Category Archives: General

The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops: 18 Top 25 teams battle tonight!

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After two days of fairly light schedules, we have a massive set of games on tap for the first Friday night of the season. 18 Top 25 teams are in action, some against fellow Top 25 opponents, and there are some games you certainly will not want to miss. What games, you say? Let’s take a look at my Game of the Day…

Game of the Day: No. 8 Trine @ No. 12 Baldwin Wallace, 6 pm EST

This is going to be extremely competitive and will be a major resume boost for whoever pulls out the victory. Both teams have had to replace at least two starters from last year’s team, so there are new contributors in new roles, which can play a significant impact at this point in the year. And this is the first look we’ll get at Baldwin-Wallace as well, since it is Yellow Jackets’ season opener, so there is a lot be watching for in our first Top 15 matchup of the year.

Keep an eye on…

  • No. 16 Springfield @ No. 9 Amherst, 7 pm EST
  • No. 6 Christopher Newport @ East Texas Baptist, 7 pm EST
  • Wartburg @ No. 13 UW-Eau Claire, 9 pm EST

Thoughts from around the division…

  • I wrote about the potential for NJCU to come away with a win over D-I Monmouth (N.J.) in yesterday’s post, and the Gothic Knights proved my prediction right. Though they fell 79-70, the score was tied at 34 when halftime rolled around. Monmouth never really pulled away, and the majority of the team stats were balanced. The difference came in the offensive rebounding and points in the paint, where Monmouth’s taller lineup paid dividends. NJCU was outrebounded 19-8 on the offensive boards, and had just 16 points in the paint as compared to Monmouth’s 42. But in the big scheme of things, this showed the NJCU is certainly as good as we anticipated, well on its way to a three-peat in the NJAC.
  • To add one more note about that one, Damaris Rodriguez will be a player fans across the nation should be keeping an eye on. All-American potential for sure. The junior guard had 33 points for NJCU, shooting 14-of-26 from the field. Just a special player that should only improve as the season goes on.
  • No. 23 Whitman suffered a loss to NAIA Lewis Clark State for the second straight year, falling 66-60 in last night’s road matchup. Whitman had defensive troubles out of the gate, outscored 23-13 in the opening quarter, before fighting back against a really solid opponent that went 28-5 a year ago. I think Whitman is certainly a Top 25 team, though they’ll need to improve their defending of the three-point line: Lewis Clark State was 8-of-17 from beyond the arc.
  • Bridgewater State is on my radar, as they’ve started the year 2-0, adding a decent road win over Suffolk last night. Sydney Bradbury was really impressive, making five three-pointers as she had 19 points. The MASCAC seems to be a battle between BSU and Framingham State this year, and with the way BSU has started, we should be in for some excellent duels between the two once conference play gets going.
  • Really looking forward to finally getting to see a bunch of Top 25 teams in action on the same night. 7 of the Top 10 will be playing this evening, and some will be tested early on. I don’t see No. 1 Hope having much trouble against Geneva, but it will still be interesting to see how the Flying Dutch have made up for some of the key departures from last year’s team.
  • Speaking of Hope, I really appreciate the tournament format that is put together for this season-opening weekend. You don’t see this very much, and one of the reasons for that I would expect is that coaches do not get guarantees on who they will be playing, which can be concerning for SOS purposes. But come on. It will be fun to see if Illinois Wesleyan and Hope do indeed win their respective games today, and play for a “championship” of sorts tomorrow. IWU is unranked but received votes in the Preseason Top 25, and if the Titans found a way to pull off the upset of No. 1, they could easily find themselves in contention for a national ranking.

Well, this ended up longer than I thought it would. But there’s a lot to cover, and I didn’t even get to it all! Such is the case when you have a massive slate on one evening like we have today. It should be exciting. What game(s) will you be watching? Drop your responses in the comments below!

The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops: November 10, 2022: We’ll get a good look at NJCU tonight

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Welcome to another edition of The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops! We’re two days into the regular season, and we have already seen a number of excellent battles play out. More on that to come in a second, but here’s a look at what game you should be paying attention to on this Thursday night.

Game of the Day: NJCU @ Monmouth (N.J.), 7 p.m. EST

I have to give this D-III vs. D-I game a moment in the spotlight. As some of you know, I’ve been tracking how D-III teams are faring in these early-season duels with D-I competition. Some of the results have been pretty lopsided in favor of the D-I team, but there have been a handful decided in the fourth quarter. This certainly looks to fit into the latter category, which should come as some uplifting news for those who have been watching to see if a D3, on either the men’s or women’s side, will end up with a win over a D-I in this 2022-23 season. After all, NJCU, the back-to-back NJAC champion (and the pick in the conference’s preseason poll to win once again) returns its entire starting lineup, including dynamic scorer Damaris Rodriguez, who averaged 21.2 PPG as a sophomore a year ago. Throw in the fact that Monmouth lost its leading scorer from last year’s squad, and NJCU has already gotten a look at what it takes to beat a D-I in a scrimmage against Saint Peter’s, and you have great opportunity for the Gothic Knights to leave West Long Branch with a win.

Additional thoughts from around the division…

I watched Stevens win 65-50 at Kean last night, and was impressed by the Ducks defensive presence. Kean struggled to get good looks, and shot only 31 percent from the field in that. It was really competitive through the first half, before Stevens put together a third quarter run and began pulling away.

Also caught a few minutes of UW-Oshkosh’s season opener against Lakeland. HC Brad Fischer has said this is one of the youngest groups he’s had during his time there, so it may take a little longer for this team to find its rhythm. UWO pulled out a 60-43 win, though Lakeland had some nice guard play in the early goings.

