23 thoughts on “Bracketologists take a whack at pairings”

1. David, Maryville and MissCollege have bussed back and forth since the mileage limit was extended to 500. (In 2003 and then in 2005.)

   Seocndly, in 2005 Miss College was given a bye, but Maryville hosted Methodist in the first round and then Miss College in the second.

   http://www.d3hoops.com/story.php?story=43221.

   The NCAA has set the precedent of doing some “geographic proximity” stuff.

2. Nevertheless, I’ll stand by this bracket. I’d rather send the Scots a short distance to Lexington than a long distance to Clinton. If they can beat Transy, they’ll have my blessings on the subsequent bus trip south by west. 🙂

   Oddly enough, it seems that Miss. College’s campus is almost exactly the same distance from both of the Maryvilles (MO and TN). How odd!

3. I assume I’m not going to be alone on this limb…? The lights of the Sears Tower are dimming periodically; that must mean the Sager Mega Computer is running through thousands of perumutations. I’m sure Ralph is using whatever passes for science in Texas these days. How about Titan Q and his actuarial tables? C’mon guys, throw me a bone here! 🙂

4. I have a couple others working on it — I consider Q in the pro category and until I saw Sager’s posts today I wasn’t sure how much of a criteria person he was.

   Gregory, you’re welcome to participate.

5. I’m working on one, David. First I have to print out a full-sized map of the U.S. for my war room … er, office … so that I can start playing Mr. NCAA Travel Agent as I set up my bracket. 🙂

6. Alright, with the change of three teams, here are my new brackets:

   Amherst Bracket
   Amherst gets a bye and hosts the winner of Elms at Gordon. Worcester Polytech hosts Bridgewater State. Mass-Boston plays Tufts at Worcester Polytech. Winners face winners of the:

   York Bracket
   York gets a bye (venue-induced) and hosts the winer of Ursinus at Carnegie Mellon. Lincoln hosts Villa Julie (short trip) and Lake Erie plays Wooster at Lincoln.

   St. John Fisher Bracket
   St. John Fisher hosts Plattsburgh State. Hamilton and Utica play at St. John Fisher. We probably have to split admissions to squeeze everyond into SJF. Cortland State hosts Endicott and Baldwin-Wallace plays Norwich at Cortland. (This is how we get nice new matchups this year. Norwich and B-W are 648 miles apart but they meet in the middle, under the 500-mile radius.) Winners face the winners of the:

   Hope Bracket
   Hope hosts Wisconsin Lutheran, while Carroll and North Central play at Hope. Bethany plays at Wittenberg, while Calvin plays Transylvania at Wittenberg.

   Winners meet in one semifinal in Salem.
   ——————
   Baruch Bracket
   Baruch hosts Widener (pairings shifted to avoid conference rematch) and Scranton and SUNY-Farmingdale play at Baruch. Widener plays at William Paterson and Messiah meets Alvernia at Paterson. Winners face the winners of:

   Mississippi College Bracket
   Mississippi College gets a bye and awaits the winner of Trinity (Texas) and Maryville (Tenn.). I know this is a flight, but anything involving Trinity is a flight. Virginia Wesleyan hosts Christopher Newport in a great Tidewater-area matchup, while Randolph-Macon plays Catholic at Virginia Wesleyan.

   Lawrence Bracket
   Lawrence gets a bye, both on merit and venue convenience, awaiting the winner of Carleton at Illinois Wesleyan. This is a long trip but acceptable and under 500 miles (417 miles mostly on scenic U.S. 52, passing within a stone’s throw of Clarke, Loras and Dubuque). If this is distasteful, send Carleton to Augustana and DePauw to Illinois Wesleyan, though that breaks up the seedings for no written reason. Augustana hosts Maryville (Mo.) and DePauw and UW-Whitewater meet at Augustana. The winners face the winners of the:

   Puget Sound bracket
   Puget Sound gets a bye on convenience. It awaits the winner of Occidental at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. (Sorry, gotta maintain the almighty “geographic proximity” (read: penny-pinching)). UW-Stout hosts Buena Vista and UW-La Crosse plays St. Thomas at UW-Stout.

   Some years we’d be roaring about the Midwest being forced to play the West but I’m not concerned this time. I feel like the best course of action is to split the Midwest and Great Lakes on separate sides of the bracket.

