2021 NCAA Regional Rankings

Christan Shirk · October 20, 2021, 03:25:00 PM

In advance of the Regional Rankings, from D3soccer.com . . .

2021 NCAA Regional Rankings

October 18, 2021
Coming Wednesday: the rankings that matter
By Christan Shirk and Jim Hutchinson

Christan Shirk · October 20, 2021, 03:32:49 PM

While we wait for the first weekly NCAA Regional Rankings to drop, here's the data sheets for the first weekly rankings.

Region I

Region II

Region III

Region IV

Region V

Region VI

Region VII

Region VIII

Region IX

Region X

Christan Shirk · October 20, 2021, 04:45:00 PM

REGION I REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Amherst	9-2-1	0.678	--	9-2-1	--
	Connecticut College	8-3-0	0.592	--	8-3-0	--
	Middlebury	8-3-1	0.609	--	8-3-1	--
	Norwich	10-2-0	0.513	--	10-2-0	--
	St. Joseph's (Maine)	10-1-2	0.567	--	10-1-2	--
	Tufts	10-0-2	0.616	--	10-0-2	--
	Mass-Boston	10-2-1	0.532	--	10-2-1	--
	Wesleyan	8-2-2	0.559	--	8-2-2	--
	Williams	6-4-2	0.613	--	6-4-2	--

REGION II REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Babson	7-3-3	0.568	--	7-3-3	--
	Coast Guard	8-4-1	0.600	--	8-4-1	--
	MIT	11-2-1	0.551	--	11-2-1	--
	Springfield	8-4-0	0.544	--	8-4-0	--
	Wheaton (Mass.)	9-4-0	0.553	--	9-4-0	--
	WPI	7-3-3	0.592	--	7-3-3	--

REGION III REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Buffalo State	11-3-1	0.543	--	11-3-1	--
	RPI	9-2-2	0.575	--	9-2-2	--
	RIT	8-3-3	0.583	--	8-3-3	--
	Rochester	7-2-3	0.593	--	7-2-3	--
	Cortland State	12-2-1	0.559	--	12-2-1	--
	New Paltz State	11-3-0	0.570	--	11-3-0	--
	Oneonta State	9-2-2	0.580	--	9-2-2	--
	Vassar	10-2-1	0.569	--	10-2-1	--

REGION IV REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Lycoming	7-4-3	0.594	--	7-4-3	--
	Misericordia	9-2-0	0.512	--	9-2-0	--
	Montclair State	13-1-1	0.535	--	13-1-1	--
	New York University	9-3-1	0.632	--	9-3-1	--
	Rowan	9-1-1	0.575	--	9-1-1	--
	Rutgers-Newark	10-3-3	0.527	--	10-3-3	--
	Stevens	7-6-1	0.611	--	7-6-1	--

REGION V REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Alvernia	10-3-0	0.567	--	10-3-0	--
	Eastern	8-4-2	0.620	--	8-4-2	--
	Franklin and Marshall	10-2-1	0.599	--	10-2-1	--
	Gettysburg	8-3-2	0.614	--	8-3-2	--
	Johns Hopkins	9-2-2	0.585	--	9-2-2	--
	Messiah	11-0-2	0.600	--	11-0-2	--
	Swarthmore	9-2-2	0.594	--	9-2-2	--
	Washington College	8-4-1	0.629	--	8-4-1	--

Christan Shirk · October 20, 2021, 04:46:51 PM

REGION VI REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Christopher Newport	7-3-2	0.659	--	7-3-2	--
	Covenant	6-3-3	0.591	--	7-3-3	--
	Emory	7-1-4	0.659	--	7-1-4	--
	Lynchburg	8-4-1	0.590	--	8-4-1	--
	Mary Washington	7-3-2	0.583	--	7-3-2	--
	Maryville (Tenn.)	10-2-1	0.513	--	11-2-1	--
	Randolph-Macon	7-2-3	0.528	--	8-2-3	--
	Washington and Lee	11-0-1	0.565	--	11-0-1	--

