Around the Nation board

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yeah, I don't know the solution.  If it is two losses and you're toast, where is the incentive to play a tough non-con game when a single conference loss added to a non-con loss means you are out of the playoffs?  On the other hand, I wouldn't want to go to TOO much 'common sense' - that route leads to politics and 'reputation'.  IMO, Hardin-Simmons and Wabash would absolutely crush half the teams in the playoffs, but did they earn it?

Relying TOO heavily on SoS is a crock, since a conference like OAC will mathematically always be near .500, and my conference (CCIW) successfully 'gamed the system' by going 22-2 on a heavy diet of cupcakes.  (Good grief, even NPU, who hasn't won a conference game this millennium, went 2-1, including beating pool A Benedictine! )

SoS is fatally flawed, a "two-losses and you're toast" is fatally flawed, relying too much on 'reputation' is fatally flawed - anyone got a solution?!

[HScoach]

^  Sure, let me pick the Pool B and C teams.

[Mr. Ypsi]

^  Sure, let me pick the Pool B and C teams.

Nice try, but I was lobbying for ME to be the selection committee!

[Ralph Turner]

^  Sure, let me pick the Pool B and C teams.

Nice try, but I was lobbying for ME to be the selection committee!

I vote for Mr Ypsi to be on the selection committee.

That means that the civilian delegate from the CCIW/North Region must recuse himself when those teams are on the table!        

[K-Mack]

^  Sure, let me pick the Pool B and C teams.

No, me.

I know I had this thought even before the Pat & Gordon annual picks, but I don't know if I wrote it anywhere. You'd get a fair bracket if D3.com did it!

[Ralph Turner]

I applaud the separating of the NJAC, ACFC, OAC and CCIW teams into different brackets.

[K-Mack]

We could select the brackets by front-page poll

Or hold our own championship invitational. Would anybody show?

[hazzben]

Great ATN column guys!

My $0.02 on the cap on losses:

1- agree with Pat, get off St. Lawrence's back. They did exactly what they needed to do to make the field. Just could have done it a little prettier.

2- that said, I think there's a middle ground between equal access and the highest quality field we can get. My solution: teams winning percentage must exceed .667. Pool A conference champs failing to match this criteria lose their auto-bid that year and an extra pool C replaces it. Unless the conference had two playoff wins the previous season, either two teams going 1-1 or one 2 win team.

This does several things. It encourages teams to schedule the 10th game, as 7-3 would still get a team into the field. The consideration of the previous seasons playoffs ensures that a strong conference in a year with great parity, say the WIAC, could still make the field if they had performed well on the national stage recently.

You still preserve reasonable equal access, while ensuring that underperforming teams from weaker conferences don't dilute the field. A 7-3 or better team from a weak conference would still make the field. But now you'd have room for a Rowan, PLU or Redlands.

[Pat Coleman]

In Division II, they have no automatic bids, but they do have what's called "earned access." Six teams go from each of four regions. If a conference has a team in the top eight of the region, that team gets a bid. That could bounce an at-large team from higher up in the regional rankings.

I apologize if I've misunderstood the concept -- this is a D-II thing and I haven't exactly studied it.

But perhaps Division III could utilize something like this, especially as the Division grows and access to this championship gets constricted. We're already above the official one-spot-for-every-6.5 teams level. I would lessen the ranking requirement because Division III is so much larger and there are so many conferences. But perhaps a conference would have to have a team in the top 15 or so in order to earn its access.

Or, if you prefer, a conference would have to be represented by a team with two *conference* losses or fewer. I wouldn't be in favor of utilizing overall losses in any equation so that teams aren't afraid to schedule games.

[usee]

You can utilize wins?  D1 has a requirement that you have to have at least 6 wins to be bowl eligible.

Kmack- you did say that on one of the dd blogs I think.

[Ralph Turner]

No!  You win your conference, you earn the bid.

St Lawrence turned their season around.

CNU got its act together.

Every team knows what it needs to do to make the playoffs.  The Fresno State's and the George Mason's make the playoffs fun.

Just do it.

I do think that "once-ranked, always-ranked" needs to be employed, just because we are not ranking teams until the last 25-30% of the season.  That adds a few more schools into the equation for evaluating the best teams.

[Mr. Ypsi]

^  Sure, let me pick the Pool B and C teams.

Nice try, but I was lobbying for ME to be the selection committee!

I vote for Mr Ypsi to be on the selection committee.

That means that the civilian delegate from the CCIW/North Region must recuse himself when those teams are on the table!      

You misunderstood.  I want to BE the selection committee!  I don't recuse myself for nobody!

I salute the committee in general - though #3 DePauw and #5 Witt is an abomination.

A tough (and thankless) job, but one where I would wish they could find a way to steer teams towards scheduling tougher in-region opponents,  Fans everywhere would thank you.

[BoBo]

However, North Central got the bounce from beating a WIAC school that also played Bethel and St. John's (might be one extra degree of separation there, but I think I got it right) ...

The Bethel UWEC played was NAIA Bethel of Tennessee, not Bethel of the MIAC!! 

[HScoach]

^  Sure, let me pick the Pool B and C teams.

Nice try, but I was lobbying for ME to be the selection committee!

I vote for Mr Ypsi to be on the selection committee.

That means that the civilian delegate from the CCIW/North Region must recuse himself when those teams are on the table!      

You misunderstood.  I want to BE the selection committee!  I don't recuse myself for nobody!

I salute the committee in general - though #3 DePauw and #5 Witt is an abomination.

A tough (and thankless) job, but one where I would wish they could find a way to steer teams towards scheduling tougher in-region opponents,  Fans everywhere would thank you.

Exactly!  But out of the kindness of my heart (and the fact I'm fat, old and bald and don't really care much anymore about anything other that a hot cup of coffee and my redhead secretary walking by my office), I offer that THE committee consist of me, Ypsi and K-Mack.

So it is written, so it shall be...............

[Ron Boerger]

A tough (and thankless) job, but one where I would wish they could find a way to steer teams towards scheduling tougher in-region opponents,  Fans everywhere would thank you.

How about just steering teams towards scheduling tougher opponents, period, and forget the 'in-region' distinction ?