D 3 softball

[Caz Bombers]

My questions for the committee (if they answered questions):

How does Coe and St. Benedict jump Luther (Midwest regional rankings)  to get in?
Why does Southwestern at 31-6 not get an at large birth?
Why does Birmingham Southern get sent to ETBU?  Granted this is within the 500 mile drive travel limit (489 miles).
Nine teams from the Atlantic region get in.  Is 9th team in the Atlantic better than #3 team in the East, Ramapo? Same with Midwest #4 Luther?

Saint Benedict over Luther is baffling. I don't know either.

Southwestern's SOS was terrible. .503 pre-conference tournament. Easy no.

Not a lot of places B-SC can drive to and sending them to Texas is within 500 miles and creates some fresh matchups.

Committee seemed addicted to SOS above results. Ramapo still had a pre-NJAC .584 and 8 vRRO wins. Granted they ended the season on a 4-game losing streak. I would have put them in somehow.

[TheChucker]

My questions for the committee (if they answered questions):

How does Coe and St. Benedict jump Luther (Midwest regional rankings)  to get in?
Why does Southwestern at 31-6 not get an at large birth?
Why does Birmingham Southern get sent to ETBU?  Granted this is within the 500 mile drive travel limit (489 miles).
Nine teams from the Atlantic region get in.  Is 9th team in the Atlantic better than #3 team in the East, Ramapo? Same with Midwest #4 Luther?

Good list.

1) re: St. Benedict... their strength of schedule at #59 is way better than Luther at #125. Coe must have been chosen due to conference positioning. What's baffling to me is how St. Benedict jumped Hamline...a team that took St. Thomas far into extra innings in the championship game, finished ahead of St. Bens in the conference, and had one of the toughest SOS in the country at #34.

2) re: Southwestern... #257 strength of schedule probably says it all.

3) & 4) re: not sure where else Birmingham Southern goes unless they bump another team in the Emory or Thomas More region. That whole West Region seems like the red headed stepchild of D3 because of travel times. Teams from Texas and surrounding areas get screwed by being lumped in there. Only 2 teams from Texas (and surrounding states) and no at-large bids make it in which is odd. I think they have a legitimate beef with the NCAA.

[justafan12]

I'm curious why the West region brackets only get 3 teams each. It doesn't seem right given that Texas and the West Coast have some great softball. Weird.

UMHB is sitting out after after sweeping both Texas Lutheran and Transylvania later in the season after a slow start, and one of very few D3 teams to beat UT Tyler this year (who will be a top full-time D2 team next year); granted UMHB was swept by ETBU in very close games who in turn swept almost every team.

West is almost always the one that gets the 3 team regionals.  In my opinion its always comes down to money that NCAA does not want to spend in travel.

UMHB did have big wins over TLU and UTT and I forgot about the sweep to Transylvania.  Still, 16 loses is hard to justify.

[TheChucker]

I'm curious why the West region brackets only get 3 teams each. It doesn't seem right given that Texas and the West Coast have some great softball. Weird.

UMHB is sitting out after after sweeping both Texas Lutheran and Transylvania later in the season after a slow start, and one of very few D3 teams to beat UT Tyler this year (who will be a top full-time D2 team next year); granted UMHB was swept by ETBU in very close games who in turn swept almost every team.

West is almost always the one that gets the 3 team regionals.  In my opinion its always comes down to money that NCAA does not want to spend in travel.

UMHB did have big wins over TLU and UTT and I forgot about the sweep to Transylvania.  Still, 16 loses is hard to justify.

True. They started the year slow with 2 freshman pitchers but ended up finishing strong. Still, UMHB had the 29th toughest SOS in the country. A lot teams making it in are in the 100s if not higher. Only two teams from Texas with no at-large qualifiers makes no sense.

[justafan12]

I see your points on Southwestern I just thought a 31-6 record would get them in.  The do play in a terrible conference with only TLU as only competition.  They went 1-5 against them this year.

Can you send the link for the strength of schedule?  I have seen it in the past but can't remember where to find it.

[justafan12]

I'm curious why the West region brackets only get 3 teams each. It doesn't seem right given that Texas and the West Coast have some great softball. Weird.

UMHB is sitting out after after sweeping both Texas Lutheran and Transylvania later in the season after a slow start, and one of very few D3 teams to beat UT Tyler this year (who will be a top full-time D2 team next year); granted UMHB was swept by ETBU in very close games who in turn swept almost every team.

West is almost always the one that gets the 3 team regionals.  In my opinion its always comes down to money that NCAA does not want to spend in travel.

UMHB did have big wins over TLU and UTT and I forgot about the sweep to Transylvania.  Still, 16 loses is hard to justify.

