2019 Bracketology EDITION #1

AS: Your favorite blogger is here. I’ve done a lot of putting words on a page in the past few days and the buck does not stop there. We just finished March Madness which means I can actually focus instead of winning the blogger chat’s collective money. For you all, that means more writing. Since taking over bracketology from the Guru over 4 years ago, I have slowly refined my Google Maps skills and knowledge about random conferences such as the Allegheny Mountain Conference. This has led me to become the resident Bracketology Guru of Millenials. For a status update on the Guru, he has made like Jaqen H’ghar and currently resides in the House of Black and White, leading the Faceless Men. My goal one day is to also become No One. Bracketology will help me get there. If you are looking to understand more about the NCAA Selection, please see below, where you will be linked to another great Blog article written by myself. Appreciate this because I could be watching “Love, Sex, and Robots” but instead I’m doing this. As promised, here are the rules below:

The Rules

Overall, there will be 43 teams competing in the NCAA tournament.  This includes 36 Teams from Pool A. Pool A competitors are from conference championship winners.  There will also be 2 teams from Pool B (independents) and 5 teams from Pool C (at large bids). It’s important to know the flying rules for the tournament.  Usually, the NCAA committee provides no more than 3 flights for DIII Tennis. What that means is any team that travels more than 500 miles will be flown to the host site.  Yes, this means the return of the “As The Crow Flies” Calculator (This was an old joke about one of our favorite readers, you can probably guess who it is)! Kidding, we don’t actually use that.  You’ll see that the bracket below incorporates that rule into the projected bracket. In addition, the bracket below incorporates which schools will put in bids to host. If you are unfamiliar, schools may opt out of putting in bids for a few reasons.  The most common reason is that this may be a year where it’s the women’s team’s turn to host. This happens at Emory, CMU, and a few other schools. If you want a better understanding of the NCAA Rules, please also reference my article below:

http://www.division3tennis.com/ncaa-selection-work/

In that article, it was incorrectly stated that there are 3 Pool B teams this year.  There are two Pool B spots this year. Okay, now let’s get to who’s who. 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.

Pool A

Allegheny Mountain – Franciscan

American Southwest – Concordia TX (last year was UT-Dallas)

Capital Athletic – Mary Washington

Centennial – Johns Hopkins

CCIW – Augustana

CUNY – COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND! (last year was Hunter)

Colonial States – Cabrini

Commonwealth Coast – Nichols

Commonwealth – Messiah

Empire 8 – Houghton (last year was Stevens)

Great Northeast – Ramapo

Freedom – Wilkes

Heartland – Rose Hulman

IIAC – Coe

Landmark – Goucher

Liberty League – Skidmore

Little East – UMass-Boston (last year was Salem State)

MIAA – Kalamazoo

Midwest – Grinnell

MIAC – Gustavus

NESCAC – Bowdoin (last year was Middlebury)

NEWMAC – MIT

North Atlantic – Colby-Sawyer

NCAC – Kenyon

Northern Athletics – Illinois Tech (last year was 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 – Chicago (last year was Emory)

UMAC – St. Scholastica

USA South – NC Wesleyan

Pool B

TCNJ

UW-Whitewater (beat Cruz)

Pool C

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.

Emory

Wesleyan

Middlebury

Amherst

Wash U

Bracket #1 – Most Likely Bracket w/ Restrictions (in my opinion)

*indicates host site

Indicates team will be flying

1. CMS*, Trinity TX, Whitman, Concordia TX
2. Chicago, GAC, UW-Whitewater*, Coe, Rose-Hulman, Augustana
3. Emory*, Sewanee, NC Wesleyan, W&L
4. Bowdoin*, MIT, Nichols, Ramapo, UMass-Boston
5. Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins*, TCNJ, Grove City, Franciscan, John Carroll
6. Middlebury*, Skidmore,  Houghton, Colby Sawyer, COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND, Yeshiva
7. Wash U, Kenyon*, Kalamazoo, Grinnell, Illinois Tech, St. Scholastica
8. Amherst*, Mary Washington, Wilkes, Messiah, Goucher, Cabrini

Overall Bracket Thoughts

AS: Well, this is one of those years that I really hate. The reason for this is that there are barely any compelling Sweet 16 matches, making for little drama and little entertainment. Why does this happen, you ask? Well, that is because we only have 5 Pool C teams this year, meaning that the pool of #2 seeds is very limited. Also, we effectively lose a good Pool C team because GAC is not what they were last year. This causes the last Pool C team to take another #1 seed slot. With only 5 Pool C teams this year, and the 3 conference winners of the UAA, NESCAC, and SCIAC, there are your eight #1 seeds for the tournament. That leaves no big conference teams as viable #2 seeds. What a freaking drag.

In regards to regions, there really isn’t one that sticks out to me other than Region #7. Because of Wash U’s geographically challenged existence, they will have to travel rather than host a region. They happen to be traveling to one of the most hostile places to play in the country in Gambier, OH. I really hope that this bracket comes to fruition (based on where we are now), because that match should be interesting. Other than that, we are not treated with much. We will get some old rivalries as #2/#3 matches such as GAC/UWW and Trinity TX/Whitman, as well as your annual Sewanee/NC Wesleyan battle.

Also, a PSA on the bracket above. We’ve went through the Pool A teams and tried to do our best prediction for who the Pool A winner will be. If you believe that the above is wrong, feel free to lambast D3RegionalNEC in the comments. It’s never my fault. Other than that, know that these bracketologies are always subject to change, specifically within the Pool C landscape. I have never guaranteed that the above scenario would happen, but this should give everyone a great idea of where we stand today. And with that, I leave you until the next time. ASouth, OUT.