Good morning, Division III fans.

As those of you focused on the playoff picture eagerly await Wednesday afternoon’s release of the selection committee’s regional rankings, I thought I’d further an experiment I started Tuesday morning on the Pool C thread of Post Patterns.

Attempting to illustrate the not-seen-before possibilities the geography of this year’s potential field allows, I slapped together a mock bracket to get some discussion going. I’ll run a slightly-adjusted version of that bracket below, plus a more traditional one, and maybe even a third to show how slightly altering the field via Pool C can have a domino effect.

Let it be very clear that these are not things I think will or should happen, necessarily. And I wouldn’t want anyone to confuse a few of my hastily-assembled mocks with Pat and Gordon’s carefully crafted, traditionally accurate night-before-Selection-Sunday projections. There are too many unknowns as of yet to spend a lot of time working up something we’re likely to see Sunday, but it’s not too early to consider as many possibilities as situations might allow.

Mock One

Pool C teams: UMHB, St. Thomas, Coe, Wabash, Redlands, Lebanon Valley/Albright winner

1 Mount Union
8 Union

4 Thomas More
5 Alfred

3 Case Western Reserve
6 Mount St. Joseph

2 Wittenberg
7 Trine
————
1 UW-Whitewater
8 DePauw

4 Ill. Wesleyan
5 Wabash

3 Monmouth
6 Coe

7 St. Thomas
2 Central
———–
1 Wesley
7 LV/Albright

3 Hampden-Sydney
8 NCWC/Averett winner

4 Kean/Montclair State
5 Curry

2 Delaware Valley
6 Johns Hopkins

————
1 St. John’s
8 NathCon champ

3 Huntingdon
6 Mississippi College

4 Cal Lutheran
5 UMHB

7 Redlands
2 Linfield

Mock Two

Pool C teams: St. Thomas, St. Norbert, Dickinson, Coe, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Ohio Northern

1 Mount Union
8 Susquehanna

4 Mount St. Joseph
5 Ohio Northern

3 Case Western Reserve
6 Alfred

2 Kean/Montclair
7 Johns Hopkins
————
1 UW-Whitewater
7 Trine

4 Wittenberg
5 Thomas More

3 Monmouth
6 Ill. Wesleyan

8 (Nath Con)
2 Central
———–
1 Wesley
8 Curry

4 Huntingdon
5 Mississippi College

3 H-SC
6 NCWC/Averett

2 Delaware Valley
7 Dickinson
————
1 St. John’s
8 St. Norbert

4 St. Thomas
5 Coe

4 UMHB
5 DePauw

7 Cal Lutheran
2 Linfield

Mock Three

Pool C teams: LV/Albright, Otterbein, Wabash, W&J, UMHB, St. Thomas

1 Mount Union
8 Wash. & Jeff.

4 Case Western Reserve
5 St. John Fisher

3 Montclair/Kean
6 Maine Maritime

2 Susquehanna
7 Delaware Valley
————
1 UW-Whitewater
8 Concordia (Wis.)

5 Otterbein
4 Wabash

3 Wittenberg
6 Mount St. Joseph

7 Illinois Wesleyan
2 St. John’s
———–
1 Wesley
8 Randolph-Macon

4 Dickinson
5 Leb Val/Albright

3 Miss. Coll.
6 UMHB

7 Averett
2 Huntingdon
————
1 Central
8 St. Thomas

4 Thomas More
5 Trine

3 Monmouth
6 DePauw

7 Cal Lutheran
2 Linfield

No. 1 seeds: as for the top seeds, I did not determine who would meet in the semis with these brackets. But I think it’s likely that UW-W and St. John’s brackets would be paired and Mount Union and Wesley would, based on how the teams have been ranked.

Quick observations: This is hard work. … As you can see in mock 3, I tried, but I don’t think with all the Ohio area teams set to make the field that it’s a great idea to build the East around Mount Union. It makes sense to do the North there and group a bunch of the Pa. teams around Wesley … I tried in mock 3 to throw some of the improbable AQ winners in there to bump the familiar names … unless UMHB misses out, splitting up those three deep south teams is going to be costly … seeds vary a lot through the mocks, and some of the brackets would likely be seeded differently than the traditional 1-8, 5-4, 3-6, 7-2.

Anyway, let me know what you think below. Happy speculating!