BB: Central Region Rankings

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph, I agree -- the best way is to ignore the rankings and take care of business on the field.

I think that NP has a real chance this year!

The CCIW is very tough.  I have followed Coach Driggers since he arrived, and it has been tough to get his team going. 

[forheavendial4999]

I would love to hear a good reason why North Park is not in the top 6.

If you plan to write one, please do not use the SOS as a reason, the team is 25-7.

Under those rules, I'm guessing you won't get an answer. Because that is the answer.

If that *is* the answer, it's not a very convincing one.  Just look at the SOS for some other teams with 20+ wins: Texas-Tyler, Trinity Texas, St. Joseph's Maine: all have SOS lower than North Park's.  Just above NPU in the SOS rankings are Johns Hopkins, Adrian, and Ramapo.

How many of those teams are in the same region as North Park?

I guess the point I was trying to make is that there are other teams with 20+ wins that have a comparable, or lower, SOS, but they are ranked within their own regions.  Of course, some regions are stronger than others.

Tyler and Trinity are penalized because there are only about 20 teams that they can realistically play.  Unless they take a plane trip to another part of the country to soak up some easy wins over high SOS teams, their SOS will hover around .500.  That has been discussed ad nauseum on the other boards, and I apologize to the newbies for that rant.   

Win your conference tourney, earn a Pool A bid and inflict another pair of losses on the conference competition in the Regional Rankings.

Though it should be said that pretty much everyone in that region is in the same boat, and there are several teams in the region with better SOS than those two. Tyler could play Millsaps, Rhodes, more than one game against Hendrix, Birmingham Southern (like Trinity did)...or invite teams to come east from California to play like McMurry has in the past. I hope no one is fooled into thinking they're doing all they can from a scheduling standpoint.

[The General Public]

Ralph, I agree -- the best way is to ignore the rankings and take care of business on the field.

I think that NP has a real chance this year!

The CCIW is very tough.  I have followed Coach Driggers since he arrived, and it has been tough to get his team going. 

The CCIW is a tough conference but him getting "his team" going has nothing to do with it. I seem to recall you predicting 3 or 4 years until a conference championship by Driggers/Wheaton.  It's not going to happen.

Wheaton had a successful year his first year.  A successful first half his second year, followed by a collapse of astronomical proportions. And his third year, Wheaton might have a successful last series due to the fact that they play Elmhurst.  His fourth year, I don't see it getting any better.

I have seen many worse teams (talent wise) at Wheaton over the past 10 years, but this team is right down there with the worst of them.  Take out those fluff wins during spring break and this team is well under 10 wins on the year.

[BigPoppa]

Carthage is piling games into their schedule this week... 8 games on the docket in the next 7 days.

Monday vs Marian (DH)
Wednesday @ Concordia (WI)
Thursday vs Lakeland (DH)
Saturday vs North Park (DH)
Sunday @ North Park

Follow that with a Monday 5/9 game with Aurora and you have a full plate for Carthage in the next 8 days.

Could be a nice chance for the Redmen to pile up some in-region wins before facing NPU in a CCIW showdown next weekend. I am expecting Cathage to move to #1 in the Central region in this week's rankings.

[wustlfan37]

Is the next regional ranking going to be drastically different?  Coe looks to be in good shape still, Carthage has a TON of games coming up, IWU, Augie, and BV just took very bad losses.  Will we see North Central and North Park there next week?

WashU just swept Fontbonne and will end the season with a 28-15 regional record.  The Bears' Stephen Bonser threw a no-hitter in the second game, and WU only surrendered 4 hits without giving up a run the entire day 

[BigPoppa]

when looking the overall picture of the teams in this year's rankings, Carthage stands out to me as the team that no "Bad" losses on it's resume. two losses to #1 Marietta, one to #8 Heidelberg, two to IWU, Two to Augie and one to NCC (all of whom I feel are solid regional teams).

It appears that every other regional contender has at least one "bad" loss in there.

[Ralph Turner]

Once you get into conference play, you almost have to look at how a team performed in the series.

On the road, did a team win 2 out of 3?  Okay, that is good.

At home against a team that you should sweep, did you sweep them?  Good, a quality team should.

[BearBaseball]

Could be a nice chance for the Redmen to pile up some in-region wins before facing NPU in a CCIW showdown next weekend. I am expecting Cathage to move to #1 in the Central region in this week's rankings.

