Pool C

[BobbyO]

Jim McGrath was the previous SID at Augustana.

Yep that's who it was

[kiko]

Three thoughts:

1. I expect as many island teams to be paired together as possible.  (I.E. -- Whitman, Pomona-Pitzer, ASC and SCAC winners as a pod.)  The simple reason for this, as opposed to flying Whitman to an Eastern pod, is that it helps to minimize the number of potential flights for the second weekend.  Lumping them into a single pod guarantees that you have one and only one flight on the second weekend for whatever island teams are grouped together, unless they are a second weekend host.

2. The idea of moving Whitman (or whomever wins an island pod) to an Eastern quadrant of the bracket in the second weekend is a way to better balance the draw since you would know that someone is flying somewhere that weekend.  The real question to me is whether they would be seeded in a way they could be selected as a second weekend host as that would mean three flights to them instead of one flight in the other direction.  The bracket may instead have them as a #2 seed (yes, I know there aren't actually seeds) behind a more centrally located #1 seed in their quarter of the draw.

3.  Regarding the location of a hypothetical Whitman-Pomona-ASC-SCAC pod... Keep in mind that the committee may want to reward Whitman by flying everyone to the Pac Northwest (read as: two Texas teams both fly).  But the bracket has to go to the NCAA for approval, and it is easy to envision a scenario where they send it back and say 'I see a way to eliminate an unnecessary flight -- switch the site to Dallas'.  In other words, the committee may not get what it wants if it results in our D1 sugardaddies having to pony up additional funds.  As was noted above, the NCAA's priorities change quickly once a proposed bracket results in incurring incremental costs.

[Greek Tragedy]

Should we start a GoFundMe page to cover the extra costs so we can have a balanced bracket?

[Titan Q]

Should we start a GoFundMe page to cover the extra costs so we can have a balanced bracket?

Honestly, the NCAA might be surprised how easy it would be to raise whatever funds are necessary to build the D3 bracket the right way.

[Titan Q]

My plan to fund the bracket...

1. Determine the additional amount of money needed to build the bracket the right way (like the D1 bracket).

2. Split that cost among the UAA schools in proportion to each school's endowment.

3. Add one additional Pool C, and guarantee that Pool C to a UAA team each year. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

My plan to fund the bracket...

1. Determine the additional amount of money needed to build the bracket the right way (like the D1 bracket).

2. Split that cost among the UAA schools in proportion to each school's endowment.

3. Add one additional Pool C, and guarantee that Pool C to a UAA team each year.

You could just include any school with a billion+ endowment - call it Pool D and leave it open for the rich schools who aren't otherwise chosen.  You wouldn't want to leave Amherst, Pomona, Grinnell, Middlebury, Vassar, Berea, Hopkins, MIT, Bowdoin, Trinity (Tx), Williams, Caltech, Tufts, W&L, and Swarthmore out.

It would also give everyone a chance to feel sorry for Brandeis and their measly $976m.

[Smitty Oom]

My plan to fund the bracket...

1. Determine the additional amount of money needed to build the bracket the right way (like the D1 bracket).

2. Split that cost among the UAA schools in proportion to each school's endowment.

3. Add one additional Pool C, and guarantee that Pool C to a UAA team each year.

You could just include any school with a billion+ endowment - call it Pool D and leave it open for the rich schools who aren't otherwise chosen.  You wouldn't want to leave Amherst, Pomona, Grinnell, Middlebury, Vassar, Berea, Hopkins, MIT, Bowdoin, Trinity (Tx), Williams, Caltech, Tufts, W&L, and Swarthmore out.

It would also give everyone a chance to feel sorry for Brandeis and their measly $976m.

Beyond shocked Grinnell has a $1.8 billion endowment. Love learning tidbits like that about d3 schools.

How about CMS? The three schools combine for well over $1 billion endowment.

[Gregory Sager]

My plan to fund the bracket...

1. Determine the additional amount of money needed to build the bracket the right way (like the D1 bracket).

2. Split that cost among the UAA schools in proportion to each school's endowment.

3. Add one additional Pool C, and guarantee that Pool C to a UAA team each year.

You could just include any school with a billion+ endowment - call it Pool D and leave it open for the rich schools who aren't otherwise chosen.  You wouldn't want to leave Amherst, Pomona, Grinnell, Middlebury, Vassar, Berea, Hopkins, MIT, Bowdoin, Trinity (Tx), Williams, Caltech, Tufts, W&L, and Swarthmore out.

... but if it's Berea, the players have to earn their per diem by doing odd jobs or holding a bake sale.

[Gregory Sager]

Beyond shocked Grinnell has a $1.8 billion endowment.

