NCAA TOURNAMENT 2024

[SierraFD3soccer]

In today's episode of interesting 1st round match-ups, we have a rematch of an earlier match this season: Dickinson v St. Mary's College

Remember, the last time St. Mary's College met Dickinson this season was on Sept.8. The score was 3-0 to Dickinson. The Red Devils' victory was never in doubt. However, the stats make it sound closer.

Shots: Dickinson 11-10 St. Mary's
Shots on Goal: Dickinson 5-6 St. Mary's
Corners: St. Mary's 10-6 Dickinson
Saves: Dickinson 6-2 St. Mary's

Dickinson's brilliant duo of Jarden and Iwowo will likely be too much for the St. Mary's defense. However, St. Mary's knows what to expect from the Red Devils, having played them once already. St. Mary's have been scoring by committee for much of the season with 7 different players scoring 4 or more goals (albeit, in a weak United East conference).

My odds: Dickinson win 80% chance, St. Mary's win 20% chance

Great insight and have a lot of respect for St. Mary's College of Maryland.  FYI, St. Mary's is named after the MD county and is a very small state school so not a religious private college. Its an affordable small state college which has an excellent reputation locally. But for soccer most if not all would have never had heard of this school. St. Mary's is almost all MD players (3 VA players) and almost all public school except for a few. I've said it before, but the coach is great and running a very good program while over achieving compared to other similarly situated schools. Son had some great conversations with the coach and spent several summers at goalkeeper camp at St. Mary's. Definitely considered St. Mary's. Would recommend anyone to check out. It's got the complete package.

Program like this pretty much encapsulates guys who want to play in college, but get little or not attention as well come from families who may have not had the money to play for high level clubs and then get to play in the tournament (second time in 2 yrs). Success like this will only bring in more talented MD players. All kids dream of playing in the tournament. 

All that aside, can't see Dickinson not scoring less than 3 goals this time as well.

[Hopkins92]

Not disagreeing about St. Mary's overall reach and brand, but I'd just point out they have a pretty well respected (known, in those circles) sailing team.

Totally agree with the bulk of that, though.

(My brother-in-law attended and my niece is currently a freshman... Beautiful, if isolated a bit, campus.)

[SierraFD3soccer]

RE:  possible Conn vs F&M...

The other big difference this year would be F&M having to play on Conn's horrible grass field.

Its a fair point - but actually think (while used to it) Conn is better on turf.......

Maybe...but F&M isn't better on grass than Conn.

Over the last few years, F&M has been really bad on grass. Played on Dickinson, Etown, Muhls (now turf this year), Leb Valley and Haverford grass and not had a great track record. This year they played on Leb Valley and Etowns really bad fields. Did not add McDaniel as their field is awesome. All are pretty crappy, but crappy for both teams.

F&M has a very bad intramural grass soccer field across the road which is occasionally mowed, so it will probably practice the whole week there. Plus, F&M still has to get through another team just to get there and will have a pretty good sense what it can do on CC's field.

[PaulNewman]

F&M and Cortland (and maybe Stevens) always seem to get brutal 2nd round games.  And yes, F&M has a test against a tough West Conn team first and would not be shocking to see WConn advance.  If F&M gets there to meet Conn I think it will take at least 3 goals to win while I suppose one could hope for a PK advance after 2-2.  Of course Conn's record in PKs is legendary.  I do think F&M is good enough to knock out Conn but I wouldn't bet on it.  You can never rule out weather causing a move to turf from grass but at a quick glance I don't see major weather events on the horizon at least in the Northeast.

[Ron Boerger]

I'll offer a few preliminary observations about the Region X pods (two of them, which is pretty rare):

Colorado College Pod

Colorado College gets to host for the first time in . . . ever?  They fly in three teams.  My guess is that the Committee decided to take advantage of the fact that the NCAA allocated more money for travel this year to make it up to CC for forcing them to travel to Atlanta last year. 

Having said that, Pacific Lutheran and CMS were going to fly somewhere no matter what given that they are more than 500 miles from any other NCAA tournament qualifier, so this isn't necessarily unusual.

