It’s Bracketology time again! Since we have already been through one round of the famous Bracketology, I will not be repeating the numerous rules and regulations that we have come to expect from the NCAA. For an update on rules, please visit the Bracketology Edition #1 here.
This time around, we’ve done TWO different scenarios for your reading pleasure. We have not made any changes to the NCAA rules, but we made two brackets to show you guys that there are many different options when it comes to the bracket. These just happen to be two of our likely scenarios with the same seeds and different host sites. There are other scenarios I am sure, but these seem the most likely considering past NCAA history and other factors. Without further ado, here are your Pool A, B, and C contenders as well as the two separate brackets. Please note that we have not made any changes to Pool A at this time. We will start doing this as conference tournaments roll around.
Pool A
Allegheny Mountain – Franciscan
American Southwest – UT-Tyler
Capital Athletic – Mary Washington
Centennial – Johns Hopkins
CCIW – Carthage
CUNY – Baruch
Colonial States – Neumann
Commonwealth Coast – Nichols
Commonwealth – Messiah
Empire 8 – Stevens
Great Northeast – Albertus Magnus
Freedom – Wilkes
Heartland – Rose Hulman
IIAC – Coe
Landmark – Catholic
Liberty League – Skidmore
Little East – Southern Maine
MIAA – Kalamazoo
Midwest – Grinnell
MIAC – Gustavus
NESCAC – Amherst
North Atlantic – Colby-Sawyer
NCAC – Kenyon
Northern Athletics – Wisc. Lutheran
Northwest – Whitman
Ohio Athletic – Capital
Old Dominion – Washington & Lee
Presidents – Grove City
Skyline – Yeshiva
Southern Athletic – Sewanee
SCIAC – CMS
SCAC – Trinity TX
UAA – Emory
USA South – NC Wesleyan
Pool B
Santa Cruz
Whitewater
Babson
MIT
Pool C
Pomona-Pitzer
Middlebury
Wash U
Bowdoin
Carnegie Mellon
Bracket #1
*denotes host site
1) CMS*, Pomona-Pitzer, UT-Tyler, Santa Cruz
2) Amherst*, Mary Washington, Babson, Catholic, Baruch, Neumann
3) Trinity TX, Gustavus*, Whitewater, Grinnell, Wisc. Lutheran
4) Middlebury*, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Yeshiva, Albertus Magnus
5) Emory, NC Wesleyan, Sewanee, Washington & Lee*, Wilkes, Grove City
6) Wash U*, Whitman, Coe, Earlham, Elmhurst
7) Kenyon*, Carnegie Mellon, Kalamazoo, Otterbein, Messiah, Franciscan
8) Bowdoin*, Stevens, Skidmore, Colby-Sawyer, Nichols, Southern Maine
Thoughts – Bracket #1 is actually the same bracketology as we posted last week, with different seeding considering there were a few changes this past week in terms of ITA rankings. Again, I think Bowdoin is the biggest winner here as they get Stevens as their #2 seed. While Stevens is a good team, I would much rather play them than a Johns Hopkins, for example. Bowdoin lucks out because they play in Maine and don’t get the desired “top #2 seed” in the bracket. Pomona has now made it a moot point that they play in the West and will not be shipped out of that region. Mary Washington is now going to Amherst and many of the other regions stayed the same. There are a few #1 seeds that I think could be upset (Middlebury, Wash U, Kenyon, Bowdoin) but the others are looking pretty safe.
Bracket #2
*denotes host site
1) CMS*, Pomona-Pitzer, UT-Tyler, Santa Cruz
2) Amherst*, Skidmore, Catholic, Baruch, Neumann
3) Trinity TX, Mary Washington*, Capital, Wilkes, Franciscan
4) Middlebury*, Stevens, MIT, Yeshiva, Albertus Magnus
5) Emory*, Whitman, NC Wesleyan, Sewanee, Washington & Lee
6) Wash U, Gustavus, Whitewater*, Coe, Grinnell, Wisc. Lutheran
7) Kenyon*, Carnegie Mellon, Kalamazoo, Carthage, Rose Hulman, Grove City
8) Bowdoin, Johns Hopkins, Babson*, Colby-Sawyer, Nichols, Southern Maine
Thoughts – Bracket #2 presents a different set of scenarios. In order to make a fairer draw where Bowdoin doesn’t luck out, we did some research on team’s facilities and Babson seems to have a pretty damn good one. We have them hosting a region with Bowdoin as the #1 seed and Johns Hopkins as the #2 seed. In fact, I believe Babson has hosted a region previously so this is definitely a reasonable scenario. In this bracket, Middlebury gets Stevens as their #2 seed and Amherst gets Skidmore as their #2 seed. The lack of top 20 #2 seeds is prominent here and Amherst gets to cakewalk into the Elite 8. Also to note, Trinity TX is being flown to none other than Mary Washington to play as the #1 seed there. There are a few seeds I think could be on upset alert (Emory, Wash U, Kenyon, Bowdoin) and all of those matches should be real nice. The Emory region gets us some pretty high-quality under the radar matchups such as W&L vs. Sewanee and Whitman vs. NC Wesleyan.
