2018 Bracketology #3

I just want to take a moment to ask – what would we all do without the Division III Tennis Blog? I personally would have way more time on my hands, but I wouldn’t have met 7-8 really good friends of mine and forged connections with countless Division III Tennis players over my years of blogging. I certainly would have way less fun being interested in DIII Tennis, and I wouldn’t get to enjoy the comments of you readers everyday. And for the most part, your comments are really informative and insightful. It’s always great to debate with you guys on whatever topic comes up on the Blog, and I’m glad that this forum is used for things more than just results. I realize we’re not close to the end of the season, but figured I would quickly throw a note in here about how great of a year it’s been. I’ll be quite honest – I was questioning my passion for doing this prior to the year beginning, but now come this Spring, I find myself churning out stream of consciousness articles like it’s my job, and I must say. I’ve definitely got at least another year left in me. So, I’ll see you all in 2018-2019. Figured I’d just put that out there.

I wanted to take this time to give you a quick preview of what I’ll be doing next week too. For those of you that are “How I Met Your Mother” (HIMYM) fans, there is an episode dedicated to Barney Stinson trying to get the “Perfect Week.” I’m not going to get into what it is, because it’s pretty vile (Barney is awful), but next week, I will be gunning for the BLOG Perfect Week! Basically, I’m going to try and write an article for everyday of the week next week. That’s a lot of D3AtlanticSouth. Note that I’ve normally been bagging about 4 articles per week, not including things like Power Rankings, etc. Next week, I’m going for 7 straight. And it’s going to happen. Anyways, you all are here for Bracketology, so let’s get to Bracketology.

See below for your current Pool A teams, based on projected winner. If you have information on any changes that need to be made here, please let us know via the comments. Please note – there is a new Pool A conference this year, called the UMAC. St. Scholastica is currently the projected champion of this conference.

Pool A

Allegheny Mountain – Franciscan

American Southwest – UT-Tyler

Capital Athletic – Mary Washington

Centennial – Johns Hopkins

CCIW – Wheaton

CUNY – Hunter

Colonial States – Cabrini

Commonwealth Coast – Nichols

Commonwealth – Messiah

Empire 8 – Stevens

Great Northeast – Ramapo

Freedom – Wilkes

Heartland – Rose Hulman

IIAC – Coe

Landmark – Goucher

Liberty League – Skidmore

Little East – Salem State

MIAA – Calvin

Midwest – Grinnell

MIAC – Gustavus

NESCAC – Middlebury

NEWMAC – MIT

North Atlantic – Colby-Sawyer

NCAC – Kenyon

Northern Athletics – Edgewood

Northwest – Whitman

Ohio Athletic – John Carroll

Old Dominion – Washington & Lee

Presidents – Grove City

Skyline – Yeshiva

Southern Athletic – Sewanee

SCIAC – CMS

SCAC – Trinity TX

UAA – Emory

UMAC – St. Scholastica

USA South – NC Wesleyan

Current Scenario:

Okay, got it? If the above teams are your Pool A teams, that means we still have Pool B and C to be determined.  As of right now, based on my Pool C article HERE, the following teams are projected to make it into the NCAA Tournament.  These are based on Power Rankings and our best guess at this moment. Since the Amherst departures, Amherst has survived a few scares from lower ranked teams, but nothing as scary as the monsters featured in “A Quiet Place,” despite that movie kind of coming in below my expectations. There is actually no change from the Pool C teams of bracketology past, however there IS an update to their order.

Pool B

UC Santa Cruz (TBD)

Pool C

Middlebury

Chicago

Williams

Amherst

CMU

Wash U

Bracket #1 – 3 Flights, Coe can Host

*denotes host site

Flights denoted in red

1. Emory*, NC Wesleyan, Sewanee, W&L
2. Bowdoin*, MIT, Trinity TX, Nichols, Ramapo, Salem State
3. Middlebury*, Skidmore, Stevens, Colby-Sawyer, Hunter, Yeshiva
4. Chicago*, Kenyon, Calvin, Grinnell, Edgewood, St. Scholastica
5. Williams*, Mary Washington, Wilkes, Messiah, Goucher, Cabrini
6. CMS*,  Whitman, UC Santa Cruz,  UT Tyler,
7. GAC, Wash U, Coe*, Rose-Hulman, Wheaton
8. Amherst*, CMU, Johns Hopkins, Grove City, Franciscan, John Carroll

 

Thoughts:

Not much changes in this bracket, which again is my best shot at making this bracket as fair as possible with three flights only. Again, that three flights thing is not a rule, but hey this bracket saves money and creates a fair one, so why not? Now, we need Coe to make the tournament (the IIAC is definitely up for grabs) and for them to bid and win their bid to host. I really can’t find any issue with this bracket at all. The regions are even, the matchups are pretty even in terms of seeding, and we minimize the flights. Someone, seriously poke a hole in this.

