2015 D3 Season: NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

[blooter442]

The next poll on D3soccer.com

Will Mr.Right be Mr.Wrong

YES

NO

He's more right than most of us are (with the exception of perhaps NCAC's newfound clairvoyant tendencies), so he can keep his title.

[Flying Weasel]

Yea, I think the last four teams are questionable.  I agree that St. Lawrence is an option to replace them.  I also think Wheaton (Ill.) may be deserving.  Stevens, Hobart maybe.

FW, a post by NEsoccerfan raised an interesting question about who will potentially receive the first-round byes. And while I opined that I still think Amherst at 14-1-1 will be in with a shout even with losing in its conference tournament, and in my opinion is more likely than - assuming they win out - a potentially 16-2-1 Brandeis or potentially 17-1-1 MIT, I am very much just making a guess. Do you have any thoughts?

I've never gotten the sense that conference tournament performance is given extra weight by the selection committee.  Sure, the pure wins/losses/ties get added into a team's overall record, win pct., results vs. ranked., etc.  But that's seem to be it.  So Amherst could very well still be the committee's top seed from the region.  We'll know tomorrow afternoon when their third weekly regional rankings are published.  As to first round byes, I still don't know or have a sense for whether and to what extent the committee seeds teams nationally and how hard the committee works to try reward the teams they think are the best with byes.  Obviously geography plays a big role in the bracketing and sometimes it can be hard to reward a team with a bye even if "deserving".  I don't find it worth trying to predict who will get byes because geography plays such a role.  And I'm not sure why anyone should care too much, especially given the recent examples of bye teams getting upset in round two.  In other words, I'm not sure the bye is really a reward and advantage.

A follow-up to my own post . . .

I never noticed the following change in the Pre-Championships Manual until this week.

Here's the former and current fourth and final bullet item in Section 2.5 Determination of Teams.

Up through the 2013 season (2013 Manual):
     The highest-seeded team that meets all selection criteria (and after a review of the submitted host materials) will
     be selected as the host institution, provided geographic proximity is maintained.

Starting with the 2014 season (Current manual):
     A team that meets all selection criteria (and after a review of the submitted host materials) will be selected as
     the host institution, provided geographic proximity is maintained.

So, the committee has more liberty to award hosting priviledges to whoever.  There is no longer a stated goal of trying to reward the highest seeds.  Very interesting change.  Makes the committtees job a bit easier.

I'm not sure what role seeding plays.

The second bullet item is hard to know what is meant by it:

     Teams may be seeded on a regional basis using the regional selection criteria. However, geographic proximity
     takes precedence over seeding.

[blooter442]

Teams may be seeded on a regional basis using the regional selection criteria. However, geographic proximity takes precedence over seeding.

Geography takes precedence over seeding. That's a really interesting point, FW. One might suspect that Amherst's location in Central MA might make them a more suitable candidate for geographic reasons (closer to NY state, closer to NYC, etc.) for a sectional than Brandeis. Then again, Oneonta isn't exactly a convenient drive for anybody except for the upstate NY schools, so I guess it all depends on who is in the sectional.

[Flying Weasel]

Well, geography has always taken precedent.  That hasn't changed.  But there is no longer any goal of rewarding the highest seeded team if possible within the constraints of geography.

My guess is that they'll still in practice try to reward higher seeds where possible, but this way when someone complains about not hosting they can go: "hey, we never said we were going to give the highest seeds the right to host".

[PaulNewman]

Next poll....Which team that receives a Pool C bid will be biggest surprise...

Going with predicting who will be biggest snub would seem a little impolite.  That comes after the selection show.

Alternative guess is something having to do with the selection criteria (like what should be considered most important).

[lastguyoffthebench]

Pacific Lutheran for biggest surprise
TMC to be the last team out

[PaulNewman]

Bloots, too many predictions is a guaranteed recipe for a losing streak, but.....and while the ball is cloudy...I can faintly see Haverford not winning the Centennial...and the loss isn't in the final....and I think I see a vague image of Bowdoin players lifting another trophy.

[PaulNewman]

Pacific Lutheran for biggest surprise
TMC to be the last team out

I like the Pac Lutheran pick, ESPECIALLY if a couple of spots are left open by no further very likely teams losing their AQs (Loras, Calvin, F&M or Haverford, E'town, etc).

[PaulNewman]

Pacific Lutheran for biggest surprise
TMC to be the last team out

I can see TMC, although I hope not (or maybe I do because they could knock my team out early), and TMC for one of the last spots vs a 3rd NESCAC and/or 3rd NJAC would be compelling....or even TMC vs MIT when MIT loses the AQ (there's another one bloots).

[PaulNewman]

53:31, Weather delay
1 Mary Hardin-Baylor
0 Hardin-Simmons

Seems like half the games in TX have been cancelled this year.  What is going on with the weather patterns over there?

When was last time a team from Texas (other than Trinity) or the West Coast was in the Final Four?

[lastguyoffthebench]

This had to be a year with more #1s in history of nscaa n d3soccer...

[Shooter McGavin]

Elmira and Ithaca in PKs. It's that time of year! Neither team wants to miss! 3-3 after 6 shooters

[Shooter McGavin]

5-5 headed to sudden death!

[Shooter McGavin]

9-9...crazy no one has missed.

[Shooter McGavin]

10-10...and it continues...isn't there a rule where the same player can continuously take them over and over once the 10 mark is reached?