East Region Playoff Discussion

[ITH radio]

Frank got all the teams and almost nailed the order. Basically guarantees E8 runner up is in IMO and SLU is done. He's going to reach out to WNE to see if they're able to host (they couldn't in past b/c of press box limitations).

[Upstate]

Unless Fisher gets 60 dropped on them this week it looks good that the E8 runner up is in line for the first team on the board when it comes time to decide pool C bids...

I don't think I've seen a year where an East team is not selected and Fishers SOS will help make their case if they're at 8-2...

[Frank Rossi]

A Fisher loss to Alfred and a Frostburg win vs. Salisbury could flip the relative ordering if Salisbury remains ranked.

[fisheralum91]

Frank that is a pretty big IF 

[ITH radio]

I agree. The Albright double count and ranking is basically keeping Frostburg out.

[wone3]

Personally, I would rather see a system where the top 16 teams play for a national title(nobody outside of the top 16, probably 8 can win a title), and there are 4 regional tourneys of 8 or 16 teams each producing a regional champion.If you have an automatic bid you are in, but only qualify for the Elite 16 if you are selected. I don't know whether that means the ECAC runs the East and the other regions have organizations that run their tournaments, but I hate going to Mt. Union or MHB when you are competitive in your region to get dismantled by a program that you will never compete with because it is not a priority of your educational institution. I also think this would eliminate many of the double monkey stomps that end up being so disheartening.For example, this year St. Lawrence will probably not get in, but they might win an Eastern tournament that could have some real value. It always sucks to go on the Bataan death March out West unless you are really a strong team that can stay within 2-3 touchdowns and feel good about facing the best, although accepting the inevitable final sabre slash. That means the top programs in the East the last few years can still compete when they have a really good team and have at least an outside chance in the National tourney, but more realistically can compete regularly for a regional championship every year. Husson then has a chance to compete and show everyone that the Alfred game this year was real. Just my 2 cents

Mostly agree with you; but then you probably wouldn't have seen the surprise of the 1990 stag bowl with 2 PA schools that certainly weren't the top 16. The school Lyco played that year was so sure that they would win and play the championship that they invited the college president up to a banquet the night before and gave him a tie. The team and their fans were soooo shocked the next day getting beat and having to sell tickets and change plans

[Bartman]

Personally, I would rather see a system where the top 16 teams play for a national title(nobody outside of the top 16, probably 8 can win a title), and there are 4 regional tourneys of 8 or 16 teams each producing a regional champion.If you have an automatic bid you are in, but only qualify for the Elite 16 if you are selected. I don't know whether that means the ECAC runs the East and the other regions have organizations that run their tournaments, but I hate going to Mt. Union or MHB when you are competitive in your region to get dismantled by a program that you will never compete with because it is not a priority of your educational institution. I also think this would eliminate many of the double monkey stomps that end up being so disheartening.For example, this year St. Lawrence will probably not get in, but they might win an Eastern tournament that could have some real value. It always sucks to go on the Bataan death March out West unless you are really a strong team that can stay within 2-3 touchdowns and feel good about facing the best, although accepting the inevitable final sabre slash. That means the top programs in the East the last few years can still compete when they have a really good team and have at least an outside chance in the National tourney, but more realistically can compete regularly for a regional championship every year. Husson then has a chance to compete and show everyone that the Alfred game this year was real. Just my 2 cents

Mostly agree with you; but then you probably wouldn't have seen the surprise of the 1990 stag bowl with 2 PA schools that certainly weren't the top 16. The school Lyco played that year was so sure that they would win and play the championship that they invited the college president up to a banquet the night before and gave him a tie. The team and their fans were soooo shocked the next day getting beat and having to sell tickets and change plans

Sounds like a great run in 1990, and I hope if Hobart plays Mount Union as just predicted by Pat Coleman in the Playoff projections in the second round that they pull off the greatest upset in program history with a 46-42 win and 6 TD passes by Sweeney......then I might rethink my playoff revision ideas......and think positively and believe on any given day........

[Bartman]

With Mt.Union losing and Alfred and Johns Hopkins going undefeated , is there any chance that the East will have its own regional bracket?......I hope.....I just don't want to go down to Texas early

[wesleydad]

With Mt.Union losing and Alfred and Johns Hopkins going undefeated , is there any chance that the East will have its own regional bracket?......I hope.....I just don't want to go down to Texas early

I believe they should.  There are enough quality teams this year to have a "east" type bracket with no one brought in to make it stronger, well, unless you would count Hopkins being put in it.  We shall see.

[wesleydad]

East Region mock bracket  D3 Top 25 ranking in ( ).  I expect all of the teams ranked to move up in the rankings with the other teams that lost who were ranked ahead of them.