Well, I know you all were looking forward to this Bracketology so I will cut the chatter and get this thing posted. I did say my senses were tingling about 3 hours ago, but duty calls. As always, let us know your thoughts and comments about both the draws below! I will be monitoring the comments closely as we got a bit off track last time, so please try and stay within context! If you are a go-getter, try and propose some new potential matchups that might make our draws more fair. We are absolutely not the end all, be all on this thing. Thanks, all… and as always, ASouth, OUT.
The NCAA is not going to accept payment for draws, which is what you are proposing. If you would like them to consider it, please contact the NCAA directly.
Mary Washington has traveled to Kenyon in the past and could be a 2 seed there.
Say Pacific pulls the upset of Whitman in their conference tournament. How much would that screw things up?
This is a great question. The NWC is both D3West and D3Regional’s territory, and D3AS is our resident Pool-C expert, but here’s my crack at this. Whitman’s best wins are from SBWW back in February (Tyler, Cruz, and Redlands). None of those three teams are tournament teams. Whitman’s poor Stag-Hen included losses to Trinity Tx, Case and Kenyon, and remember that Whitman blew a 3-0 lead on Bowdoin. With all of the indirects flying around this year, I don’t think the Trinity Tx or Kenyon losses matter too much. The Bowdoin loss only matters if the Polar Bears lose to Williams or another NESCAC foe (not including Midd). The Case loss, however, really hurts. It will hurt even more if Chicago beats Case at UAA’s. This is all a longwinded way of saying that if Whitman loses to Pacific I personally don’t think they would get a Pool-C bid.
Also, it wouldn’t open up one of the coveted three flights because Pacific would get the bid instead and the Boxers are still wayyyy more than 500 miles from Claremont.
Wouldn’t it also throw off the seedings you have above? I assume Pacific wouldn’t just replace Whitman as a two seed in an Emory or Wash U region. Would it just lead to one of those teams getting an easier regional?
It would go one of two ways: Pacific would replace Tyler in the California region and play CMS, while the Pats would be shipped off to Wash U/Emory to shore up those regions, or, since neither team is a legitimate #2 seed, both would end up in California and play each other. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it
Thanks for your comment – please note I edited it down to be more succinct.
Overall – in Bracketology #1, I wrote a long paragraph about NCAA rules. I wrote about bids, the 500 mile rule, and that the NCAA does what they want. I indicated that this was a potential scenario and that there are many scenarios. This is also indicated considering there are two separate scenarios above.
Unfortunately, I do not know what schools put in bids to host, and if I did, I would not share it. The deadline is prior to the actual selection of teams. To answer your Pomona question – there is no regulation on flying Pomona. The NCAA has determined that they will pay for three flights only for DIII tennis for financial reasons. There is no rule stating that Pomona cannot fly out, which is why I was going to make a push for them to do so this year prior to their Redlands loss.
I would encourage any readers to ask the question “Can Mary Washington travel to Kenyon” and other similar questions in the comments. It is an ordeal to type out who can go where and I have many articles to write, a life to live, and a real job to do. We can answer all your questions in comments or by doing a little research.
The NCAA has no hard and fast rule about having three flights as evidenced by their 2013 bracket, but they take that into consideration. The idea of a team paying for their own way is completely against the rules and would bring up some serious ethical issues. I, therefore, do not consider it a serious suggestion
The NCAA pays for all travel, food, hotel within the 500 mile limit as well. As I am sure you know from your past work, budgeting is important – which is why they usually only allow 3 flights. No team is paying for NCAAs – this is why this is an ethical issue, because we can’t have teams “paying for better regions.” It’s against the rules.
Only 42 teams in bracket #2. Looks like you left out Messiah. Also I was curious why you swapped out teams in a few conferences from bracket #1 to bracket #2 – OAC (Otterbein/Capital) CCIW (Elmhurst/Carthage) Heartland (Earlham/Rose-Hulman)
Good call! Messiah was left out on accident, we will edit and change that shortly. For the Pool A teams, we took some feedback from D3Central about what teams might win their conferences. Looks like when I pasted over Bracket #1 from the old bracketology I missed some changes. Will also update soon! Good eye over there…
In the GNAC, Ramapo already beat Rutgers-Newark 9-0, who beat Albertus Magnus 6-3. I don’t see Albertus Magnus winning their conference.
Good stuff – thanks for the heads up!