REGION VII REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Capital	8-4-1	0.550	--	8-4-1	--
	Carnegie Mellon	6-4-3	0.553	--	6-4-3	--
	Case Western Reserve	6-4-2	0.609	--	6-4-2	--
	Denison	7-4-1	0.605	--	7-4-1	--
	Hanover	10-3-1	0.529	--	10-3-1	--
	John Carroll	7-3-3	0.649	--	7-3-3	--
	Kenyon	10-1-1	0.568	--	10-1-1	--
	Mount Union	8-3-2	0.552	--	8-3-2	--
	Ohio Wesleyan	10-1-2	0.611	--	10-1-2	--
	Otterbein	10-0-3	0.575	--	10-0-3	--

REGION VIII REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Carthage	8-5-2	0.609	--	8-5-2	--
	Chicago	9-4-1	0.667	--	9-4-1	--
	Hope	9-2-2	0.570	--	9-2-2	--
	Kalamazoo	8-2-1	0.535	--	8-2-1	--
	North Central (Ill.)	14-1-1	0.546	--	14-1-1	--
	North Park	11-3-0	0.615	--	11-3-0	--
	Washington U.	8-2-1	0.662	--	8-2-1	--
	Wheaton (Ill.)	7-4-1	0.548	--	7-4-1	--

REGION IX REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Carleton	8-3-2	0.545	--	8-3-2	--
	Gustavus Adolphus	10-4-0	0.619	--	10-4-0	--
	Luther	9-4-2	0.571	--	9-4-2	--
	St. John's	7-4-1	0.560	--	7-4-1	--
	St. Olaf	13-1-1	0.576	--	13-1-1	--
	Wartburg	7-4-2	0.561	--	7-4-2	--
	UW-Eau Claire	10-3-0	0.515	--	10-3-0	--
	UW-Platteville	10-2-2	0.504	--	10-2-2	--

REGION X REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 20, 2021

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	10-0-2	0.531	--	10-1-2	--
	Colorado College	9-2-1	0.551	--	9-2-1	--
	Mary Hardin-Baylor	9-3-0	0.574	--	9-3-0	--
	Redlands	10-2-1	0.533	--	10-2-1	--
	Southwestern	7-2-4	0.565	--	7-2-4	--
	Trinity (Texas)	13-0-0	0.593	--	13-0-0	--
	Willamette	8-3-1	0.570	--	8-3-1	--

jknezek · October 20, 2021, 04:49:08 PM

Just a real quick reminder since it's probably coming....

The First Regional Rankings This Year Are in Alphabetical Order Only

Centennial1 · October 20, 2021, 04:59:29 PM

Quote from: jknezek on October 20, 2021, 04:49:08 PM
Just a real quick reminder since it's probably coming....

The First Regional Rankings This Year Are in Alphabetical Order Only

Haha! Thanks. I was about to unleash the caps lock AND the bold. You talked me off the ledge, jknezek.

fishercats · October 21, 2021, 12:19:36 PM

A bit early, which never stopped anyone from chiming in, but any surprises here? Calvin is the obvious missing team. It appears their SOS may be a bit low, but should get a boost with a game remaining vs Hope and then the MIAA tournament where they would likely face Kalamazoo and/or Hope again. But they also have Albion on their remaining schedule.

Teams on the "fan poll" that don't appear in the Regional Rankings:
Calvin
Wilmington (RV)

Teams on D3Soccer.com that don't appear in the Regional Rankings:
Calvin
Wilmington (RV)
Bowdoin (RV)

jknezek · October 21, 2021, 01:00:14 PM

Quote from: fishercats on October 21, 2021, 12:19:36 PM
A bit early, which never stopped anyone from chiming in, but any surprises here? Calvin is the obvious missing team. It appears their SOS may be a bit low, but should get a boost with a game remaining vs Hope and then the MIAA tournament where they would likely face Kalamazoo and/or Hope again. But they also have Albion on their remaining schedule.

