2015 D3 Season: NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

[jknezek]

This is one of the reasons I wish we didn't do conference tournaments. If your conference can play a round robin, you don't need a tournament. If you can't, then two divisions with a championship game is a good substitute. At the very least, the conferences should designate the regular season champ the AQ recipient. I get this isn't "The American Way", but for a sport like soccer, these tournaments aren't the best way of identifying the best conference team.

Now for the NCAAs, there just isn't enough time to do anything else, so I'm OK with a knockout tournament determining a "national champion" as opposed to "the best team in the country." There simply isn't a choice. But there is a choice for deciding the AQ and it annoys me that so many of the best teams in the conference over the course of the season get upset in superfluous tournaments.

[blooter442]

Etown got screwed...plan and simple. Committee ignored criteria and decided to allow politics to determine selection rather then doing their job properly - from what I was able to find out, Etown was in before final decisions were made and then decision was made to switch at last second based on a unknown request...not confirmed but that is the info I am being told from my sources. Only criteria Etown lacked was SOS (which was low because teams who normally have good records had nightmares this season and you can't predict that)...that alone should have not omitted them from the tournament...they beat everyone who was put in front of them (including Dickinson and Messiah) with their only losses being v F&M early in the season and then the conference final. I know it sounds like someone just complaining because their team didn't get in, but this was down right criminal to leave Etown out...especially when they took other teams who did not deserve to be in ahead of Etown (Tufts/Dickinson)

Good luck to all the teams who were selected, will be an interesting and fun tournament to follow

If that's true, that is really shady, and I feel for you. You have to wonder how often that sort of stuff happens, but with this year being so crazy it seems to have been exacerbated.

This is one of the reasons I wish we didn't do conference tournaments. If your conference can play a round robin, you don't need a tournament. If you can't, then two divisions with a championship game is a good substitute. At the very least, the conferences should designate the regular season champ the AQ recipient. I get this isn't "The American Way", but for a sport like soccer, these tournaments aren't the best way of identifying the best conference team.

Now for the NCAAs, there just isn't enough time to do anything else, so I'm OK with a knockout tournament determining a "national champion" as opposed to "the best team in the country." There simply isn't a choice. But there is a choice for deciding the AQ and it annoys me that so many of the best teams in the conference over the course of the season get upset in superfluous tournaments.

I was actually thinking about this recently, with teams like Babson snagging trips to NCAAs after poor regular seasons - what do we prefer for conference champion titles, a league like the UAA (most points after 7 games w/tiebreakers for the AQ), or a postseason conference tournament? Agree with keeping the NCAA a knockout tournament, but I think that many deserving teams with excellent conference records get screwed. Then again, such is life.

[PaulNewman]

NCAC NE, patiently waiting over here for your Regular Season Top 25...

Give me an hour    BTW, if Kenyon survives this weekend and Montclair gets by Tufts (both big IFs IMHO), I'm coming to Jersey.

Me, blooter, Mr.Right, and the Russian lady.  Renting a deluxe RV for the weekend.

[Shooter McGavin]

I feel like the regular season championship should be accounted for somehow whether that is during the selection process or not I don't know. But if you win your regular season championship then you should get some kind of reward towards NCAA at-large criteria if you end up slipping up in conference tournament.

[blooter442]

I feel like the regular season championship should be accounted for somehow whether that is during the selection process or not I don't know. But if you win your regular season championship then you should get some kind of reward towards NCAA at-large criteria if you end up slipping up in conference tournament.

I can agree with that. Not saying that teams that are mediocre in the regular season but come on strong in the tourney don't deserve a bid, but when a team like Etown goes 16-1-1 through their season but falls in the conference final and gets shortchanged in dubious circumstances, it no doubt stings.

[Shooter McGavin]

I feel like the regular season championship should be accounted for somehow whether that is during the selection process or not I don't know. But if you win your regular season championship then you should get some kind of reward towards NCAA at-large criteria if you end up slipping up in conference tournament.

I can agree with that. Not saying that teams that are mediocre in the regular season but come on strong in the tourney don't deserve a bid, but when a team like Etown goes 16-1-1 through their season but falls in the conference final and gets shortchanged in dubious circumstances, it no doubt stings.

