of 37 unanswered points from MSU. 

The Mavs’ 28 turnovers gained also rank tied for third in D-II (17 interceptions, 11 fumble recoveries), making it little surprise that when Minnesota State has at least four takeaways in a game this season, it’s 4-0. On the flip side in the Mavericks' three defeats thus far this season, they tallied only three takeaways combined in those games.

Newberry Football

How They Can Win: An Aerial Assault. 

Newberry is at its best when quarterback Reed Charpia is slinging the pigskin, which he proved with authority this past weekend against West Florida with 416 yards and two touchdowns in a huge win for the Wolves. 

The graduate student has thrown for at least two scores in five straight games — and even had six touchdown throws in a South Atlantic Conference game earlier in the year against Wingate — as the recently-named SAC Offensive Player of the Year has thrown for at least 200 yards in all but one game this year, engineering the Wolves to an 11-1 record and the No. 3 seed in Super Region 2. 

If his performance against West Florida is an indication of what’s to come, we could be in for a legendary playoff run over the next few weeks.

UT Permian Basin Football

How They Can Win: Kanon Gibson. ‘Nuff Said.

D-II football’s most dynamic quarterback is still playing. Kanon Gibson has had a monster year in his first season at UTPB since transferring from Lone Star Conference rival West Texas A&M, leading the Falcons to their deepest postseason run in school history and a school-record 11 wins. 

Despite a game earlier in the year against Adams State in which he was forced off after only two pass attempts, it hasn’t stopped Gibson from being one of the country’s best dual-threat signal-callers as he’s tallied over 4,000 yards of total offense (3,678 passing yards, 496 rushing yards) and 41 total touchdowns (30 passing, 11 rushing), punctuated when he spearheaded a late comeback against Western Colorado last weekend with three scores in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Archived Footage On FloCollege

Video footage from all games will be archived and stored in a video library for FloCollege subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscriptions.

Watch The 2026 College Football Season On FloCollege

FloCollege is the home of the best FCS, Division II and Division III football action all season long. 

Don't miss the latest college football action by bookmarking the FloCollege schedule page for the latest games. 

Join The College Football Conversation

• Follow us on Twitter @FloCollegeFB
• Follow us on Instagram @FloCollegeFootball
• Follow us on TikTok @FloCollegeFootball
• Watch us on YouTube
• Like us on Facebook