The third NCAA regional rankings of the 2011-12 season have been released. For women’s rankings, scroll down.

Need to know more about the regional rankings process and what they mean? Check our blog post — updated for 2012. Need to know more about the NCAA Tournament? Check out our NCAA Tournament FAQ.

Through games of Sunday, Feb. 19.

The first record is in-region record, followed by overall.

Men’s rankings
Atlantic Region
1 Staten Island 20-2 22-4
2 William Paterson 22-3 22-3
3 St. Joseph’s (L.I.) 21-2 21-3
4 Richard Stockton 17-6 18-7
5 New Jersey City 15-6 17-7

East Region
1 Hartwick 22-2 23-2
2 Oswego State 22-2 22-3
3 Hobart 20-4 21-4
4 New York U. 19-5 19-5
5 Medaille 22-2 23-2
6 Nazareth 17-6 17-8

Great Lakes
1 Hope 16-0 24-1
2 Wittenberg 18-4 20-5
3 Wooster 19-4 21-4
4 Ohio Wesleyan 18-6 19-6
5 Bethany 21-2 22-3
6 John Carroll 15-6 18-6

Mid-Atlantic
1 Cabrini 24-0 24-1
2 Franklin & Marshall 23-2 23-2
3 St. Mary’s (Md.) 17-5 19-6
4 Keystone 20-5 20-5
5 Messiah 17-6 18-6
6 Misericordia 19-6 19-6
7 Widener 14-7 18-7
8 Mary Washington 16-6 17-8
9 Albright 13-7 17-8

Midwest
1 Washington U. 18-5 18-6
2 Wheaton (Ill.) 17-5 19-5
3 Transylvania 21-2 22-3
4 Lake Forest 19-3 20-3
5 Illinois Wesleyan 17-6 19-6
6 Concordia (Wis.) 19-4 20-4
7 North Central (Ill.) 17-5 18-7
8 Augustana 18-5 19-5

Northeast
1 Amherst 21-2 23-2
2 Middlebury 21-2 23-2
3 MIT 23-1 23-1
4 Rhode Island College 20-5 20-5
5 Western Connecticut 20-5 20-5
6 Eastern Connecticut 20-5 20-5
7 WPI 18-6 18-6
8 Wesleyan 20-4 20-5
9 Albertus Magnus 24-1 24-1
10 Keene State 15-6 18-7
11 Becker 21-4 21-4
12 Salem State 17-7 18-7

South
1 Mary Hardin-Baylor 23-1 24-1
2 Virginia Wesleyan 21-3 22-3
3 Birmingham-Southern 21-1 24-1
4 Randolph-Macon 17-4 20-5
5 Christopher Newport 18-4 21-4
6 Emory 19-5 19-5
7 Hardin-Simmons 17-6 19-6
8 Texas-Dallas 19-4 21-4

West
1 UW-Whitewater 22-3 22-3
2 Whitworth 21-2 22-3
3 UW-River Falls 18-5 18-7
4 UW-Stevens Point 17-6 19-6
5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 17-1 23-1
6 St. Thomas 18-6 19-6
7 Gustavus Adolphus 18-6 19-6
8 Puget Sound 14-6 19-6
9 Whitman 16-7 18-7

Regional score reporting forms (including SOS) below:
Atlantic  |  East  |  Great Lakes  |  Middle Atlantic  |  Midwest  |  Northeast  |  South  |  West

Women’s

The first record is in-region record, followed by overall record.
Atlantic
1 Mary Washington 23-0 25-0
2 William Paterson 21-2 23-2
3 Kean 19-3 22-4
4 Mount St. Mary 21-3 22-3
5 Rutgers-Newark 17-7 17-7
6 York (Pa.) 22-4 22-4

Central
1 Chicago 24-0 24-0
2 UW-Stevens Point 20-3 21-4
3 Washington U. 19-3 20-4
4 UW-River Falls 19-5 20-5
5 UW-Whitewater 20-5 20-5
6 Illinois Wesleyan 16-5 20-5

East
1 Rochester 18-5 19-5
2 Ithaca 20-2 21-4
3 Hartwick 20-4 21-5
4 St. Lawrence 20-3 20-4
5 Buffalo State 21-2 23-2
6 Oneonta State 16-6 16-8

