FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[DuffMan]

Bethel and SJU should be GAC fans this weekend.

For sure.

[sjusection105]

Bethel and SJU should be GAC fans this weekend. It would help both their seeds (and Bethel's chance to just get in), assuming both teams also win out. No gimme for Bethel with UST looming large.

It's a given SJU fans would never root for UST 

[Pat Coleman]

Pool C teams host AQs all the time. "Which pool you qualified in" is not one of the factors in seeding.

Thanx Pat - well, that certainly makes everything very interesting - as 2 SCIAC teams might be hosts - wow!

Could certainly happen, and perhaps envision them as a 3 seed and a 2 seed, so that they don't face each other in the first round but might in the second round if both advance.

[Baldini]

Pool C teams host AQs all the time. "Which pool you qualified in" is not one of the factors in seeding.

Thanx Pat - well, that certainly makes everything very interesting - as 2 SCIAC teams might be hosts - wow!

Could certainly happen, and perhaps envision them as a 3 seed and a 2 seed, so that they don't face each other in the first round but might in the second round if both advance.

I actually envisioned one in the west bracket and one in the south bracket. Logical thinking?   

[wally_wabash]

Pool C teams host AQs all the time. "Which pool you qualified in" is not one of the factors in seeding.

Thanx Pat - well, that certainly makes everything very interesting - as 2 SCIAC teams might be hosts - wow!

2 SCIAC teams hosting would be awesome for this guy if the NCAA would allow them split up the kickoff times. If there are two games down here, I'm going to have to make a choice.   

[RFB]

Pool C teams host AQs all the time. "Which pool you qualified in" is not one of the factors in seeding.

Thanx Pat - well, that certainly makes everything very interesting - as 2 SCIAC teams might be hosts - wow!

2 SCIAC teams hosting would be awesome for this guy if the NCAA would allow them split up the kickoff times. If there are two games down here, I'm going to have to make a choice.   

Redlands is always the best choice, but you already know that from your visit to Ted Runner stadium 

[Pat Coleman]

Pool C teams host AQs all the time. "Which pool you qualified in" is not one of the factors in seeding.

Thanx Pat - well, that certainly makes everything very interesting - as 2 SCIAC teams might be hosts - wow!

Could certainly happen, and perhaps envision them as a 3 seed and a 2 seed, so that they don't face each other in the first round but might in the second round if both advance.

I actually envisioned one in the west bracket and one in the south bracket. Logical thinking?

Perhaps -- but the fact that the NCAA wouldn't fund an initiative that said "don't face each other in the first two rounds" says loudly and clearly that they would like to bank on a possible second-round matchup.

[Baldini]

Pool C teams host AQs all the time. "Which pool you qualified in" is not one of the factors in seeding.

Thanx Pat - well, that certainly makes everything very interesting - as 2 SCIAC teams might be hosts - wow!

Could certainly happen, and perhaps envision them as a 3 seed and a 2 seed, so that they don't face each other in the first round but might in the second round if both advance.

I actually envisioned one in the west bracket and one in the south bracket. Logical thinking?

Perhaps -- but the fact that the NCAA wouldn't fund an initiative that said "don't face each other in the first two rounds" says loudly and clearly that they would like to bank on a possible second-round matchup.

Well, wouldn't they need to be in the 2-7 and 3-6 games in a bracket to make that happen? And if that is the case, isn't the South the more likely bracket?

[Pat Coleman]

I don't know that that's the case, nor is it a guarantee that there will even be a "South" bracket or a "West" bracket.

[jamtod]

Pool C teams host AQs all the time. "Which pool you qualified in" is not one of the factors in seeding.

Thanx Pat - well, that certainly makes everything very interesting - as 2 SCIAC teams might be hosts - wow!

Could certainly happen, and perhaps envision them as a 3 seed and a 2 seed, so that they don't face each other in the first round but might in the second round if both advance.

I actually envisioned one in the west bracket and one in the south bracket. Logical thinking?

Perhaps -- but the fact that the NCAA wouldn't fund an initiative that said "don't face each other in the first two rounds" says loudly and clearly that they would like to bank on a possible second-round matchup.

Well, wouldn't they need to be in the 2-7 and 3-6 games in a bracket to make that happen? And if that is the case, isn't the South the more likely bracket?

If history is an indicator, there technically is no 2-7 or 3-6 games, as the individual brackets are not directly seeded like that, but rather built around geographic needs.

[art76]

I don't know that that's the case, nor is it a guarantee that there will even be a "South" bracket or a "West" bracket.

What seems to be difficult from an outsider's perspective, is that it appears easy, but isn't. I cannot even imagine trying to this without a very large map that had a 500 mile diameter overlay, and that the teams that are ranked 1 through 32 are put upon the map. Whoever is number one would play number 32, if within the diameter, if they are too far away, go up to number 31, until number 1 has a playing partner. Once all that is done, you have to take into account those teams that cannot play one another in the first round, if there are any. After you get 16 partners is where it gets real tough. You try to put the team 16 bracket opposite the number 1 bracket. Do they fall within the diameter of 500 miles of travel. If they do, great - if they don't go to 15 and so on. If the number two team can play the number 16 team within 500 miles, then schedule it, and so on.

The big kicker is that the committee probably doesn't work this way, because they really do try keeping teams that seem to consistently play one another so that in the first couple of rounds of the playoffs never get to travel across country. It sure would be a lot easier for everyone involved if we got rankings 1 to 32, and we knew ahead of time how many flights the NCAA would approve before selection Sunday.

[jamtod]

While I have no insight into what was going on when the regional rankings were selected, I also would like to add another hypothetical question to the mix: As things are right now, Redlands is #4 and the Johnnies are number 5. Who would host a game between this number 4 and number 5? I would guess the Johnnies because they won their conference, but would the Johnnies travel because of better SOS by Redlands? Obviously, there will be some shifting of rankings for the next couple of weeks, and these two teams may not end up in the same bracket - but what if this was the final ranking, how do you all feel it's going to fall?

Technically, Redlands has the #4 SOS in D3 right now which is probably why they were placed higher than St. Johns. St. Johns is at #31. I think the NCAA's calculation for toughest schedule purely uses opponents wins and losses and not subjective strength of opponent or conference. For example, Whitewater is at #99 even after playing Platteville and La Crosse which is telling. I have no idea if SOS is used for regional rankings but thought I would throw it out there to chew on.

https://stats.ncaa.org/rankings/change_sport_year_div

SOS is absolutely used for Regional Rankings as a primary criteria.

The SOS methodology has been thoroughly critiqued already, but it's pretty clearly not a good indicator of actual schedule strength.

My other big beef with the regional rankings is the reliance on RR wins for future rankings. For one, it's a feedback loop, but the other issue, if it's given any significant weight (aside from as a tiebreaker, in which case I'm less bothered), why should a win over the #10 team (Martin Luther in this case... cough cough) count for significantly more than wins over the teams that would fall 11-15 (in this case, likely Gustavus and St John's or in the WIAC, LaCrosse and Platteville).

[Pat Coleman]

It uses opponents' wins and losses, but also that opponents' opponents' wins and losses.

[sju56321]

So the game against rose Hulman is big-if they win this week, wouid they win the conference? Also, sju gets credit for mounts record as Rose Hulman played them in game 1.

[wm4]

So the game against rose Hulman is big-if they win this week, wouid they win the conference? Also, sju gets credit for mounts record as Rose Hulman played them in game 1.

SJU also gets credit for Defiance's (likely) 0-10 record a RH played them Week 9.