BB: Top Teams in West Region

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Not that the numbers change much, but some of the teams on that list are NAIA. 3 of the 4 schools listed in Nebraska for instance. But the point is still valid.

This map is for Football, I am going to see if I can find one relevant to baseball.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NCAA_Division_3_football_map.gif

[TexasBB]

Well, I made my point and Bishop is right, we beat this dead horse every year about this time. 

No question that DIV III has many more schools in the East and Mid east but they also have more teams in the regional tournaments  and more regions. Heck there is a NY state regional. So they are fairly represented. My entire point is that the West region should get 6 teams from the west. I don't think anyone on these boards (at least west region fans) will argue with that. Of course convincing the NCAA of that is another matter. The West region does not have the political voting stock so ....

[Bishopleftiesdad]

"There are endless arguments to this problem. Wining your conference is the only guarantee to keep playing. One of the reasons conference tournaments are good at the D3 level as they are more or less Regional tournaments and the "Regionals" are more like Super Regionals in D1 ball."

Winning your conference is the only guarantee. Nobody can argue with that. However, how you determine a conference champion is an issue. Most now rely on the conference tournament as the decision maker which cheapens the regular season champions accomplishment.

Second, just about all of the DIV I schools have conference tournaments as well, so the analogy to the Regional does not hold up.   DIV I just has more money and the NCAA puts more emphasis on it. They play 30% - 50% more games as well. Most DIV III schools play about the same number of games that a Texas HS plays. Not sure why NCAA III limits the number of games at DIV III the way they do. Could be that the institutions themselves place the limit since it is non-scholarship and thus considered an extra curricular activity. 

Certainly the schools in the S, SW and California, due to the weather, could play a lot more games than they do. The lure of DIV II, NAIA and even JUCO in Texas hurts D III recruiting because of the number of games are limited. That may also explain why the S and SW do not dominate DIV III like they do the other divisions. 

You are right, it is the institutions themselves that agreed that D3 would play the number of games they do. In fact at the last convention there was a proposal to limit it more. They wanted to cut 10% accross the board accept for Football and Track. The proposal  was smt back to commitee, so it will raise its ugly head again.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Well, I made my point and Bishop is right, we beat this dead horse every year about this time. 

No question that DIV III has many more schools in the East and Mid east but they also have more teams in the regional tournaments  and more regions. Heck there is a NY state regional. So they are fairly represented. My entire point is that the West region should get 6 teams from the west. I don't think anyone on these boards (at least west region fans) will argue with that. Of course convincing the NCAA of that is another matter. The West region does not have the political voting stock so ....

Get more west schools to move to D3

[108 Stitches]

Texas i agree with the 6 teams. BLD it is really a problem due to travel, they almost have to go in groups. Menlo used to be D3 and went NAIA.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Oh I agree, Travel in the west is horrendous. Just like weather in the North and east. All the regions have their crosses to bear.

[Ralph Turner]

To interrupt this message D3 baseball just announced that UTT will host the West Regional.

I booked a hotel some time ago on the rumor, now my team just needs to play better to get there.... 

Should be a great site BTW excellent facility and plenty of hotels in the area.

http://www.d3baseball.com/notables/2015/04/texas-tyler-to-host-regional

My West Region bracket.

NWC Pool A
SCIAC Pool A
ASC Pool A
ASC Pool C (CTX or UTT)
SCAC Pool A
Rhodes gets bussed in to Tyler

[108 Stitches]

Ralph, good guess, I would agree that this looks probable...but as they say lots of baseball to be played.

BLD the problem are not crosses, but money, D3 teams just can not afford to be flying 30+ players, coaches and staff around to games. As you know conferences are now bunched in Texas, SoCal and NWest.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Ralph, good guess, I would agree that this looks probable...but as they say lots of baseball to be played.

BLD the problem are not crosses, but money, D3 teams just can not afford to be flying 30+ players, coaches and staff around to games. As you know conferences are now bunched in Texas, SoCal and NWest.

And NE D3 teams cannot afford to play the first month of their schedule down south.
It is going to get worse before it gets better. The NCAA (college presidents etc...) are looking to cut costs, see the proposal to cut games by 10 % at the NCAA convention. The south region sometimes get a team shipped in. When the regional was in Tennessee, They had at least one Mideast team bused in. One year it was Wabash and another it was Depauw, both because they were within 500 miles of he regional site.   

[CAK72B]

Ralph, good guess, I would agree that this looks probable...but as they say lots of baseball to be played.

BLD the problem are not crosses, but money, D3 teams just can not afford to be flying 30+ players, coaches and staff around to games. As you know conferences are now bunched in Texas, SoCal and NWest.

