2013 Bracket Challenge

[cciwrabblerouser]

D3 soccer bracket saying sectional is at Rose Hulman.  Is that really possible???  Assumed would go to Messiah, or Dickinson/F&M winner.

No, the brackets only indicate seedings.  Just because Rose-Hulman (congratulations!) upset Ohio Wesleyan does not mean that RH gets to host.  The committee will make the hosting calls and announce it Monday morning.

Going to Messiah certainly is not a given.  If Messiah (or the Dickinson-F&M winner) is asked to host, that would require a flight from Terre Haute, IN, to central PA.  [MapQuest says it 615 miles to Grantham for rural western IN.]  With the NCAA's disdain for paying for flights, the only location that would mean the other three travel by bus would be Gambier, OH, home of the Kenyon Lords.  But, would the NCAA save the extra coins by having an unrated team host?  Maybe the almighty dollar will again prevail.  Huh, if Kenyon does host, I wonder if there will be any Ohio Wesleyan sightings at the tournament ... 

All of a sudden, "the bracket of death" includes two unrated teams and two rated teams who reside in the SAME Pennsylvania county (Messiah and Dickinson, about 15 miles apart) or two rated teams that are in neighboring counties (Messiah and F&M).

[PaulNewman]

Not sure what you men by unrated.  Unranked?  Kenyon likely ended up #3 in Great Lakes. 

BTW, F&M up 3-0 on Dickinson still in 1st half.

[PaulNewman]

Is the Rose Hulman win the biggest upset in D3 tourney history?  OWU is #1 seed in entire tournament.

[cciwrabblerouser]

Not sure what you men by unrated.  Unranked?  Kenyon likely ended up #3 in Great Lakes. 

BTW, F&M up 3-0 on Dickinson still in 1st half.

Since this board is part of D3.com, I was just referring to the D3.com rankings (aka ratings).  Kenyon wasn't in the Top 25.  Yes, Kenyon is #3 in the NCAA regional rankings.

Like I said, the NCAA call will be verrrrrrrrrrrry interesting (according to Sgt. Schultz).  Save flight dollars, or allow two remaining teams within an hour of each other to be able to have an opportunity to host.

Actually, Messiah has proven through the years that it plays better on the road in NCAA tournaments than it does at home.  Its fans will definitely what their Falcons to play at home, but I don't think Messiah's coaches would mind an excursion to central Ohio.

[Wormburner]

Like I said, the NCAA call will be verrrrrrrrrrrry interesting (according to Sgt. Schultz).

Comedy Fact Check...

Sgt. Schulz from Hogan's Heroes' tag line was "I see nothing, nothing!"

Arte Johnson playing a German soldier on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In had the tag line of "Very interesting..."

OK, back to soccer!

[lastguyoffthebench]

Less than 10 to go... York looking like the more dangerous side.   Thinking this one heads to PKs, though.

[lastguyoffthebench]

Welp, looks like it's gonna be York vs Rutgers-Camden.  I would give the nod to Camden as host, but never know with NCAA.

[cciwrabblerouser]

Like I said, the NCAA call will be verrrrrrrrrrrry interesting (according to Sgt. Schultz).

Comedy Fact Check...

Sgt. Schulz from Hogan's Heroes' tag line was "I see nothing, nothing!"

Arte Johnson playing a German soldier on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In had the tag line of "Very interesting..."

OK, back to soccer!

Wormburner remembers his comedy much better and more accurately than I do ... that's for sure.  I got the fact that the comment was made by an incompetent German military man ... but otherwise I swung and missed on this one.

Thanks for setting the record straight, Wormburner!

[PaulNewman]

I assume everyone has sustained major damage to their brackets by this point. 

Westminster started season 0-5-1, and some of those were blowouts.

OWU out even with a bye and massive home field advantage against a team no one thought about once.

Loras fortunate to advance.

Trinity pulling away right now and sets up intriguing matchup with Wartburg.

New England suddenly interesting with heavyweights all advancing.  Brandeis gets rematch with Williams with Brandeis probably a slight favorite on this go round.  Amherst vs SLU could be the match of the tournament.  Anybody have any insight on the 8-0 win over a good Wheaton team?