Wonder if the NCAA will only pay for a limited no. of players/coaches.  From what is online, Bowdoin has 27 players and 2 coaches plus I'm sure some ADs will travel. Plane tickets so short notice will probably cost $1k, but I'm sure that the NCAA has some discount.

Per the NCAA's DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIPS TRANSPORTATION AND PER DIEM POLICIES, the travel party for soccer is 29, with a maximum of 24 players.  The other three won't be able to play even if the school picks up the tab. 

"As an added value to the membership, institutions may also make reservations through Short's [Travel] for persons not in the official travel party. By doing so, institutions can take advantage of unpublished discounted airfares available through Short's."

[Convict charlie]

I'll offer a few preliminary observations about the Region X pods (two of them, which is pretty rare):

Colorado College Pod

Colorado College gets to host for the first time in . . . ever?  They fly in three teams.  My guess is that the Committee decided to take advantage of the fact that the NCAA allocated more money for travel this year to make it up to CC for forcing them to travel to Atlanta last year. 

Having said that, Pacific Lutheran and CMS were going to fly somewhere no matter what given that they are more than 500 miles from any other NCAA tournament qualifier, so this isn't necessarily unusual.

Wonder if the NCAA will only pay for a limited no. of players/coaches.  From what is online, Bowdoin has 27 players and 2 coaches plus I'm sure some ADs will travel. Plane tickets so short notice will probably cost $1k, but I'm sure that the NCAA has some discount.

It's in the ncaa championship manual it's 22 players. 3 coaches and two athletic trainers.

[Gregory Sager]

I'll offer a few preliminary observations about the Region X pods (two of them, which is pretty rare):

Colorado College Pod

Colorado College gets to host for the first time in . . . ever?  They fly in three teams.  My guess is that the Committee decided to take advantage of the fact that the NCAA allocated more money for travel this year to make it up to CC for forcing them to travel to Atlanta last year. 

Having said that, Pacific Lutheran and CMS were going to fly somewhere no matter what given that they are more than 500 miles from any other NCAA tournament qualifier, so this isn't necessarily unusual.

Wonder if the NCAA will only pay for a limited no. of players/coaches.  From what is online, Bowdoin has 27 players and 2 coaches plus I'm sure some ADs will travel. Plane tickets so short notice will probably cost $1k, but I'm sure that the NCAA has some discount.

It's in the ncaa championship manual it's 22 players. 3 coaches and two athletic trainers.

No, Ron's right. Check out the appendix on page 10 of his "2024-25 NCAA Division III Championships Transportation and Per Diem Policies" link. It's spelled out right there in the chart: Men's soccer permits a 29-person travel party and a maximum of 24 players.

That same link is found on page 6 of the NCAA's 2024-25 Men's Soccer Prechampionships Manual for D3.

[Convict charlie]

I'll offer a few preliminary observations about the Region X pods (two of them, which is pretty rare):

They must have added then to it or changed it. Think last time I was involved with the tournament was 2013. That's what it was then anyways. We had a bigger team so we had to cut down. I remember being a part of them decisions.

Colorado College Pod

Colorado College gets to host for the first time in . . . ever?  They fly in three teams.  My guess is that the Committee decided to take advantage of the fact that the NCAA allocated more money for travel this year to make it up to CC for forcing them to travel to Atlanta last year. 

Having said that, Pacific Lutheran and CMS were going to fly somewhere no matter what given that they are more than 500 miles from any other NCAA tournament qualifier, so this isn't necessarily unusual.

Wonder if the NCAA will only pay for a limited no. of players/coaches.  From what is online, Bowdoin has 27 players and 2 coaches plus I'm sure some ADs will travel. Plane tickets so short notice will probably cost $1k, but I'm sure that the NCAA has some discount.

It's in the ncaa championship manual it's 22 players. 3 coaches and two athletic trainers.

No, Ron's right. Check out the appendix on page 10 of his "2024-25 NCAA Division III Championships Transportation and Per Diem Policies" link. It's spelled out right there in the chart: Men's soccer permits a 29-person travel party and a maximum of 24 players.

That same link is found on page 6 of the NCAA's 2024-25 Men's Soccer Prechampionships Manual for D3.

[FanaticFan458]

How does Cortland, who won the SUNYAC and had several incredible wins get such an unfavorable draw? Messiah and Williams is quite a gauntlet and for me is the toughest pod in the tournament.