   We could also try to drop Trinity into a West regional with Puget Sound and the two SCIAC teams, in Southern California. Now we have a deep south hole, however. Maryville Mo. cannot get to Maryville Tenn. in under 500 miles. We can get Transylvania to Maryville … or vice versa, is how it would be seeded. But Transy-to-Mississippi College is a flight. And I am not stripping Transy of a neutral site and forcing it to play on the road in the first roun.

7. I was going to do this but the server issues knocked me out (sleep, ya know, is a good thing).

   I do think the NCAA may send Transy off south. I do think Lincoln is going to host, as well.

8. Here’s another, from Patrick Abegg:

   NCAA has preferred to give byes to the top 2 teams in each region, except for the perennially short Atlantic (allowing a final bye to balance things out). Assuming the same rule applies to regional hosts in the new format, here’s my top 15.

   Amherst
   WPI
   St. John Fisher
   Cortland
   Baruch
   York PA
   Lincoln
   Virginia Wesleyan
   Miss College
   Wittenberg
   Hope
   Lawrence
   Augustana
   Puget Sound
   W Whitewater

   There are 27 teams from the eastern four regions, and 32 from the west. Logically, Virginia Wesleyan and the other two Virginia teams shift eastward for balance, which means we need one more regional host for the west. Transylvania becomes the extra host.

   With Puget Sound as a host, we’ve got to pair CMS and Occidental, then fly the winner up north.

   Mississippi College picks up the two Maryville schools due to geography. It needs a #2 seed, and fortunately Trinity is available, and they’re used to long road trips anyway.

   My #2 seeds go as follows (we’re short a #2 seed due to the Pacific Coast geography)
   Tufts with Amherst
   Gordon with WPI
   W Paterson with St. John Fisher
   Farmingdale with Lincoln
   Alvernia with Cortland
   Widener with Baruch
   Ursinus with York PA
   Randolph Macon with Virginia Wesleyan
   Trinity with Miss College
   Carnegie Mellon with Wittenberg
   Wooster with Hope
   North Central with Lawrence
   Carroll with Transylvania
   Stout with Augustana
   Calvin with Whitewater

   This gives the final bracket, in seed order, of:
   Amherst Tufts Mass-Boston (none)
   WPI Gordon Norwich Elms
   Cortland Alvernia Utica Bridgewater
   Baruch Widener Scranton Endicott

   St. John Fisher W Paterson York NY (none)
   Virginia Wesleyan RMC Catholic CNU
   York PA Ursinus Messiah Villa Julie
   Lincoln Farmingdale Hamilton Plattsburgh

   Miss College Trinity Maryville TN Maryville MO
   Wittenberg CMU Lake Erie (none)
   Hope Wooster Bald-Wall Bethany
   Transy Carroll Ill Wesl DePauw

   Lawrence No Central St Thomas (none)
   Augustana Stout Carleton Wisc Luth
   W Whitewater Calvin W Lax Buena Vista
   Puget Sound Oxy CMS (none)

9. All I have to say is that it sucks to be in the West. I think there is a WIAC bias! 🙂

   In Pat’s original brackets, such conference foes as Hope and Calvin are in different sectionals, Wittenberg and Wooster are in different sectionals and Ill. Wes. and North Central/Augustana are in different sectionals! Even Carroll and Lawrence are. But, Whitewater, Stout and La Crosse are in the SAME sectional. Despite the front page saying the WIAC has three chances to get to Salem, they don’t since they’ll have to play each other to get there! Not only that, you have La Crosse and Stout in the same REGIONAL (in your revised one)! I’m calling Shenanigans! lol. 🙂

10. OK, here goes. Rough and ready:

    NORTHEAST/ATLANTIC SECTIONAL
    – @ Amherst –
    Norwich @ Endicott
    winner @ Amherst

    – @ Gordon –
    York (NY) vs. William Paterson
    Bridgewater State vs. Gordon

    – @ Worcester Polytech –
    Elms vs. Scranton
    Plattsburgh State vs. Worcester Polytech

    – @ Tufts –
    SUNY-Farmingdale vs. Baruch
    UMass-Boston vs. Tufts

    (Is the Tufts gym adequate size? It has no listed capacity on their D3hoops.com page.)

