Quote from: swibbles on November 11, 2015, 12:00:37 PM
The NCAA scheduling committee has done it again. Another year of religious exceptions putting games on school days to avoid Sundays. 

Why should some kids have to miss school so other kids don't have to miss church? Strange precedent for the NCAA to set...

That is an absolutely valid point.  The logic escapes me.  What would happen, say, if Yeshiva (they don't play on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath) made the tournament (ok, not going to' happen, I know, but it COULD) and was placed in a bracket with a team that did not play on Sunday?  Friday-Monday games?  For my money, if your faith is strong enough that you won't play when the rest of the field is playing, you take a forfeit and be happy that you stayed true to your faith.

A related observation.  I once saw the coaches of a-not-to-be-named-school-that-does-not-play-on-Sundays scouting the upcoming opposition on the Sunday before their match. 

Quote from: Ryan Harmanis on November 09, 2015, 09:55:41 AM

Quote from: Mid-Atlantic Fan on November 09, 2015, 09:45:50 AM

Quote from: Mr.Right on November 09, 2015, 09:06:26 AM
Messiah has no chance folks. They did it to themselves against Lycoming TWICE and Rowan, CMU

Do you think it's accurate to say they would have been in if they would have swapped one of the losses to Etown, CMU, or Rowan for a win they would probably be in?

Probably.  After running all of the numbers I was surprised that Messiah was pretty competitive, with a solid winning percentage and a very good SOS.  The RvR just kills them.  The other issue is they'd probably still be below ETown because of head-to-head, but I'd probably have had Messiah on the right side of the bubble with another ranked win.  And if they'd beaten CMU then CMU may have been out altogether as well.

I agree with all of that reasoning, and although I am not sure how it happened, there is also the fact that in the final regional poll JHU was ranked above Messiah.  With both of those teams winning at home and losing on the road this week, I do not see how Messiah would then leapfrog JHU.  But again, the committee always does what the committee wants to do and they have all kinds of factors to choose from to explain anomalies.  Past history not being one of the stated criteria, one would hope that Messiah is not chosen over a school without a storied soccer history that this year is more deserving. 

Yeah, I still check in every once in a while, but I have not attended a game in a long time.  I have been pondering posting my controversial "2-losses-to-one-team" philosophy.  You know, where a team (such as JHU vs. Haverford, Messiah vs. Lycoming) with two losses to the same team (assuming that team is going to the tournament) does not deserve to be selected for a Pool C bid.  My feeling is they have already proven they can't beat that team, and that team should not have to beat them a third time.  I know that ignores the eldritch calculations the selection committee uses to pick whomever they intended to pick from the outset, but hey what do I know?  If such a team is picked they should be shipped out of region to avoid meeting their tormentors a third time for as long as possible.

But after pondering that, I decided I shouldn't post it.

Oops.

Quote from: Christan Shirk on November 08, 2015, 07:15:50 PM
FWIW, we have Part II of our Men's at-large berth analysis and predictions column up on D3soccer.com that includes the color-coded regional rankings table with updated records/win pct., strength of schedules (approximated), and records versus ranked teams.

If you find any errors, please let me know.  We have tried to be 100% accurate, but it is a lot of data to deal with.

We hope and currently expect to have our predictions posted yet tonight.

Looks like you are missing JHU's 5-0 win over Swat on 11/4 in the Mid-Atlantic grid.