Doubt it. Playing Millikin really hurt their SOS. I think they might move down, temporarily. They do play NPU this week so they'll probably jump back up.

when looking the overall picture of the teams in this year's rankings, Carthage stands out to me as the team that no "Bad" losses on it's resume. two losses to #1 Marietta, one to #8 Heidelberg, two to IWU, Two to Augie and one to NCC (all of whom I feel are solid regional teams).

It appears that every other regional contender has at least one "bad" loss in there.

The NCAA seems to favor results against good teams a lot more than bad teams when putting together the rankings. They want teams who can seriously compete against other good teams at regionals. That's why results vs. regionally ranked teams is a primary criteria but "bad losses" isn't part of any criteria. 

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage is piling games into their schedule this week... 8 games on the docket in the next 7 days.

Monday vs Marian (DH)
Wednesday @ Concordia (WI)
Thursday vs Lakeland (DH)
Saturday vs North Park (DH)
Sunday @ North Park

Follow that with a Monday 5/9 game with Aurora and you have a full plate for Carthage in the next 8 days.

Could be a nice chance for the Redmen to pile up some in-region wins before facing NPU in a CCIW showdown next weekend. I am expecting Cathage to move to #1 in the Central region in this week's rankings.

The question is whether or not it will impact Carthage's pitching going into the weekend. If the 1,2, and 3 starters sit out those four games and the top-end relievers are only used sparingly, those games become more competitive. If Augie Schmidt uses his better pitchers against the three NAthCon teams, however, it might turn into an issue against North Park.

I doubt that there would be any serious problems in terms of how the pitching load is handled by the Red Men, but that is a big pile of weekday innings that will have to be accounted for without having a deleterious impact upon how Carthage pitches against NPU.

Could be a nice chance for the Redmen to pile up some in-region wins before facing NPU in a CCIW showdown next weekend. I am expecting Cathage to move to #1 in the Central region in this week's rankings.

Doubt it. Playing Millikin really hurt their SOS. I think they might move down, temporarily. They do play NPU this week so they'll probably jump back up.

So you've already written off the Carthage vs. NPU series as ending up in Carthage's favor, then?

[BearBaseball]

Oh no. I meant they will jump in SOS. I don't really know who will win the series but it will help both their SOS, which NPU needs. Both teams are very good.

[BigPoppa]

Carthage swept Marian on Monday 9-1 and 9-0 to move to 23-8 on the season. While their Sos will take a small hit, their in-region win% will increase. I think Carthage has a solid enough SoS at this point to not worry about it being much of a factor for them anymore.

[BigPoppa]

The first regional rankings were released today by the NCAA:

Central Region
1 Coe 18-9 20-10
2 Carthage 11-5 18-8
3 Buena Vista 17-9 18-11
4 Illinois Wesleyan 17-7 19-10
5 Augustana 12-9 19-9
6 Washington U. 25-15 25-16

I see Augustana being pushed out of this week's regional rankings and IWU taking a tumble after losing a pair to Elmhurst. Does WashU slide into the #4 spot or does North Park maybe leap frog them?

[upandin]

Based on current posted stats on D3.com SOS page
Rank = IR Win% + SOS      IR Win % / (Rank)                   SOS / (Rank)
1.Coe (8)                               22-9 .710(3)                         .561 (5)
2.Buena Vista (11)               20-10 .667(7)                    .570 (4)
3.ILL Wesleyan (12)               20-9 .690(4)                          .546 (8)
4.Augustana (15)                14 -11 .560(12)                   .570  (3)
5.Carthage (16)               16-5 .762(2)                          .516 (14)
6.Wartburg(17)                   16-11 .593(11)                    .552 (6)
7.Webster(18)                     21-10 .677(6)                      .527 (12)
8.Wash U   (18)                      28-15 .651(9)                     .540 (9)
9.Ripon   (19)                      15-8 .652(8)                       .530 (11)
10.Grinnell(21)                     11-11 .500(14)                    .550 (7)
13.North Park (23)               23-6 .793(1)                        .494 (22)

[upandin]

Those numbers change every day.

[wustlfan37]

Those numbers change every day.

And I also think those are the national SoS numbers, and the regional committees only make decisions based on regional SoS.  I could be wrong though...