Teams on the "fan poll" that don't appear in the Regional Rankings:
Calvin
Wilmington (RV)

Teams on D3Soccer.com that don't appear in the Regional Rankings:
Calvin
Wilmington (RV)
Bowdoin (RV)

Not really. You hit the nail on the head with SoS. Next week when RvR is added in SoS might fall a bit in importance. But the way week 1 works this year, if you have 2 teams with a very similar record, SoS is about all the criteria available to tell them apart.

d4_Pace · October 21, 2021, 01:16:44 PM

I think this whole alphabetical experiment is silly. I understand that the first week does not directly resemble the following weeks but that does not mean it has no value. We all understand drastic switches are going to happen between weeks 1 and 2. It still helps to get a sense of where you stand. I think if they are going to go these route with non-ranking rankings then they shouldn't even publish them. Just create these for internal use and then release them next week in order with the record vs ranked factored in.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter at all but for some illogical reason this bugs me.

Flying Weasel · October 21, 2021, 01:23:37 PM

[OK, I got interrupted and others beat me to some of the topics I was commenting on, but I'm just going to post it as is.]

So, Calvin (10-2-2 / .520 SOS) was not ranked this first week and Wheaton, Ill. (7-4-1 / .548 SOS) was. This week's win over Kalamazoo and the the inclusion of Results vs. Ranked next week will help them, but they are being overly punished for the completely dreadful bottom teams in the MIAA and Oglethorpe having a huge drop off from recent seasons. And doesn't help that Ill. Wesleyan--who isn't expected to help the SOS, but also isn't expected to hurt it--is having their worst season since 2015, maybe in the past decade. Calvin scheduled Ohio Wesleyan, Chicago, Emory, Carthage, Oglethorpe, and Ohio Northern out of conference and yet have just a .520 SOS. Their SOS will climb with the Kalamazoo game and then again with Hope next week. With Results vs. Ranked in play in the remaining rankings, they'll get credit for the OWU tie and Emory and Kalamazoo wins (they'll be rooting for Kalamazoo to stay ranked the next two weeks so it counts on selection Monday). They do have the two ranked losses against Chicago and Carthage (they'll be rooting for Carthage to drop from the rankings). I agree that Calvin doesn't seem to be at the level they typically have been for most of the past decade, but I'm not sure how much they can be faulted for their SOS being so low. There's so little margin for error when your SOS is so low, and the loss to Carthage and tie to Aurora has eaten much of that margin. We'll see how much their SOS climbs from this and next weeks' games.

Anyone else surprised to see Wheaton (Ill.) in the rankings? And it's not that their SOS was so high like it used to be years back. But looking through the other teams in the region, it's hard to see who else, besides Calvin, should have been in. I do think Calvin will replace Wheaton in next week's rankings.

Stevens, with 6 losses and tie with two weeks of games left, is another surprise, even if they have a very high SOS.

But it's going to take time to get used to having 20% of eligible teams ranked instead of 16%, and similarly the adjustment to the strength/weakness of the different regions. With more regions and less teams in what were the largest regions previously, strong/deep conferences now make up an even greater percentage of their region. The NESCAC and Centennial will dominate their regions even more than they did before. The NJAC finally got out of that awkward grouping and competition for places with the South Atlantic schools at a time when the conference seems to be down and less able to take advantage of the return to a less packed region that reminds a little of the old "Metro" region they were in years back.

Hopkins92 · October 21, 2021, 01:49:44 PM

Quote from: d4_Pace on October 21, 2021, 01:16:44 PM
I think this whole alphabetical experiment is silly. I understand that the first week does not directly resemble the following weeks but that does not mean it has no value. We all understand drastic switches are going to happen between weeks 1 and 2. It still helps to get a sense of where you stand. I think if they are going to go these route with non-ranking rankings then they shouldn't even publish them. Just create these for internal use and then release them next week in order with the record vs ranked factored in.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter at all but for some illogical reason this bugs me.