Great Lakes
1 Mount Union 22-1 24-1
2 DePauw 22-1 23-1
3 Calvin 17-1 23-1
4 Franklin 21-2 23-2
5 Thomas More 20-2 21-4
6 St. Vincent 20-4 20-5

Mid-Atlantic
1 Juniata 23-0 24-1
2 Lebanon Valley 21-3 22-3
3 King’s 20-3 21-4
4 Johns Hopkins 20-3 22-3
5 Messiah 21-3 22-4
6 Franklin & Marshall 18-7 19-7

Northeast
1 Amherst 23-0 25-0
2 University of New England 21-4 21-4
3 Rhode Island College 22-3 22-3
4 Tufts 20-4 20-5
5 Southern Maine 19-5 20-5
6 Bowdoin 18-5 19-6
7 Babson 22-2 23-2
8 Colby 19-6 19-6
9 Williams 17-6 19-6
10 Emmanuel 18-5 19-6

South
1 Louisiana College 20-2 22-3
2 Centre 20-3 21-3
3 Virginia Wesleyan 19-4 20-5
4 Concordia (Texas) 19-4 20-4
5 Maryville (Tenn.) 16-4 17-6
6 Eastern Mennonite 20-3 21-3

West
1 George Fox 20-0 25-0
2 St. Thomas 24-1 24-1
3 Simpson 17-5 20-5
4 Lewis & Clark 16-2 23-2
5 Gustavus Adolphus 19-6 19-6
6 Occidental 20-2 22-3

Regional score reporting forms (including SOS) below:
Atlantic | Central | East | Great Lakes | Mid-Atlantic | Northeast | South | West

The second NCAA regional rankings of the 2011-12 season have been released. For women’s rankings, scroll down.

Need to know more about the regional rankings process and what they mean? Check our blog post — updated for 2012. Need to know more about the NCAA Tournament? Check out our NCAA Tournament FAQ.

Through Sunday’s games.

The first record is in-region record, followed by overall.

Men’s rankings
Atlantic Region
1 William Paterson 21-3 21-3
2 Staten Island 18-2 19-4
3 St. Joseph’s (L.I.) 19-2 19-3
4 Richard Stockton 16-6 17-7
5 New Jersey City 15-5 17-6

East
1 Hartwick 21-2 22-2
2 Oswego State 19-2 19-3
3 Hobart 18-4 19-4
4 New York U. 18-4 18-4
5 Medaille 20-2 21-2
6 Nazareth 16-6 16-8

Great Lakes
1 Hope 14-0 22-1
2 Wittenberg 16-4 18-5
3 Wooster 17-4 19-4
4 Ohio Wesleyan 16-6 17-6
5 Wabash 15-6 17-6
6 Bethany (W. Va.) 19-2 20-3

Mid-Atlantic
1 Cabrini 23-0 23-1
2 Keystone 20-4 20-4
3 Franklin & Marshall 21-2 21-2
4 Mary Washington 15-5 16-7
5 St. Mary’s (Md.) 16-5 18-6
6 Messiah 15-6 16-6
7 Misericordia 17-6 17-6
8 Widener 13-6 17-6
9 Lycoming 15-6 17-7

Midwest
1 Washington U. 17-4 17-5
2 Lake Forest 18-2 19-2
3 Transylvania 20-1 21-2
4 Wheaton (Ill.) 16-5 18-5
5 North Central (Ill.) 15-5 16-7
6 Illinois Wesleyan 15-6 17-6
7 Hanover 16-5 16-6
8 Edgewood 16-5 18-5

Northeast
1 Amherst 20-2 22-2
2 Middlebury 20-2 22-2
3 Western Connecticut 19-4 19-4
4 MIT 22-1 22-1
5 Keene State 15-4 18-5
6 Rhode Island College 18-5 18-5
7 WPI 17-5 17-5
8 Wesleyan (Conn.) 19-4 19-5
9 Eastern Connecticut 18-5 18-5
10 Albertus Magnus 22-1 22-1
11 Becker 19-4 19-4
12 Tufts 16-7 16-7