True. They started the year slow with 2 freshman pitchers but ended up finishing strong. Still, UMHB had the 29th toughest SOS in the country. A lot teams making it in are in the 100s if not higher. Only two teams from Texas with no at-large qualifiers makes no sense.

With UT Tyler gone it is a big difference in the West.  They were always a given. I have talked with parents from West region teams who said that overall; both regionals and super regionals was harder than the World Series.

[TheChucker]

I see your points on Southwestern I just thought a 31-6 record would get them in.  The do play in a terrible conference with only TLU as only competition.  They went 1-5 against them this year.

Can you send the link for the strength of schedule?  I have seen it in the past but can't remember where to find it.

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

A lot of other cool sortable stuff there too.

Edit add.. There is no direct link. Once you click on the link above, click on 1) Softball, 2) D3, 3) Misc Reports, 4) Toughest Schedule.

[justafan12]

I see your points on Southwestern I just thought a 31-6 record would get them in.  The do play in a terrible conference with only TLU as only competition.  They went 1-5 against them this year.

Can you send the link for the strength of schedule?  I have seen it in the past but can't remember where to find it.

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

A lot of other cool sortable stuff there too.

Edit add.. There is no direct link. Once you click on the link above, click on 1) Softball, 2) D3, 3) Misc Reports, 4) Toughest Schedule.

Thanks, I was there just could not find it.

What I think will be funny is if Birmingham Southern wins the ETBU regional.  NCAA will then have to spend big time travel $$ to send them out West or send someone in the West to BS. 

[Caz Bombers]

I've been going here: https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d3/regional-rankings and then clicking on the PDFs at the bottom.

[TheChucker]

I'll continue my mini rant...

Looks like the NCAA thinks Wisconsin is a softball mecca powerhouse state. It has at least 5 teams going to the NCAAs by my count. That's more than California and Texas combined. What a crock.

[Caz Bombers]

I'll continue my mini rant...

Looks like the NCAA thinks Wisconsin is a softball mecca powerhouse state. It has at least 5 teams going to the NCAAs by my count. That's more than California and Texas combined. What a crock.

do you know how conferences work my dude

[TheChucker]

I'll continue my mini rant...

Looks like the NCAA thinks Wisconsin is a softball mecca powerhouse state. It has at least 5 teams going to the NCAAs by my count. That's more than California and Texas combined. What a crock.

do you know how conferences work my dude

Yes, I know how conferences work. Only 2 of the 5 teams from WI are auto bids. The softball mecca that is WI has 3 at-large bids while TX has zero and the whole West Region (ranked teams in TX/CA/OR) has 1 total. I'm only using WI to illustrate a point that the NCAA ignores the West...which has a stronger diamond sports culture than most areas.

[justafan12]

These are the teams that got an at-large birth with strength of schedule > 100:

Brandeis   27-6-1   113
Coe           32-9           129
Williams   33-5           132
CMScripts   31-11   139
Piedmont   29-10   149
Geneseo   33-10   161
Trine      30-6           206

These are teams that did not get at an large birth:

Ramapo   22-14   11
UMHB   28-16   29
Hamline   25-17   34
Salisbury   24-13   38
Luther   30-10   125
Southwest   31-6           257

Ramapo and Salisbury do not get in but Carthage and St. Benedict do:

Carthage   26-14   41
St. Ben.   27-13   59

Trine with a 206 SOS, went 0-2 in conference tournament and they got in?

And again, why not Luther?

I know I am beating a dead horse here but it is just an American tradition to second guess the NCAA.

[TheChucker]

A non-conference record report is in that same group of NCAA softball miscellaneous reports. It's interesting that D3 had a 3-3 record vs D1 teams, 24-26 record vs. D2 teams, and 190-170 record vs. "non-member" which I assume is NAIA. I've long thought that good D3 teams could hold their own vs. many D2 teams and a handful of D1 teams in softball. That proves it.

[deiscanton]

A non-conference record report is in that same group of NCAA softball miscellaneous reports. It's interesting that D3 had a 3-3 record vs D1 teams, 24-26 record vs. D2 teams, and 190-170 record vs. "non-member" which I assume is NAIA. I've long thought that good D3 teams could hold their own vs. many D2 teams and a handful of D1 teams in softball. That proves it.

Ithaca went 1-1 this year against Cornell, the current last place team in the Ivy League.  Harvard had no problems last weekend against Cornell in clinching the #1 seed for this weekend's Ivy League Softball tournament.  Cornell has a lot of first year players this season.

It should be a good series with Ithaca if Brandeis wins on Friday against Penn State Berks. Hopefully Brandeis can make it to Sunday.