Two minutes to go.   Williams ending regulation in a tie! Color me shocked!!!

Some great soccer today.  Cortland looks great.  But I'm also not too familiar with Medaille. 

Did anyone else watch Westconn play this season?  I started taking my kids about 4 years ago to get around to notable college games throughout CT.  It's a shame they weren't able to showcase themselves in the national level.  I can't even imagine what that locker room and coaches office must feel like these last few days. 

On paper I would say NYU has the edge over Williams.  I am certainly appreciative in the different views presented here but respectfully, almost no amount of reasoning will ever convince me that WestConn sitting at home right now isn't criminal conduct by the NCAA Committee and powers that be.

Sure they had a couple 'cupcake' teams on the schedule but they didn't play nobody's.  An undefeated team is sitting at home scratching their heads wondering what all their hard work this year meant.  I did not watch their conference final and I fully understand they should've taken care of business, but that doesn't mean one blemish in PKS in 22 games should have you sitting out at home.  They didn't lose a single game and yet they were even a discussion by the committee! Yikes.

I am only singling them out because on paper of the teams with the at large, the tie record is the most egregious!  My point is that after seeing what they did this year in order to qualify - what's to stop other teams, including others in NESCAC from deploying a similar strategy?  Schedule some top tier teams and park it for the tie.  I love sorting through some stats so I'll help out:

Williams Ties
0-0 vs Springfield > Williams 13 shots - Springfield 11
1-1 vs Babson > Williams 7 - Babson 17 (6 of the 7 shots in first half where they had the lead)
2-2 vs Tufts > Williams 13 - Tufts 9
0-0 vs Colby > William 8 - Colby 3
0-0 vs Amherst > Williams 6 - Amherst 13 (Amherst got red card in 55th minute)
2-2 vs Wheaton > Williams 7 - Wheaton 15
1-1 vs Wesleyan > William 4 - Weselyan 12
0-0 vs Hamilton > Williams 20 - Hamilton 17 (Hamilton got red card in 53 minute)
1-1 vs Tufts > Williams 11 - Tufts 9
0-0 vs Conn College > Williams 15 - Conn College - 10

In these tie games Williams outshot their opponent 6 out 10 games (was really hoping this would've been a tie too!!!)
Interestingly each of the ties that goals were scored, Williams did score first in all but one - the conference tournament game vs Tufts.

I know NESCAC has its reputation - but given all the ties this year (looking at you Williams) what stops them from trying to win games next year in that conference.  Just continue to play for ties and maybe at some point get a fortunate counter!

The committee setting a standard that ties are more important than winning (as long as your SoS is higher) is a bad message in my opinion.  Not sure who it was that posted here, but they looked at Williams' record as failing to win more than 50% of their games at 6-1-10.  I couldn't agree more with that argument.

I don't disagree that they should have taken care of business during their conference final.  I watched two of their games this season (normally always watch Western vs Eastern as its a great in state rival and crosses off two CT teams in one game!).  The other game being their first match against UMass Boston.  The 2-1 score line made it appear to be close but it was far from it.  A Questionable PK awarded to UMass made that game appear close. 

Perhaps Umass decided to sit back and absorb in the Finals.  Whatever they did clearly worked for them.  WestConn was head and shoulders above them, and quite frankly took it to Eastern on their grass field 3-1. 

They appear to have a young team, hopefully those kids take this as fuel for next year.  And I guess schedule some better opponents!  This has to be the first time ever a team that never lost failed to make the NCAA, right?

I've been following the dialogue here for quite sometime, more so the last two weeks or so.  Really having a hard time wrapping my head around a 20-0-2 team not even "being brought to the table" as some of you have put.  Clearly something is wrong with the committee process and standards for bids to the national tournament.

Surely a few tenths of a percentage in lower SoS can't be the deciding factor when the actual winning percentage is a full 2 to 3 points higher?  Westconn was 4-0-1 against teams in the tournament, but they only won those games by one goal and that is a bad thing? In a year full of ties, they WON. Finishing with the 3rd best win% in the country, tied for most shutouts, 2nd best goal differential, 3rd most goals scored.  Left out.  Between them and Montclair, they have some legitimate beef!

If team names were left off of resumes presented to the committee, Westconn would never have been left out of the big dance.  Given Montclair's more known name in the world of D3 Soccer - its just as head scratching

*Full disclaimer, I have no ties to Westconn or Montclair.  I live in CT and go to a number of different college games each season to watch with my kids.  Just love watching good competitive soccer.