Lance Leipold, head coach at Wisconsin–Whitewater, sets an all-divisions NCAA record for the fewest games required to reach 100 career wins, doing so in his 106th career game, a 52–3 blowout of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. The previous record was set by Hall of Fame coach Gil Dobie, who reached the 100-win mark in his 108th game at Cornell in 1921.[2]
Twenty-four conferences met the requirements for an automatic ("Pool A") bid to the playoffs. Besides the NESCAC, which does not participate in the playoffs, three conferences had no Pool A bid. The MASCAC and SAA were in the second year of the two-year waiting period; the SCAC had only four members, three short of the requirement. The American Southwest, which had fallen below seven members in 2013, was in the second year of the two-year grace period.
Schools not in Pool A conferences were eligible for Pool B. The number of Pool B bids was determined by calculating the ratio of Pool A conferences to schools in those conferences and applying that ratio to the number of Pool B schools. The 24 Pool A conferences contained 207 schools, an average of 8.6 teams per conference. Twenty-four schools were in Pool B, enough for two bids.
The remaining six playoff spots were at-large ("Pool C") teams.