    EAST/MIDDLE ATLANTIC SECTIONAL
    – @ St. John Fisher –
    Utica vs. Cortland State
    Hamilton vs. St. John Fisher

    – @ Lincoln –
    Wooster vs. Alvernia
    Messiah vs. Lincoln

    – @ Ursinus –
    Villa Julie vs. York (PA)
    Randolph-Macon vs. Ursinus

    – @ Virginia Wesleyan –
    Catholic vs. Widener
    Christopher Newport vs. Virginia Wesleyan

    GREAT LAKES/SOUTH SECTIONAL
    – @ Trinity (TX) –
    Occidental @ Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
    winner @ Trinity (TX)

    – @ Transylvania –
    Carnegie-Mellon vs. Baldwin-Wallace
    Bethany vs. Transylvania

    – @ Mississippi C. –
    Maryville (MO) @ Maryville (TN)
    winner @ Mississippi C.

    – @ Hope –
    Lake Erie vs. Wittenberg
    Illinois Wesleyan vs. Hope

    MIDWEST/WEST SECTIONAL
    – @ Lawrence –
    Carleton @ North Central
    winner @ Lawrence

    – @ UW-Whitewater –
    DePauw vs. Calvin
    Wisconsin Lutheran vs. UW-Whitewater

    – @ Puget Sound –
    St. Thomas @ UW-Stout
    winner @ Puget Sound

    – @ Augustana –
    UW-LaCrosse vs. Carroll
    Buena Vista vs. Augustana

    Wooster has to travel to central PA to play three local teams, but they will no doubt prefer that to staying in Ohio to face the competition there. In trying to separate the leagues with three teams, the CCIW proved more geographically elastic than did the WIAC — but at least none of the WIAC teams would have to face each other the first weekend.

    I’m no doubt way off. But it was fun putting the map together and trying to piece this all together.

11. Actually, funny you should mention that, Gregory. I was reminded this weekend that Tufts’ gym is not 94 feet long, ergo no home NCAA Tournament games. They would have to host elsewhere.

12. I appreciate learning how Pat Coleman broke down the bracket, Bracketology 101.

    Since the National Committee apparently put so much emphasis on QOWI and Winning percentage in dealing with Huntingdon (ripping out their hearts) vis-a-vis Villa Julie, will they allow Miss College to host the Sectional? The West and South “plane flight teams” will need to fly east anyway, why not to Clinton?

    As for the Women, please send one ASC school to another “regional” bracket.

    Thanks to Pat Coleman and the crew for the hard work!

13. I appreciate learning how Pat Coleman broke down the bracket, Bracketology 101.

    Since the National Committee apparently put so much emphasis on QOWI and Winning percentage in dealing with Huntingdon (ripping out their hearts) vis-a-vis Villa Julie, will they allow Miss College to host the Sectional? The West and South “plane flight teams” will need to fly east anyway, why not to Clinton?

    As for the Women, please send one ASC school to another “regional” bracket.

    Thanks to Pat Coleman and the crew for the hard work!

14. Nice work Greg!

    That Hope Regional is a KILLER! Wow. Hope the NCAA agrees and puts all three WIAC teams in different regionals the first weekend! 🙂

15. Well the real one is out and Midwest gets screwed again. Although, I doubt there is much of a way to fix the problem.

    I do have a couple of changes that should have happened in the other brackets.

    If they switched Randolph-Macon and Messiah and had Wooster host. That might be too far for Transy, but I doubt it.

    That Wittenberg regional seems too tough as well.

16. In the past, regional winning percentage has been more important for seleciton than for hosting. That leads me to beleive that Miss may not get the host seed.

    C

17. Does anyone understand te rationale on why the NCAA is sending three schools into the heart of NYC City on a Friday or Saturday to play at Baruch? Traffic getting into Manhatten will be a bear, not to mention the parking problems.

18. Baruch is a high seed and merited being given the right to host. Sounds like a good excuse to take the day off!

19. Witt’s regional is tough – but B/W killed themselves with those losses. Witt deserves to host and I really can’t see how they could have evened it out.

    Well, unless you give everyone a travel budget.

20. You drive to a parking lot in NJ or CT or NY and take the bus, train or ferry into NYC and then the Subway to Baruch. Believe me it will be much simpiler than driving and trying to park.

21. Harumph.

    I like my brackets better than the real ones.

    🙂

22. My Dad would like to know why Southern Maine and Scranton have such clear paths to the Final Four. Anybody agree and do you know why?

23. Hmm. I don’t agree, really. Southern Maine has Bowdoin and Mary Washington in its section, plus Salem State, which beat Southern Maine. Scranton would have to get by Baldwin-Wallace, and they already played a tight game this year. Hard to say they have an unfairly clear path since a top team was moved into the bracket.

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