Bumblin' B's

[Ralph Turner]

It's in the Rutland Herald, so I'm guessing there's some truth to the rumors:

A new New England Conference will be forming for play in the 2008-2009 season.  They haven't picked a name yet (I'm voting for the Conference of Regional Athletic Participation), but members will be: Bay Path (women only), Wheelock, Lesley, Becker, Elms, Newbury, Mitchell, and Daniel Webster.

Word is they will be looking to recruit some other schools as well.

This leaves the NAC with only six schools (Johnson State, Castleton State, Husson, Thomas, ME-Maritime, and ME-Farmington).  Both Green Mountain College and Lyndon State have applied for membership.  They're still doing due diligence, but it would be silly for the NAC to reject either of them.  Both are still provisional, however, so I don't know how that would affect the NAC's Pool A status.

Regardless, this will provide at least five new Pool B school for 2008-2009 (Newbury and Mitchell were already independent).

Green Mountain should be a full member in August 2007.

Which league is a logical choice for ME-Presque Isle?  Anyone?

Please help me with the geography.

Which is the NAC predominantly north and NewLeague south or urban or closer to each other?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Ralph,

Presque Isle is a toughie - unless I've overlooked someone, the nearest d3 school would be Husson (NAC), and that's at least 150 miles to the south.  That may not sound like much to a Texan, but try it in Maine during basketball season!  (To give an idea of UMPI's location, between 80 and 90% of all Canadians live SOUTH of Presque Isle!)

I'm not really familiar with Canadian schools, but I suspect there may be several schools in New Brunswick that are closer than any US schools - perhaps they should consider secession!  (Though that got rather unpleasant when South Carolina tried it!)

[David Collinge]

Which league is a logical choice for ME-Presque Isle?  Anyone?

The CFL.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The NAC would be a natural choice.  Yeah, UMPI is about 150 miles from Bangor (where Husson is located), but in Maine this is a three hour drive.  That's an eternity in New England for your closest opponent.  And when you figure in Johnson State, that's an eight hour drive, the quickest route (according to Google maps) for which involves more than 300 miles in Canada.

UMPI is just out on its own.  If they had a travel partner it might work, but I'm not sure they'll ever get accepted to any conference unless there is one that forms just for Maine schools.

[Ralph Turner]

The 2008 Handbook has been released.

It is not very "Bumblin'" with the Landmark teams in Pool B for 2 years.

There are 4 Pool B bids this year.

[Ralph Turner]

The 2008 Handbook has been released.

It is not very "Bumblin'" with the Landmark teams in Pool B for 2 years.

There are 4 Pool B bids this year.

There are 38 Pool B schools this year.  This includes Nebraska Wesleyan, Lincoln (Pennsylvania) and Fisk to get to 38.  The calculated access ratio is 1:9.29.  Had there been only 37 schools, there would have been only 3 Pool B bids.

In the 38 schools are the Landmark 8 (which should gain the Pool A bid in the 2010 tourney), the Northern Athletics Conference 12 (which should get the Pool A bid in 2009), and the UMAC 8, 5 of whom should be full members by 2010, and giving the Pool A bid in 2012.

[hopefan]

Why would Fisk and Lincoln be assigned "B" status when they play virtually no NCAA D3 schools?   Could a school that plays only 3 or 4 games get a bid?  -  I'd hope not - then why include them in the base?

[wilburt]

Why would Fisk and Lincoln be assigned "B" status when they play virtually no NCAA D3 schools?   Could a school that plays only 3 or 4 games get a bid?  -  I'd hope not - then why include them in the base?

Fisk is included in the base (aka "B" status) because they are an independent school with membership in NCAA Division III.  Scheduling has no bearing on that.  Those are two SEPARATE issues my friend!

Lincoln is a provisional member of NCAA Division II, so I don't see why they are still included as a D3 member.  Schools are free to schedule who they want to and Fisk has chosen to schedule more of its traditional rivals who tend to play in D2 than D3 South Region opponents. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I think Lincoln is technically still in D-III for one more year, but are not eligible for the post-season.  Maybe I'm wrong here and the NCAA screwed up; it's happened before, often (on both counts).

[wilburt]

It's unclear from Pat's daily dose what Lincoln's status is?

http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2007/07/19/lincoln-officially-gone-to-division-ii/

[pabegg]

The math in the handbook is wrong, but the results come out the same.

There are 387 schools, of which 349 (not 344) are in AQ conferences. So the access ratio is 349/38 = 9.18, not 344/37 = 9.29.

Guess what? 344 and 9.29 are in last year's handbook. They forgot to update the text on those two lines.

Anyway, with a 9.18 ratio, four bids requires 37 teams, so even if Lincoln is reallocated, as I believe they should be, there will still be a 38-4-17 split of the bids.

Other than that, I agree with the math.