South
1 Mary Hardin-Baylor 21-1 22-1
2 Virginia Wesleyan 18-3 19-3
3 Randolph-Macon 16-3 19-4
4 Birmingham-Southern 19-1 22-1
5 Emory 18-4 18-4
6 Christopher Newport 16-4 19-4
7 Guilford 15-6 16-7
8 Hardin-Simmons 15-6 17-6

West
1 UW-River Falls 18-3 18-5
2 UW-Stevens Point 17-4 19-4
3 UW-Whitewater 20-3 20-3
4 Whitworth 19-2 20-3
5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 15-1 21-1
6 Gustavus Adolphus 17-5 18-5
7 St. Thomas 15-6 16-6
8 Whitman 15-6 17-6
9 Puget Sound 13-5 18-5

Regional score reporting forms (including SOS) below:
Atlantic  |  East  |  Great Lakes  |  Middle Atlantic  |  Midwest  |  Northeast  |  South  |  West

Women’s

The first record is in-region record, followed by overall record.
Atlantic
1 Mary Washington 21-0 23-0
2 William Paterson 21-1 23-1
3 Kean 17-3 20-4
4 Mount St. Mary (N.Y.) 19-3 20-3
5 Rutgers-Newark 16-7 16-7
6 York (Pa.) 19-4 19-4

Central
1 Chicago 22-0 22-0
2 UW-Stevens Point 19-2 20-3
3 UW-River Falls 18-4 19-4
4 Washington U. 17-3 18-4
5 Illinois Wesleyan 14-5 18-5
6 UW-Eau Claire 18-4 18-5

East
1 Rochester 18-3 19-3
2 Ithaca 19-2 20-4
3 Hartwick 20-2 21-3
4 St. Lawrence 19-3 19-4
5 Oneonta State 16-4 16-6
6 Buffalo State 18-2 20-2

Great Lakes
1 Mount Union 20-1 22-1
2 DePauw 20-1 21-1
3 Calvin 16-1 22-1
4 Franklin 19-2 21-2
5 Thomas More 18-2 19-4
6 St. Vincent 19-3 19-4

Mid-Atlantic
1 Juniata 22-0 23-1
2 Lebanon Valley 21-2 21-2
3 King’s 19-2 20-3
4 Johns Hopkins 18-3 20-3
5 Messiah 17-3 18-4
6 Franklin & Marshall 16-6 17-6

Northeast
1 Amherst 22-0 24-0
2 University of New England 19-4 19-4
3 Rhode Island College 20-3 20-3
4 Tufts 19-4 19-5
5 Southern Maine 17-5 18-5
6 Colby 18-5 18-5
7 Williams 17-5 19-5
8 Bowdoin 17-5 18-6
9 Babson 19-2 20-2
10 Emmanuel (Mass.) 16-5 17-6

South
1 Louisiana College 18-2 19-3
2 Centre 19-2 20-2
3 Howard Payne 19-3 20-3
4 Virginia Wesleyan 17-3 18-4
5 Ferrum 17-4 19-4
6 Greensboro 15-4 18-4

West
1 George Fox 18-0 23-0
2 St. Thomas 22-1 22-1
3 Simpson 15-5 18-5
4 Lewis & Clark 14-2 21-2
5 Wartburg 17-6 17-6
6 Gustavus Adolphus 18-5 18-5

Regional score reporting forms (including SOS) below:
Atlantic | Central | East | Great Lakes | Mid-Atlantic | Northeast | South | West

Well, we’re updating this for 2012 because there are a couple of things that did change, namely the site of the women’s Final Four! From now until the end of the regular season you may well see a lot of Division III buzzwords floating about on our front page, here in the Daily Dose and on our message boards. Pool A, Pool B, Pool C, OWP, OOWP … what do those all mean?

Pool A, Pool B and Pool C are the labels given to groups (also known as Pools) of bids awarded to the playoffs. The field is 62 men’s teams and 64 women’s teams culminating in the Final Four and national title games in Salem, Va. (men) and Holland, Mich. (women).

Understanding Pool A is fairly simple — let’s just pretend that ‘A’ stands for automatic. Those are the automatic bids that are awarded. There are 42 conferences with men’s automatic bids and 43 conferences with women’s automatic bids. Every conference other than the UAA awards its automatic bid to the winner of a conference tournament.