Franklin and Marshall has had a great day.  Big convincing win over Dickinson and OWU out of the way.  Messiah vs Kenyon may be more interesting than some would assume.

Rutgers-C vs York another great matchup and Montclair vs Rochester pretty good too.

[convict]

Not sure what you men by unrated.  Unranked?  Kenyon likely ended up #3 in Great Lakes. 

BTW, F&M up 3-0 on Dickinson still in 1st half.

Since this board is part of D3.com, I was just referring to the D3.com rankings (aka ratings).  Kenyon wasn't in the Top 25.  Yes, Kenyon is #3 in the NCAA regional rankings.

Like I said, the NCAA call will be verrrrrrrrrrrry interesting (according to Sgt. Schultz).  Save flight dollars, or allow two remaining teams within an hour of each other to be able to have an opportunity to host.

Actually, Messiah has proven through the years that it plays better on the road in NCAA tournaments than it does at home.  Its fans will definitely what their Falcons to play at home, but I don't think Messiah's coaches would mind an excursion to central Ohio.

I'll just say it was always better to go away being in the tournament. It makes it feel like that much more of an event. Hosted once and it just wasn't the same. NCAA pays for a tournament bus for fans some do end up making the trek depending how far away it is for schools. 

[Christan Shirk]

The sectional host sites that were showing on the D3soccer.com brackets for a period of time were the result of a programming error--nothing more, nothing less.  It was not an attempt to predict the hosts nor was it based on any advanced insider information. 

Sincere apologies for the confusion caused and that we did not catch it and correct it sooner.

If there is any positive in an error of this nature, it is that it lets us know how much people go to our website for their D-III soccer information.  We are so thankful for the growing number of people that visit the site as we strive to build credibility and earn trust.  Thus we truly regret mistakes that undermine that aim.

[PaulNewman]

Christan, thanks for the clarification, but no worries.  The errors seemed unlikely, especially when the second one showed up, and the only real problem would be if any travel plans were confirmed which I highly doubt. 

The site is great.  As a relatively new person here I appreciate all of the information available, integrity with respect to lack of bias, and passion for D3 collegiate soccer.  I know first-hand that the players are committed to their sport and their teammates as much or more so than athletes in any other segment of sports, and so it is much appreciated to have a site and folks like yourself dedicated to focusing on D3 soccer.  I enjoy seeing the passion that other posters have for their teams, and the schools also seem to be investing in providing more coverage with better and more frequent video, regular interview shows, profiles of student-athletes, etc.

[Christan Shirk]

Is the Rose Hulman win the biggest upset in D3 tourney history?  OWU is #1 seed in entire tournament.

How about Neumann beating Messiah two years ago in the same situation: top overall seed gets first round bye and gets upset by winner of mediocre-to-weak conference in second round?

Close call.  On one hand, Rose-Hulman might have been less expected to pull off the upset than Neumann.  They didn't win their conference regular season title and were carrying more losses and ties coming in (11-5-5) than Neumann (13-4-1) who did win both the conference reg. season and tournament.  Also Neumann in beating Salisbury in the 1st round already raised eye-brows and gave notice in a way that Rose-Hulman's win of PSU-Behrend in round 1 did not.

On the other hand, while Ohio Wesleyan was the #1 overall seed and undefeated, Messiah was all that and more, riding a 42-game unbeaten streak and the three-time defending champions (eight of previous eleven) and a team that had never been upset in a tournament game in their history (tied or lost to a top team or a better team, but never truly upset).

So, I think Messiah was the bigger giant than Ohio Wesleyan, but maybe Rose-Hulman is a smaller David than was Neumann.  Either way, both very shocking, both very huge upsets.

[PaulNewman]

Also interesting that OWU won the title 2 years ago, and that year and this year we don't get to see a Messiah vs OWU matchup.  These are the top 2 programs in D3 history, correct?  Messiah with far more titles, but OWU with most NCAA appearances and coach with most wins in collegiate soccer regardless of division.  Would have been nice to see them play.  If memory serves Messiah in 2011 handed OWU one of its only losses of the  year in the first game of the season.

[KICKIN95]

I only have 9 of remaining 16 correct.