"As to the playoffs, does the NCAA pay for the flights or does each school pick up its own tab? Money should not come into play in determining a national champion. Money is made on the tournament...it should be pooled and used to make the brackets as fair to all as possible. From what I saw last year, CLU got screwed. "
As far as I know the NCAA provides all the travel/operations costs for the D-3 playoffs. Which all the schools are very appreciative of this, because without the NCAA's financial assistance many school's athletic budgets would not be able to afford to compete nationally. D-3 playoffs generate very little revenue on it's own, it's a money loser for the NCAA, most of the operating costs come from the revenue generated from NCAA d-1 B-Ball tourney to fund other athletic playoffs, ie D3 football.
So yes the brackets and playoffs are very much effected by MONEY, but it's a painful trade-off. If fair competition was the primary goal of the D-3 playoff system, then 4 of the top 6 teams in the nation last year would not have been regionally bracketed against each other.
d3football.com's prediction brackets were much more fair from a competitive stand point, and made a lot more sence. They predicted that Oxy would be the #1 seed in the South region and UW Bridgewater would be the top seed in the North. Leaving St Johns and Linfield to fight for the west. But unfortunately, we know that this is not how it went, because this senario would have increased the number of 1st round flights from 1 (oxy to linfield) in the first round to at least 2 (opp to linfield, & opp to oxy). At over $75k a pop.
It's a tough pill to swallow, but a necessary one at that. So unless either the NWC & SCIAC get another team in like 2004, it will be NWC champ vs SCIAC champ in 2006, no matter how highly ranked either team is. Because the NCAA considers both conferences isolated "islands."
As far as I know the NCAA provides all the travel/operations costs for the D-3 playoffs. Which all the schools are very appreciative of this, because without the NCAA's financial assistance many school's athletic budgets would not be able to afford to compete nationally. D-3 playoffs generate very little revenue on it's own, it's a money loser for the NCAA, most of the operating costs come from the revenue generated from NCAA d-1 B-Ball tourney to fund other athletic playoffs, ie D3 football.
So yes the brackets and playoffs are very much effected by MONEY, but it's a painful trade-off. If fair competition was the primary goal of the D-3 playoff system, then 4 of the top 6 teams in the nation last year would not have been regionally bracketed against each other.
d3football.com's prediction brackets were much more fair from a competitive stand point, and made a lot more sence. They predicted that Oxy would be the #1 seed in the South region and UW Bridgewater would be the top seed in the North. Leaving St Johns and Linfield to fight for the west. But unfortunately, we know that this is not how it went, because this senario would have increased the number of 1st round flights from 1 (oxy to linfield) in the first round to at least 2 (opp to linfield, & opp to oxy). At over $75k a pop.
It's a tough pill to swallow, but a necessary one at that. So unless either the NWC & SCIAC get another team in like 2004, it will be NWC champ vs SCIAC champ in 2006, no matter how highly ranked either team is. Because the NCAA considers both conferences isolated "islands."