And NE D3 teams cannot afford to play the first month of their schedule down south.
It is going to get worse before it gets better. The NCAA (college presidents etc...) are looking to cut costs, see the proposal to cut games by 10 % at the NCAA convention. The south region sometimes get a team shipped in. When the regional was in Tennessee, They had at least one Mideast team bused in. One year it was Wabash and another it was Depauw, both because they were within 500 miles of he regional site.

I've been reading these and I can see how the weather creates an issue...however they can still get the same amount of games in and play a variety of teams from different conferences and regions. In the selection process everyone talks about how SOS is a highly valued attribute to a team on the cut line. When West region teams can only realistically play each other it dilutes that number compared to the schools in the NW. So it almost is a benefit to be in the NW but get more control of your schedule and who you play compared to the West where ASC and SCAC schools are basically locked with each other for non conference games as well with the SCIAC and NWC. Weather can cause those problems but I'm sure some of these West schools would trade starting a month later to be able to improve their Pool C chances. Let's be honest, if you do not have 4 or 5 good SP that can pitch you probably do not have a realistic chance to win come playoff time anyways...unless your Linfield and have Chris H be able to come back and pitch on command 
And NE D3 teams cannot afford to play the first month of their schedule down south.

[CrashDavisD3]

All problems described shows why SOS is flawed and makes Pool B/C process flawed.

I support on the field games to make the regionals.

Top 4 in Conference are in my world of playoffs

Round 1 Conference Tourney
Pool play for the 4

Round 2 Conference Championship
Top 2 in Pool play play 2 out of 3 for Regional play.
Lose and stay home.

Winner plays in Regional

[Whatagame]

All problems described shows why SOS is flawed and makes Pool B/C process flawed.

I support on the field games to make the regionals.

Top 4 in Conference are in my world of playoffs

Round 1 Conference Tourney
Pool play for the 4

Round 2 Conference Championship
Top 2 in Pool play play 2 out of 3 for Regional play.
Lose and stay home.

Winner plays in Regional

I'm missing how this solves your issue with Pool B/C subjectivity and SOS. What you outline still resolves to four conference champions who "won it on the field ", but the West Regional is historically a six team tournament - where are the other two teams coming from? Or are you proposing a four team West Regional? Or am I missing something?

[TexasBB]

Big weekend series coming up in the ASC as CTX will host UTT in a 3 game series. Both schools swept their conference games this past weekend. CTX swept Howard Payne and UTT swept LeTourneau. For the season CTX is 24-6 overall and 18-2 in the ASC. UTT is 24-9 overall and 19-5 in the ASC. UTT would have to sweep the series against CTX to have a realistic chance at the regular season ASC championship. That is very unlikely, as CTX has some dominating starting pitching and plays well at home. Tyler has suffered almost all of its losses on the road. 

[108 Stitches]

Through games of Sunday April 12, 2015

#   School (1st votes)   Rec   Pts   Prev.
1   Cortland State (13)   21-2   608   2
2   UW-Whitewater (6)   18-3   577   3
3   Salisbury (3)   21-2   572   1
4   Frostburg State (3)   27-3   554   8
5   Kean   24-6   535   5
6   Shenandoah   18-4-1   455   9
7   UW-Stevens Point   16-5   448   7
8   Heidelberg   19-5   443   4
9   Birmingham-Southern   26-7-1   428   6
10   Millsaps   25-7   367   12
11   Concordia (Texas)   24-6   310   19
12   Wooster   20-4   295   17
13   Wartburg   23-6   235   11
14   St. Thomas   16-8   231   10
15   Misericordia   17-5   219   13
16   Linfield   24-9   213   24
17   Trinity (Texas)   22-9   189   22
18   Baldwin Wallace   16-5   178   16
19   Randolph-Macon   19-7   162   15
20   Rhodes   24-11   123   14
21   Southern Maine   15-6   122   21
22   Methodist   26-8   102   23
23   Ohio Northern   20-5   94   25
24   John Carroll   18-5   77   rv
25   Thomas More   19-4   74   rv
Dropped out: No. 18. Buena Vista, No. 20. Augustana.

Others receiving votes: Pacific Lutheran 70, Mary Washington 66, Tufts 64, Cal Lutheran 58, Adrian 47, Webster 46, Rowan 38, Emory 29, Buena Vista 19, Bridgewater (Va.) 18, Wesleyan (Conn.), Oswego State 11, Texas Lutheran 10, Carthage 5, UW-La Crosse 4, Augustana (Ill.) 2, Bethel (Minn.) 1, Marietta 1, Pomona-Pitzer 1.

[TexasBB]

I don't get the rankings. UTT had 10 votes a week ago. They sweep LaTourneau a regional qualifyer last year and have now won 7 conference games in a row yet get -0- votes this week. Their only loss in the last two weeks was to an NAIA team LSU-Shreveport.