Bracket #2 – 3 Flights, No Coe Host

*denotes host site

Flights denoted in red

1. Emory*, NC Wesleyan, Sewanee, W&L
2. Bowdoin*, MIT, Skidmore, Nichols, Ramapo, Salem State
3. Middlebury*, Johns Hopkins, Stevens, Colby-Sawyer, Hunter, Yeshiva
4. Chicago*, Wash U, Calvin, Grinnell, Edgewood, St. Scholastica
5. Williams*, Mary Washington, Wilkes, Messiah, Goucher, Cabrini
6. CMS*, Trinity TX, UC Santa Cruz, UT Tyler
7. GAC*, Whitman, Coe, Rose-Hulman, Wheaton
8. Amherst, CMU*, Kenyon, Grove City, Franciscan, John Carroll

Thoughts:

Here’s the bracket that I don’t want to happen, but am a little more okay with happening these days since GAC beat Chicago in the regular season. While Chicago is the higher seed, they get the harder #2 seed in Wash U, which would, you know, make some sense. In the Central Region rankings, GAC should be top dog and that is reflected here in terms of seeding. The #8 region becomes an absolute beast of a region, with the projected #8, #9, and #16 teams all meeting in Pittsburgh, which allowed me to even up the regions. Remember, CMU just beat Kenyon at home 5-4, and then the winner of that match would play Amherst. CMU gets to host despite being a #2 seed, which sucks for Amherst. In the other regions, not really much to see here – do note that Johns Hopkins is the assumed Centennial Conference winner despite Swarthmore having the higher ranking, and I hope Swarthmore fans can understand why.

Bracket #3 – FOUR FLIGHTS, #1 Seeds Host

*denotes host site

Flights denoted in red

1. Emory*, NC Wesleyan, Sewanee, W&L
2. Bowdoin*, MIT, Trinity TX, Ramapo, Salem State, Yeshiva
3. Middlebury*, Skidmore, Stevens, Nichols, Colby-Sawyer, Hunter
4. Chicago*, Kenyon, Calvin, Grinnell, Edgewood, John Carroll
5. Williams*, Mary Washington, Wilkes, Messiah, Goucher
6. CMS*, Whitman, UC Santa Cruz, UT Tyler
7. GAC*, Wash U, Coe, Rose-Hulman, Wheaton, St. Scholastica, Franciscan
8. Amherst*, CMU, Johns Hopkins, Grove City, Cabrini

Thoughts:

Ah, the beauty of four flights. I had to move some people around due to the new proposed seeding of Emory/Bowdoin/Midd/Chicago/Williams/CMS/GAC/Amherst, but overall I’m pretty happy with this bracket. Who doesn’t want to see an Amherst/CMU battle or a GAC/Wash U battle? Chicago/Kenyon might even be pretty damn nice with the way Kenyon has been playing as of late. And look at these QF matchups! I’m so pumped by them that I want to preview them now, but that would be a poor use of my time. The thinking behind this bracket was really to match up the best 2 with the “worst 1,” which we were able to do. Amherst/CMU, GAC/Wash U (depends on rankings), Williams/UMW, Chicago/Kenyon, it all makes sense! Again, if Coe is not an option to host and we want all the #1 seeds to be able to host a region, four flights is the way to go. No one can complain about this draw, honestly. Thoughts?

Final Thoughts

I thought this would be a weirder exercise, but the fact that there really has been no change in terms of who gets in made this a bit easier. I think it’s pretty clear that while the Central causes some problems, there are some good solutions out there to make a fair draw. I promise I won’t update this bracketology again if there are any changes, so hopefully some crazy stuff happens this weekend! Looking at you, Wesleyan!

P.S. I realize this has nothing to do with DIII Tennis or the Blog in any way, but RIP to the legend, Avicii. I’ve written many an article to his music, sets, or productions, and been to countless of his performances. Again, just keeping it real here, because a blog is supposed to be what you care about. Music is important and I believe that.