Yes definitely. If Lycoming would have lost to Messiah they might have been a bubble even after winning the regular season championship like Etown did. Calvin is another example. Most likely the right side of the bubble but you never know after seeing what happened with Midd, Etown, Brockport, Stockton, Colorado and RPI.

There will always be teams that get snubbed or feel snubbed. It's just the reality of the selection process. It should be a 64 team bracket but with the ratio multiplier it comes to 61 unfortunately. But either way you will always have a last 4 in and a first 4 out. Can't keep extending the size of the bracket. 64 should be the max. Not a fan of basketball extending it to 68. There's no reason for that nonsense.

[Brother Flounder]

I feel like the regular season championship should be accounted for somehow whether that is during the selection process or not I don't know. But if you win your regular season championship then you should get some kind of reward towards NCAA at-large criteria if you end up slipping up in conference tournament.

I agree....

[blooter442]

There will always be teams that get snubbed or feel snubbed. It's just the reality of the selection process. It should be a 64 team bracket but with the ratio multiplier it comes to 61 unfortunately. But either way you will always have a last 4 in and a first 4 out. Can't keep extending the size of the bracket. 64 should be the max. Not a fan of basketball extending it to 68. There's no reason for that nonsense.

Yup, someone will always be unhappy, and in many cases it's justified. While I'm a big fan of and believer in SOS, as I think teams who play hard schedules should be rewarded and that teams with weak SOS aren't always as good as their record indicates, I also think a 17-2-1 Etown could beat an 11-5-2 UChicago. But such is life.

[Shooter McGavin]

http://www.nscaa.com/rankings/4965

National Poll is up.

[jknezek]

My W&L boys crept in. Hopefully they can keep the momentum going against Methodist Thursday. I'd like to see them play Haverford.

[Shooter McGavin]

Does anybody think that if Etown would have lost in PK's that they would have gotten in? 17-1-2 vs 17-2-1? Would that have made the difference maybe? Already harsh to not let them in but would have been extremely hard to not let them in with only 1 loss technically.

[NJrexSoccer03]

Does anybody think that if Etown would have lost in PK's that they would have gotten in? 17-1-2 vs 17-2-1? Would that have made the difference maybe? Already harsh to not let them in but would have been extremely hard to not let them in with only 1 loss technically.

A loss on PKs and i believe they get! A loss vs tie to a 11-6-2 team(someone quote Scrantons record) hurt them big time. 

[NEsoccerfan]

http://herosports.herosports.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/d3-mens-soccer-2015-ncaa-tournament-bracket-predictions.pdf

#18 - Trinity TX
#37 - Brandeis
#43 - Carnegie
#60 - DePauw

these rankings seem legit.......... 

I couldn't agree more. Yet when I allude to their illegitimacy I get accused of trolling and get a -K from the guy who feels the need to consistently post them.

[NEsoccerfan]

//

http://www.nscaa.com/rankings/4965

National Poll is up.

#2,#3,#6 (trinity, brandeis, amherst) in one pod and #1,#4,#5 in another pod (Calvin, MSU, Kenyon)... ouch. Obviously rankings aren't everything but that gives some credence to the sentiments echoing around that these are the top 2 pods.

[PaulNewman]

NCAC's Top 25 (Final Regular Season Poll)

1) Amherst
2) Haverford
3) Montclair St
4) Brandeis
5) Kenyon
6) Oneonta St
7) Calvin
8) Trinity (TX)
9) Lycoming
10) Loras
11) Whitworth
12) Thomas More
13) Rutgers-Camden
14) SLU
15) Wheaton (Ill)
16) OWU
17) Franklin & Marshall
18) Elizabethtown
19) Middlebury
20) Macalester
21) Bowdoin
22) Dickinson
23) Washington & Lee
24) Redlands
25) UW-W/Colorado Coll/Ohio Northern/MIT/MSOE (TIE)

RV -- Stevens, St Scholastica, CMU, Wash U, Tufts, Rowan, Salisbury, Endicott, Concordia (Wis), Gordon, Stockton, Brockport, Plattsburgh, Messiah, Rose-Hulman, DePauw, UW-Oshkosh, Chicago, UMass-Bos, Eastern