By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
INDIANAPOLIS – The Fort Hays State women’s basketball team is ranked first in the initial release of the 2022 NCAA Division II Central Region rankings, distributed on Wednesday (Feb. 16) by the NCAA office.
The Tigers are one of five MIAA programs listed amongst the top 10 teams in the region at this point of the season. Fort Hays State and St. Cloud State are tied for the fewest losses in the region with three, but the Tigers defeated SCSU earlier this season in Hays. The Northern Sun has three teams ranked in the top eight, while the Great American Conference has two teams amongst the top five.
Fort Hays State has the top performance indicator in the region at 32.318 and the best in-region RPI at .601. The Tigers have two more games on the schedule against regionally-ranked opponents, including Saturday (Feb. 19) at No. 10 Central Missouri and next Wednesday (Feb. 23) at home against No. 6 Missouri Western.
This year’s NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship will be back to a full field of 64 teams made up of eight eight-team regionals. The top seed in each region will have the opportunity to host the first three rounds of the tournament (March 11-14) before the eight regional champions meet up in Birmingham, Ala. for the Elite Eight (March 21-25).
In the Central Region, the conference tournament champions from the MIAA, NSIC and GAC receive an automatic bid with the rest of the field filled with the top five remaining teams at-large.
Final selections for the 2022 NCAA Division II Central Region Championships will be announced on Sunday, March 6 at 9 p.m. CT on NCAA.com.
| NCAA DII Central Region Rankings – February 16, 2022 | |||
| Rank | School | Overall DII Record | In-Region Record |
| 1 | Fort Hays State | 19-3 | 19-3 |
| 2 | St. Cloud State | 19-3 | 19-3 |
| 3 | Minnesota Duluth | 19-4 | 19-4 |
| 4 | Southwestern Oklahoma State | 21-4 | 21-4 |
| 5 | Harding | 17-6 | 17-6 |
| 6 | Missouri Western | 17-5 | 17-5 |
| 7 | Missouri Southern State | 17-5 | 17-5 |
| 8 | Minnesota State Mankato | 17-5 | 15-5 |
| 9 | Nebraska-Kearney | 17-5 | 17-5 |
| 10 | Central Missouri | 15-9 | 14-9 |
| Through games played Sunday, February 13, 2022 |