The other news from the handbook is confirmation on regional allocation, where they're doing what they did with soccer already:

Colorado College stays in the West, despite joining the SCAC.
Merchant Marine stays in the Atlantic because the Landmark isn't a qualifying conference yet; they'll probably move to the Mid-Atlantic when it does.
Stevens, Bard, Manhattanville, and Centenary change regions to match their new conferences.
The new schools are allocated regions that generally make sense, with Spalding (Kentucky) being assigned to the Great Lakes and St. Joseph's (Brooklyn, NY) being assigned (illogically) to the East.

[Knightstalker]

The math in the handbook is wrong, but the results come out the same.

There are 387 schools, of which 349 (not 344) are in AQ conferences. So the access ratio is 349/38 = 9.18, not 344/37 = 9.29.

Guess what? 344 and 9.29 are in last year's handbook. They forgot to update the text on those two lines.

Anyway, with a 9.18 ratio, four bids requires 37 teams, so even if Lincoln is reallocated, as I believe they should be, there will still be a 38-4-17 split of the bids.

Other than that, I agree with the math.

The other news from the handbook is confirmation on regional allocation, where they're doing what they did with soccer already:

Colorado College stays in the West, despite joining the SCAC.
Merchant Marine stays in the Atlantic because the Landmark isn't a qualifying conference yet; they'll probably move to the Mid-Atlantic when it does.
Stevens, Bard, Manhattanville, and Centenary change regions to match their new conferences.
The new schools are allocated regions that generally make sense, with Spalding (Kentucky) being assigned to the Great Lakes and St. Joseph's (Brooklyn, NY) being assigned (illogically) to the East.

When has the NCAA been logical?  In my opinion the Landmark should have been assigned to the Atlantic Region.  The Atlantic loses three more schools now.

[Ralph Turner]

Plus pabegg and KS...thanks for the comments.

When I posted that last night, I was "cruisin' on fumes" at the end of a long day.  I did not want to spend the time "doin' the math".

If I could change schools' regions, I would try to move conferences for the sake of increasing the number of in-region games available.

Move Colorado College to the South Region.  The state of Colorado is in Administrative Region #4, so adding them to the South (Basketball Evaluation) Region would increase the number of available schools for in-region games to those in the GSAC, the USAC, the ODAC and the Miss College and Louisiana College.

Move Finlandia on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the West (Basketball Evaluation) Region.  That makes all of the games against teams from Wisconsin and Minnesota in-region games, and Finlandia still resides in Administrative Region #3 to be included with Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, etc.

I agree with putting the Landmark in the Atlantic Region to increase the number of in-region games available, and to give some competition to the NJAC for Regionally Ranked teams.  The use of Administrative Region here to expand in-region games is not as clear cut because District of Columbia, Maryland, and New Jersey are in Administrative Region #1. Pennsylvania and New York are in #2.  Please remember that the 200-mile radius rule is also available for the sake of defining in-region.

[pabegg]

The math in the handbook is wrong, but the results come out the same.

There are 387 schools, of which 349 (not 344) are in AQ conferences. So the access ratio is 349/38 = 9.18, not 344/37 = 9.29.

Guess what? 344 and 9.29 are in last year's handbook. They forgot to update the text on those two lines.

Anyway, with a 9.18 ratio, four bids requires 37 teams, so even if Lincoln is reallocated, as I believe they should be, there will still be a 38-4-17 split of the bids.

Other than that, I agree with the math.

The other news from the handbook is confirmation on regional allocation, where they're doing what they did with soccer already:

Colorado College stays in the West, despite joining the SCAC.
Merchant Marine stays in the Atlantic because the Landmark isn't a qualifying conference yet; they'll probably move to the Mid-Atlantic when it does.
Stevens, Bard, Manhattanville, and Centenary change regions to match their new conferences.
The new schools are allocated regions that generally make sense, with Spalding (Kentucky) being assigned to the Great Lakes and St. Joseph's (Brooklyn, NY) being assigned (illogically) to the East.

When has the NCAA been logical?  In my opinion the Landmark should have been assigned to the Atlantic Region.  The Atlantic loses three more schools now.

The Landmark hasn't been assigned anywhere yet. It's not recognized as a conference for the 2007-2008 academic year. So the seven schools that were in the Mid-Atlantic stay in the Mid-Atlantic, and Merchant Marine stays in the Atlantic.

The other schools move to recognized conferences, so they have to pick up the regional orientation of those conferences.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Ralph,

Glad to see you're joining my 'crusade' to move Finlandia to the West.  Right now, their NEAREST in-region game (aside from Northland by the 200-mile rule) is Alma, nearly 500 miles away (and like ALL GL games, requiring a trip over the Big Mac, which often closes for hours at a time during bball season).

Of course, until they do a lot of improving, in-region is not really a relevant concept!

Now, if anyone can solve the UMPI situation!