1 Alfred (14) v 7 Bridgewater St (UR)
6 WNEW (26) v 8 Husson (UR)

2 Hobart (22) v 5 Frostburg (27)/Fisher  I think Frostburg should be in
3 Wesley (20) v 4 Stevenson (23)

Top half is forced due to Husson only being able to play either WNEW or Bridgewater due to 500 mile rule.  Now, since Huntington also has to fly somewhere, maybe the committee flies Husson to Huntington and moves say Hopkins into the east.
If that happened I would have

1 Alfred (14) v 8 Bridgewater (UR)
4 Wesley (20) v 5 Stevenson (23)

2 Hopkins (9) v 7 WNEW (26)
3 Hobart (22) v Frostburg (27)/Fisher

Potential Alfred v Wesley and Hopkins v Hobart round 2 games would be nice.  Bracket final of Alfred v Hopkins/Hobart or Wesley v Hopkins/Hobart would be nice.  This would be the 4th seeded bracket and the winner would go to either UWW or UMHB whichever is the top seed.

One could hope, I selfishly it would be great for me because I would have a game to drive to for 3 weeks.

[Teamski]

Potential Alfred v Wesley and Hopkins v Hobart round 2 games would be nice.  Bracket final of Alfred v Hopkins/Hobart or Wesley v Hopkins/Hobart would be nice.  This would be the 4th seeded bracket and the winner would go to either UWW or UMHB whichever is the top seed.

One could hope, I selfishly it would be great for me because I would have a game to drive to for 3 weeks.

Yeah, I as much as I would love to see Wesley play somebody other than JHU in the playoffs, the writing is on the wall for week 2.

-Ski

[Bartman]

So,  shouldn't SLU still have a chance to be ranked higher on the final secret RR rankings given that Fisher is now a 2 loss team and SLU has a higher SOS than Frosty(also,that thumping by Wesley looks particularly bad ) ? I can also see the logic that Fisher makes the case despite 2 losses with the stronger SOS and the RRO win over Olivet (who woulda thunk?), but this is a close call, and if the committee goes for a one loss team, I think the very slight SOS difference gets SLU the nod over Frosty.....we will see tonight.

[thewaterboy]

Potential Alfred v Wesley and Hopkins v Hobart round 2 games would be nice.  Bracket final of Alfred v Hopkins/Hobart or Wesley v Hopkins/Hobart would be nice.  This would be the 4th seeded bracket and the winner would go to either UWW or UMHB whichever is the top seed.

One could hope, I selfishly it would be great for me because I would have a game to drive to for 3 weeks.

Yeah, I as much as I would love to see Wesley play somebody other than JHU in the playoffs, the writing is on the wall for week 2.

-Ski

Interesting to see also that Wesley falls in UMHBs bracket for the first time in 3 years.

[Upstate]

So,  shouldn't SLU still have a chance to be ranked higher on the final secret RR rankings given that Fisher is now a 2 loss team and SLU has a higher SOS than Frosty(also,that thumping by Wesley looks particularly bad ) ? I can also see the logic that Fisher makes the case despite 2 losses with the stronger SOS and the RRO win over Olivet (who woulda thunk?), but this is a close call, and if the committee goes for a one loss team, I think the very slight SOS difference gets SLU the nod over Frosty.....we will see tonight.

.............OWP(RK)...OOWP...SOS (RK)...W-L VS RR0
SJF- 8-2, .6000 (7), .5705, 0.590 (4) 1-1
STL- 9-1, .5000 (112), .5593, 0.520 (75) 0-1
FSU- 9-1, .5111 (95), .5330, 0.518 (77) 0-1

Honestly I think it comes down to who the Regional committee thinks has the best shot at getting a pool C.

Do the Larries and Frosties have a shot with their resumes to gain a pool C bid?

[wesleydad]

So,  shouldn't SLU still have a chance to be ranked higher on the final secret RR rankings given that Fisher is now a 2 loss team and SLU has a higher SOS than Frosty(also,that thumping by Wesley looks particularly bad ) ? I can also see the logic that Fisher makes the case despite 2 losses with the stronger SOS and the RRO win over Olivet (who woulda thunk?), but this is a close call, and if the committee goes for a one loss team, I think the very slight SOS difference gets SLU the nod over Frosty.....we will see tonight.

.............OWP(RK)...OOWP...SOS (RK)...W-L VS RR0
SJF- 8-2, .6000 (7), .5705, 0.590 (4) 1-1
STL- 9-1, .5000 (112), .5593, 0.520 (75) 0-1
FSU- 9-1, .5111 (95), .5330, 0.518 (77) 0-1

Honestly I think it comes down to who the Regional committee thinks has the best shot at getting a pool C.

Do the Larries and Frosties have a shot with their resumes to gain a pool C bid?

Remember, as of last week Frosty was 1-1 against ranked opponents.  The assumption, and maybe a bad one is that the third loss will drop the Gulls out.  The 10 spot in the east is wide open and has a huge impact on the teams listed.  Maybe Brockport gets in and Fisher looks even better.  Forgot about St. Lawrence still being in the picture.  Once they lost to Hobart I pretty much figured they were out of the discussion.  I was also going by the last RR which has them behind Frostburg.  Good points Upstate.