If you are not in one of those conferences, there is one bid set aside for you, which is what’s referred to as Pool B. The best team out of that group, which includes independents and (for men only) the Great South Athletic Conference teams, gets a bid as well.

Every eligible team not already selected is dropped into Pool C, which consists of 19 men’s and 20 women’s at-large bids. At-large bids are determined using the NCAA’s criteria, which includes regional winning percentage, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, results against common opponents and results against regionally ranked teams.

If your conference has an automatic bid and your team doesn’t win it, then you are only eligible for Pool C bids. If your conference doesn’t have an automatic bid, you are eligible for Pool B or, if you don’t make that cut, Pool C.

Q: Why is the women’s tournament 64 but the men’s only 62?
A: There are more schools with women’s basketball teams than men’s basketball teams. As more schools join Division III (or more women’s-only schools go co-ed), the men’s tournament will grow to 64. It just expanded from 61 to 62 teams this season.

Q: How can my team guarantee it will get into the playoffs?
A: Win your conference’s automatic bid. There’s no guarantees otherwise.

Q: If the two best teams are in the same region, will they be placed in separate brackets?
A: This is at least possible, but not very likely. They don’t seed this tournament like a D-I tournament, unfortunately. Teams are placed in groups according to geography and seeded, though keeping teams from having to travel 500 miles in the first round is more important to the NCAA than maintaining proper matchups. We can expect from history that the women’s basketball committee will do its best to separate the top teams. The history in men’s basketball is mixed at best, but the men’s committee delivered a nice bracket in 2011.

Q: There are a lot of criteria to go through. How can I tell where my team stands?
A: The NCAA releases regional rankings over the final weeks of the regular season, starting today. However, being No. 6 in one region doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ahead of a team that’s No. 7 in one of the other seven.

Q: So if I’m ranked seventh in these rankings, I’m in the playoffs?
A: No. There are still the 42/43 automatic bids. They’ll all get in first. Take the automatic bids out of the rankings (and keep in mind some conferences don’t have anyone in these rankings) and one Pool B team, then the remaining 19/20 get in.

Q: We’re ranked in the D3hoops.com Top 25. Since the bracket has more than 60 teams, we should be in, right?
A: Unfortunately, no. We would love to be able to say that’s the case, but remember that there are still all those automatic bids. Plus, the NCAA doesn’t agree with us as to who the best at-large teams are.

Q: Can you explain more about the various playoff selection/regional ranking criteria?
A: Absolutely. We have a whole section of our FAQ devoted to the NCAA Tournament, with that and game dates and the list of conferences with automatic bids.

Q: I have a question you haven’t answered. What do I do?
A: E-mail info@d3sports.com and/or post below in the comments section.

The first NCAA regional rankings of the 2011-12 season have been released. For women’s rankings, scroll down.

Need to know more about the regional rankings process and what they mean? Check our blog post — it’s from last year but it’s still good. Need to know more about the NCAA Tournament? Check out our NCAA Tournament FAQ.

The first record is in-region record, followed by overall.

Men’s rankings
Atlantic Region
1 Staten Island 15-2 16-4
2 William Paterson 19-3 19-3
3 St. Joseph’s (L.I.) 17-1 17-2
4 Richard Stockton 14-6 15-7
5 New Jersey City 14-4 16-5

East Region
1 Hartwick 19-2 20-2
2 Oswego State 17-2 17-3
3 New York University 17-2 17-2
4 Hobart 15-4 16-4
5 Medaille 19-2 20-2
6 Nazareth 15-5 15-7

Great Lakes
1 Hope 12-0 20-1
2 Wittenberg 15-3 17-4
3 Wooster 16-3 18-3
4 Ohio Wesleyan 15-5 16-5
5 Wabash 13-6 15-6
6 Capital 13-6 14-7

Mid-Atlantic
1 Cabrini 21-0 21-1
2 Keystone 17-3 17-3
3 Lycoming 15-4 17-5
4 Mary Washington 14-4 15-6
5 Franklin & Marshall 19-2 19-2
6 St. Mary’s (Md.) 14-5 16-6
7 Messiah 13-6 14-6
8 Misericordia 15-6 15-6
9 Alvernia 13-6 15-6