This.

jknezek · October 21, 2021, 02:14:34 PM

Quote from: d4_Pace on October 21, 2021, 01:16:44 PM
I think this whole alphabetical experiment is silly. I understand that the first week does not directly resemble the following weeks but that does not mean it has no value. We all understand drastic switches are going to happen between weeks 1 and 2. It still helps to get a sense of where you stand. I think if they are going to go these route with non-ranking rankings then they shouldn't even publish them. Just create these for internal use and then release them next week in order with the record vs ranked factored in.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter at all but for some illogical reason this bugs me.

I actually like it. It makes perfect sense to me because I do some programming and I hate getting stuck in logic loops. The old way of doing this required a set of rankings to create the first set of rankings. Guess what? That's a logic trap. It makes no sense.

For example, I sit on the committee and my 8th and last team is Team E. Because I have Team E at 8th, that gives Teams A, C and D, sitting at 3, 5, and 7 in my opinion, an extra result. However, when we get to the meeting, Team E is not on anyone else's agenda and gets scratched. That removes a Result from 3 of my other teams. It probably doesn't matter to team A at 3, but it does to Team C at 5 and D at 7. Suddenly, Team 7 is no longer on the board because they went from 1-1 to 0-1, RRO. When you remove 7, that makes 5 look less attractive, and maybe they drop to 8. When they drop to 8, they have a result against the team I originally had in 6, but now that team should still be behind them, so they drop off. And the dominoes continue to fall.

Because of one change at the last position, the whole thing blows up. And it blows up because I used criteria to rank teams for the first time that is dependent on teams ALREADY BEING RANKED. Oops. It's much better for all of us on the committee to come in on Week 1 with our top 8, sort it out like a quick poll. That way, next week, we know who was ranked and that gives us criteria to work with.

Logically you cannot use criteria that requires rankings to do the original rankings. It's a muddle. So just don't do it in Week 1. After that, it's fine. But this new system makes perfect logical sense. The old system was ridiculous.

Gregory Sager · October 21, 2021, 02:48:58 PM

I agree with jknezek. This is the most logical way to run the regional rankings.

deiscanton · October 21, 2021, 02:59:27 PM

Quote from: d4_Pace on October 21, 2021, 01:16:44 PM
I think this whole alphabetical experiment is silly. I understand that the first week does not directly resemble the following weeks but that does not mean it has no value. We all understand drastic switches are going to happen between weeks 1 and 2. It still helps to get a sense of where you stand. I think if they are going to go these route with non-ranking rankings then they shouldn't even publish them. Just create these for internal use and then release them next week in order with the record vs ranked factored in.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter at all but for some illogical reason this bugs me.

As a fan who has followed DIII sports for at least 20 years, I disagree that it is better to have a false inaccurate Week 1 rank order based on incomplete data than no rank order at all, considering that you cannot use results vs DIII ranked teams in the first week when compiling the first week rankings. The list, after all, does list the teams that are in the current top 20% of each evaluation region right now given the fact that only 4 of the 5 primary criteria factors (Winning pct, DIII SOS, DIII Head to Head, and DIII Common opponents) can be used this week, along with the secondary criteria factor of DIII non-conference SOS.

As the Championships Committee explained in its minutes of September 13-14, listing the ranked teams in alphabetical order in Week 1 gives sport committees more time to evaluate each team with more complete data for the Week 2 rankings, and as a result, you will have a more accurate, complete rank order for each ranked team in Week 2, where a more complete picture between which teams have a chance to get an at-large bid, and which teams need to win their conference AQ to get in to the NCAAs can take shape.

This is a pilot experiment, and the Championships Committee will review this in June 2022 to see whether this will continue in future years. However, for the first week of regional rankings, having the teams listed in alphabetical order makes sense to me.

Ron Boerger · October 21, 2021, 10:59:53 PM

The Volleyball regional rankings are totally messed up. One example in one region: School A, 19-0, is not ranked. School B, 9-10, is. I don't care what the difference in SOS is, you don't belong in a ranking if you can't beat half the teams you play (and especially when there's an undefeated team that isn't ranked).