Joy Solomen sat down with In the HuddLLe (two L’s for Liberty League, don’t ask) to talk about the Division III playoff bracket, how it was put together, and ask some of the tough questions from Frank Rossi, Pat Coleman and James Baker about the selections.
It’s an interesting conversation that any Division III fan who wants to understand the NCAA’s thought process should really listen to.
Click the play button below to listen.
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That was good Joy had her stuff ready!!
I feel that W&J should have been in but I must say that the criteria that Ms. Solomen describes is crazy (with all due respect for her hard work). Specifically, saying that W&J loss to the second ranked team in a region and St Norbert lost to a fifth ranked team in another region is crazy. If you look at the NCAA and division 3 rankings Thomas More would probably be ranked fifth in the west as well. What are they looking at? This sounds totally clueless. I guess that if MSJ would have beaten Thomas More than St Norbert would be in instead of W&J. Absolutely mind blowing….
How can Ms. Solomen say strength of schedule is not important? Isn’t that what the Top 25 is based on? I am an Ohio Northern University (ONU) alum, I am bias, and we got screwed. We started the season 1-2 and were still rank. Those three games? ONU beat #15 Northern Illnois, lost to #1 Mount Union, and beat #13 Otterbein. ONU then went on to win it’s next 7 games, to include Capital who was in the Top 25 most of the season until it’s lost to Otterbien. W&J played one Top 25 team, #11 Thomas More (second ranked team in the region), and lost. ONU lost to the #1 team in the nation, and has to play this power house every stinking year. The only other conference as tough as the OAC is the WIAC with power house UW- Whitewater. So, I agree with millie 125 in that it is absolutely mind blowing! GO Mount Union and bring home the national title for the 7th time in the last 11 years to the weak OAC that ONU plays in.
I am flabergasted! I have no idea where Ms Solomen is from, but the brackets overwhelmingly favor Mount Union. As if they needed help. The lower right hand bracket (which includes all the western teams) has 8 teams, ALL ranked in the top 25, 6 ranked in the top 10. The left side of the page has 8 ranked teams in 16 teams, and all are lower rankings except M.U. and Wesley. The selectors may say it is equitable and random, but it smells.