Midwest
1 Washington U. 15-4 15-5
2 Transylvania 18-1 19-2
3 Lake Forest 17-2 18-2
4 Wheaton (Ill.) 15-4 17-4
5 North Central (Ill.) 14-4 15-6
6 Illinois Wesleyan 14-5 16-5
7 Edgewood 14-5 16-5
8 Concordia (Wis.) 15-4 16-4

Northeast
1 Amherst 18-2 20-2
2 Middlebury 18-1 20-1
3 Rhode Island College 16-4 16-4
4 Western Connecticut 17-4 17-4
5 WPI 16-4 16-4
6 Eastern Connecticut 17-4 17-4
7 MIT 20-1 20-1
8 Keene State 14-3 17-4
9 Wesleyan (Conn.) 17-4 17-5
10 Tufts 16-6 16-6
11 Becker 16-4 16-4
12 Albertus Magnus 20-1 20-1

South
1 Mary Hardin-Baylor 19-1 20-1
2 Virginia Wesleyan 17-2 18-2
3 Birmingham-Southern 17-1 20-1
4 Randolph-Macon 14-3 17-4
5 Christopher Newport 15-4 18-4
6 Emory 16-4 16-4
7 Guilford 14-5 15-6
8 Hardin-Simmons 14-5 16-5

West
1 UW-River Falls 16-3 16-5
2 UW-Stevens Point 16-4 18-4
3 UW-Whitewater 19-2 19-2
4 Whitworth 17-2 18-3
5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 13-1 19-1
6 St. Thomas 14-6 15-6
7 Gustavus Adolphus 14-5 15-5
8 Dubuque 15-3 16-6
9 Whitman 13-6 15-6

Regional score reporting forms (including SOS) below:
Atlantic  |  East  |  Great Lakes  |  Middle Atlantic  |  Midwest  |  Northeast  |  South  |  West

Women’s

The first record is in-region record, followed by overall record.

Atlantic
1 Kean 17-2 20-3
2 William Paterson 19-1 21-1
3 Mary Washington 19-0 21-0
4 Mount St. Mary (N.Y.) 17-3 18-3
5 York (Pa.) 17-3 17-3
6 Catholic 16-4 18-4

Central
1 Chicago 20-0 20-0
2 UW-Stevens Point 18-2 19-3
3 Washington U. 15-3 16-4
4 Illinois Wesleyan 12-5 16-5
5 UW-Eau Claire 17-4 17-5
6 Carthage 15-4 17-4

East
1 Rochester (N.Y.) 16-3 17-3
2 Ithaca 17-2 18-4
3 Hartwick 18-2 18-3
4 St. Lawrence 17-3 17-4
5 Oneonta State 14-4 14-6
6 Buffalo State 16-2 18-2

Great Lakes
1 DePauw 19-1 20-1
2 Mount Union 18-1 20-1
3 Calvin 14-1 20-1
4 Franklin 18-1 20-1
5 Ohio Northern 18-3 18-3
6 St. Vincent 17-3 17-4

Mid-Atlantic
1 Juniata 20-0 21-1
2 Lebanon Valley 19-2 19-2
3 King’s 17-2 18-3
4 Johns Hopkins 17-2 19-2
5 Messiah 15-3 16-4
6 Muhlenberg 15-5 15-5

Northeast
1 Amherst 20-0 22-0
2 Rhode Island College 19-2 19-2
3 Babson 17-2 18-2
4 Tufts 18-4 18-5
5 Williams 16-4 18-4
6 University of New England 17-4 17-4
7 Southern Maine 15-5 16-5
8 Connecticut College 15-4 16-4
9 Keene State 14-4 14-5
10 Colby 15-5 15-5

South
1 Louisiana College 17-1 18-2
2 Centre 18-1 19-1
3 Howard Payne 17-3 18-3
4 Christopher Newport 17-4 17-4
5 Eastern Mennonite 17-2 18-2
6 Piedmont 15-3 18-3

West
1 George Fox 16-0 21-0
2 St. Thomas 20-1 20-1
3 Lewis and Clark 12-2 20-2
4 Gustavus Adolphus 17-4 17-4
5 Wartburg 16-5 16-5
6 Simpson 13-5 16-5

Regional score reporting forms (including SOS) below:
Atlantic | Central | East | Great Lakes | Mid-Atlantic | Northeast | South | West