[rdanie03]

How does Cortland, who won the SUNYAC and had several incredible wins get such an unfavorable draw? Messiah and Williams is quite a gauntlet and for me is the toughest pod in the tournament.

I mean, Messiah is ranked 36th in the NPI, which is about what the 22nd ranked team should expect to see in the 1st round. Williams is a bit of a tough second round draw though.

[Ejay]

How does Cortland, who won the SUNYAC and had several incredible wins get such an unfavorable draw? Messiah and Williams is quite a gauntlet and for me is the toughest pod in the tournament.

I mean, Messiah is ranked 36th in the NPI, which is about what the 22nd ranked team should expect to see in the 1st round. Williams is a bit of a tough second round draw though.

Hmmm, interesting thought, but have you looked at the opponents of other teams ranked oround Cortland?
17 vs 131
18 vs 52
19 vs 60
20 vs 55
21 vs 71
Cortland vs. 36
23 vs 59
24 vs 80
25 vs 75
26 vs 41
27 vs 72

.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

How does Cortland, who won the SUNYAC and had several incredible wins get such an unfavorable draw? Messiah and Williams is quite a gauntlet and for me is the toughest pod in the tournament.

I mean, Messiah is ranked 36th in the NPI, which is about what the 22nd ranked team should expect to see in the 1st round. Williams is a bit of a tough second round draw though.

Hmmm, interesting thought, but have you looked at the opponents of other teams ranked oround Cortland?
17 vs 131
18 vs 52
19 vs 60
20 vs 55
21 vs 71
Cortland vs. 36
23 vs 59
24 vs 80
25 vs 75
26 vs 41
27 vs 72

.

I made a bracket on a spreadsheet that has the teams listed with their rank 1-64 based on their NPI rank and how far off they are based on a perfectly seeded bracket. Obviously the seeding won't be perfect due to geographical limitations but it's not too bad.

10 teams are exactly where they should be.
11 teams are 1 seed off
9 teams are 2 seeds off
20 teams are 3-5 seeds off
9 teams are 6-9 seeds off
5 teams are 10+ seeds off (C-M-S is the furthest off. Should be seeded 31 but is in the 48 slot for geographic reasons)

1st round matchup extremes (ranks should add to 65)
55: 37 Otterbein vs 18 Wash & Lee
56: 48 Belhaven @ 8 Trinity
56: 34 Messiah vs 22 Cortland
58: 38 Emory @ 20 Lynchburg
58: 53 Suffolk @ 5 Conn College
59: 31 C-M-S vs 28 Oglethorpe
...
71: 54 St Mary's vs 17 Dickinson
71: 46 WestConn vs 25 Frank & Marsh
71: 44 UW-Superior vs 27 North Park
74: 42 DePauw vs 32 Hope
75: 63 Spalding @ 12 Kenyon
76: 62 Anderson @ 14 Denison
83: 50 Thomas vs 33 Buffalo St

[camosfan]

How does Cortland, who won the SUNYAC and had several incredible wins get such an unfavorable draw? Messiah and Williams is quite a gauntlet and for me is the toughest pod in the tournament.

Williams should be the ones complaining here!

[jknezek]

How does Cortland, who won the SUNYAC and had several incredible wins get such an unfavorable draw? Messiah and Williams is quite a gauntlet and for me is the toughest pod in the tournament.

Williams should be the ones complaining here!

Why? Using the logic above, Williams is about the 6th seed, Manhattanville is somewhere in the high 50s/low 60s. Add them up, that's about 65. In the second round, which should add up to about 32, Williams is still a 6. If Messiah wins, they are 34, that adds to 40, and if Cortland wins that adds to about 28. A little off if Cortland wins, but no different than Johns Hopkins vs W&L, should that happen, at about 27.

"Bracket of Death" is based on Messiah's history, not their actual season results, or even their last 2 NCAA results. Cortland at 22 is not substantially different than any team that is favored to make the second round from the non-host game.

I really don't see why Williams would be complaining.

[camosfan]

My argument is based on the Cortland fan complaining about the strength of that group! If Messiah is that good Williams got a bad deal.