Apparently, the reason we can’t get seedings for this year’s Division III football playoff bracket is because they don’t exist.
Before 1999, the bracket was seeded fairly simply: There were only 16 teams in the playoffs, four in each bracket, always four from each region and they never crossed over. The seedings followed the last regional ranking. Hosting privileges in the national semifinals rotated from region to region.
Starting in 1999 and beyond, the bracket got larger and more complicated, but we always got seeds from the NCAA, applied them to the bracket and passed them along to you, the Division III football players, fans and coaches. This year, apparently the seedings were never even discussed.
I explained that that seemed unlikely — that somehow they had determined who would play whom and who had home games this weekend. Therefore, there must be some pecking order of teams somewhere. I mentioned that our readers are familiar with the occasions where No. 1 does not play No. 8 because of geography, or No. 2 does not play No. 7, etc. I said that people understood that teams were seeded by bracket, not by region. I said you people know that sometimes teams cannot host because they didn’t file paperwork, or their stadium doesn’t meet standards.
But none of this had an effect.
I explained that openness was a good thing. That men’s and women’s soccer released their final regional rankings. That, as a result of the discussion at the NCAA Convention, everyone will be going in that direction soon, next year even.
But that didn’t help. They would have to reconvene the committee in order to seed teams.
What we can get, and we will pass along to you, is a set of scenarios that determine who will play where in the next round depending on who wins this week.
That will have to be what passes for openness.
But for the first time in my experience following the playoffs, back to 1994, we won’t know who will go where. Not yet.
The two polls I was referring to would be the D3football poll and the AFCA poll as I stated in an earlier post. And, unless the polls carried significant weight W&J would not be in, St Norbert would as noted several times due to the identical win % and SNC’s higher SOS. That’s why I suggest using the polls as a part of a weighted playoff ranking system. This would probably also put ONU and NCC in the playoffs instead of Albright and Coe based on their standing in the two polls.
The point is that a lot of fans don’t feel like we aren’t getting the top 6 at large teams based solely on the NCAA selection committee’s criteria.
Obviously there will be some complaints on the last team in no matter what system is in place…ie the NCAA D1 basketball tournament that allows 65 teams in the field based on “RPI”. At that point, if you’re the last team in you probably don’t have a legitimate chance at winning the title anyway.
“aren’t” should be replaced with “are”. Sorry.
well here I go again..I doin’t know what to do..I filled out the pick/em..pushed all the buttons..it said ..click this and get your selections..I did then it said pick your tie breaker(I guess you had to do this)..so I did..it said you can’t change this once you push or hit submit???..I made a choice..entered my tiebreaker..it said hit submit…ive looked for a long time..there is no (HIT SUBMIT) on my screen.., YES I HAVE ORDERED A NEW LAP TOP & it will be here 12/3/09..soooo where is submit on my 2002 DELL screen???…as I have stated at 72 years of age I’m not very quick on my dell but D3 keeps me going…any ideas??
oh yea whill still crying in my beer…I never got a copy of my PICK-EMs
Anyone know when the capsules are supposed to be out? I think those are one of my favorite features here. They are always a lot of fun to read and compare. I am just a little sad they didn’t come out before I filled in my pick ’em, but I decided to go with my gut. Still, lots of fun.
Working on them as we speak.
If the brackets are no longer made by regions, when will the in-region SOS be thrown in the scrap heap? It seems ridiculous to use only in-region games OW% & OOW% for a SOS as a criteria and then turn around and bracket without regions.