Oh, absolutely. It's a big-money school, and it is destined to become even more so. Warren Buffett is a huge supporter of Grinnell.

[SaintPaulite]

3 bubbles may have burst already today just in one conference tournament.
Wesleyan, Colby and Middlebury all go down, and Williams could have before the refs bailed them out with some really weak calls to foul guys out and give them points without the clock running.

Wesleyan and Colby were probably longshots that needed to pull upsets today and then do more to get in.

One wonders now if Williams has to win the tournament, since they won't get a quality win without doing so.

EDIT: Even more extraordinary, the #5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 team in the RR's in that region all lost today. 5 and 8 lost to unranked teams. #11 beat #7 and 9 and 10 lost to top 3 teams.

Does this mean Keene State vaults well into the Pool C conversation, somewhat by default?

[Smitty Oom]

3 bubbles may have burst already today just in one conference tournament.
Wesleyan, Colby and Middlebury all go down, and Williams could have before the refs bailed them out with some really weak calls to foul guys out and give them points without the clock running.

Wesleyan and Colby were probably longshots that needed to pull upsets today and then do more to get in.

One wonders now if Williams has to win the tournament, since they won't get a quality win without doing so.

Fantastic50 still has Williams and Middlebury as locks and near locks, so I think they are sitting just fine at this point.

In terms of other bad Pool C losses so far today:

:: Centre loses to Sewanee - Falls from strong contenders, an early loss in the SAA might be devastating for them
:: Wilmington loses to JCU - Wilmington now more than likely needs to win the OAC tourney
:: Mary Washington loses to Yorkpa (who really strengthens their resume in the process)
:: Gordon loses to Endicott - Falls to one of the last few projected teams in, losing before the CCC final may knock them on the wrong side of the bubble.

Any others?

[SaintPaulite]

My thinking is that this committee isn't going to look just as the SOS number or just record vs. regionally ranked. If they were of that inclination they wouldn't have put Hamilton and Nichols ahead of Middlebury and Williams this week. Middlebury is now going to have to sit and watch everyone else get chances to get quality wins while they don't. And Williams will get another win that won't help them, and then either win the final or be Pool C with another loss and no more quality wins than they have now.

Not sure why Wilmington is any more damaging than Middlebury. Both were middling in their regions, Middlebury lost to a legitimately not good team, Wilmington lost to a below average team (still middle of the pack in their conference).

Is this just east coast bias/padded number of regionally ranked games bias?

If Wilmington were to get to the finals and having beaten BW and Capital along the way, I don't see why they would be in worse position than Middlebury or Williams (if they don't get Pool A).

Centre and Gordon losing are definite problems for those teams.

[Smitty Oom]

Williams plays Amherst... if they win that semi-final game that will for sure be a quality win?

Also, just because there is talk that the committee will not lean as heavily on SOS and the .03 SOS = 2 wins equation, that doesn't mean they won't use SOS and vRRO at all. They are still part of the primary criteria. Midd will end up with a SOS around .600 and a WP of .720. Plus all the regionally ranked results and they look to be in a much better position than Wilmington.

Middlebury is now going to have to sit and watch everyone else get chances to get quality wins while they don't.

While this is very true, every team they will be competing against will also for sure take a loss. Granted, most of those loses will be to better teams than this years Jumbo squads.

[WUPHF]

You could just include any school with a billion+ endowment - call it Pool D and leave it open for the rich schools who aren't otherwise chosen.  You wouldn't want to leave Amherst, Pomona, Grinnell, Middlebury, Vassar, Berea, Hopkins, MIT, Bowdoin, Trinity (Tx), Williams, Caltech, Tufts, W&L, and Swarthmore out.

It would also give everyone a chance to feel sorry for Brandeis and their measly $976m.

Pool F: for Division III schools that open a flight school and provide their services at cost.

I am looking at you Rose-Hulman...

[SaintPaulite]

Williams plays Amherst... if they win that semi-final game that will for sure be a quality win?

You sure about this? I thought Middlebury was the 1 seed...

It's not that they won't lean as heavily on that equation, they're not allowed ot use it at all. So basically all criteria are independent of each other.

I'm also guessing some of those results vRRO will go away. Wesleyan and Colby are done. Regionally ranked below 8 to me shouldn't matter anyway. They're just getting ranked on volume and not merit at that point.

Middlebury has lost to Tufts twice now. And their only wins vRRO are likely to be Williams and Hamilton, vs. losses to Amherst, Swarthmore, Plattsburgh and, perhaps most crucially, Keene.

If Wesleyan falls out of the RR, Williams has even less to point to. Montclair is about it.