Berry and Huntington played in one of the closest games of the day, with Berry narrowly winning 63-61. I think Berry is a dark horse contender for the SAA title. They don’t have a whole lot of post play, and started five guards (according to the box score) last night, but those guards are quick, and three scored in double figures.

Really light schedule tonight. We’ll see how it all plays out. A special thank you to Gordon Mann and Pat Coleman of D3hoops.com for allowing this blog to be published on D3hoops.com’s “Daily Dose” blog. You’ll be able to find it there each morning. Have a good day!

Hoopsville to Debut … Soon

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Dave in Fort Wayne

Dave in Fort Wayne for the 2019 DIII Mens Basketball Championship Weekend.

I cannot believe the start of the season is just days away. What in the world happened to the off-season?

Despite our being “quiet” recently, I do plan to be on the air with Hoopsville for our 17th season … but it has become a question of when. Soon for sure, but we won’t be on air ahead of this season starting (i.e. this week).

It is a long, maybe convoluted, story. Some might have noticed something was amiss when we didn’t end up producing more than the single off-season podcast – despite intentions otherwise.

For the third time in five(?) years, we experienced significant water damage in the basement level of our home. Once prior, the damage affected the Hoopsville studio. This time, my family was on vacation and the water ran for roughly five days. That flooded the entire finished basement requiring all carpet to be pulled, dry wall to be replaced and repaired, and plenty of other work. Despite my best efforts and plans, the studio was fully disassembled during the mitigation and repair stages.

The studio is easy to tear down. It is a long process to get it back together.

Hoopsville Studio Off-Season

Water damage in the off season caused the Hoopsville studio to be dismantled.

That said, the time to dedicate on putting the studio back together was also limited due to other priorities. One of those priorities was the work I now do in the basketball offseason including for Major League Baseball, World TeamTennis, and (the now defunct) Arena Football League (Baltimore Brigade PA Announcer) – not to mention my work in the spring and fall with local colleges and the NCAA broadcasts.

Any actual, paying work takes priority over a show which I love but isn’t necessarily a financial source (more on that in a bit). I work as much as I can especially for MLB (at both Orioles and Nationals Parks) so that I can have a little breathing room when it comes time for basketball season. My WTT work usually takes up about six weeks from June through July, but this season my MLB work unexpectedly lasted until the last weekend of October. I was privileged enough to work three games of the World Series thanks to the Washington Nationals having turned their season around. No complaints whatsoever, except work on the studio kept getting pushed aside.

There was also another complication: days prior to the final four in Fort Wayne last March, I suffered a herniated disc in my lower back. I didn’t realize what had happened at the time. I thought it was a pulled muscle and gutted my way through the week. Needless to say, the next few weeks after Fort Wayne were less than ideal – I could barely walk. It turns out my back had been showing signs of this issue for years – maybe even as far back as my college soccer (and practice dummy basketball) days – but I didn’t realize the real problem.

PA Dave PA Announcing Brigade Game

Dave has had a terrific courtside seat for AFL action as the PA Announcer for the Baltimore Brigade. Though, the league announced recently it has shutdown.

I spent April through August (early September) going through physical therapy and two epidural procedures hoping things would improve. The only thing I couldn’t really do was just lie around for a week or two on my back in hopes it would clear up.

Lifting was not an option and any work for any extended period of time was significantly reduced. The studio, despite even the efforts of my wife, was a very slow process – especially with many, MANY boxes sitting around needing to be unpacked and reorganized (those who have been in the studio can attest that the combo office with my wife had a lot in it you can’t see on camera). I couldn’t move those boxes.

Ultimately, the decision was to have surgery which happened on Halloween … just last week (delayed from earlier in October due to the Nationals). The good news: I am on the mend. The bad news: the studio is not ready and I’m not sure when we will be recovered enough. I know at this point we will go on the air with a studio “look” that won’t be complete. I just don’t know when I will have the ability to hit the air.

I am aiming right now for Sunday, November 10. However, it may have to be pushed until the 14th or 17th which I would like to avoid especially as we try and advertise and gain sponsors.

WTT CBS Production Truck

WTT production truck for CBS Sports Network broadcasts. Dave was AD for Washington, DC CBSSN shows. Dave also directed WTT web streaming productions in DC.

That gets us to another aspect of this entire thing: I need to make the show more financially viable. The show gets incredible support from the NABC and WBCA. Others have also stepped up over the years, but Hoopsville needs more partners if I am to justify the time and energy put into the show. Costs increase despite our efforts to cut them back. There are also experiences like the men’s championship being in Atlanta this season which adds to the bottom line. And as many know, I also want to travel occasionally to promote DIII games and teams around the country. That isn’t an option right now.

It all has to be balanced with what is right for my family.

That is why the back surgery was last week and not earlier in October or even late August – I needed to work my MLB job. Thus I am delayed getting the studio ready and getting Hoopsville on the air.

I am not looking for sympathy or charity. I want to be sure to earn what the show brings in. Hoopsville has to be something businesses, schools, conferences, etc. want to support or showcase themselves.

Dave at World Series

Dave really was at Games 3-5 of the World Series. He does work part-time for MLB.

I will be sending out the advertising packages to a select number of schools and conferences this week. The plan is to send it to some businesses as well.

Now some may ask how they can help. We always appreciate those notes. While we are sending out advertising package information to those we think might be interested, we don’t know all the avenues or entities that may be interested. If you know a school, conference, company, or others that might be interested, please get them in touch with us or get us in touch with them. Opening a door can make a significant difference.

We are looking into a special interview spin-off of the show as a pay per view option. We are interested in how many think that is a viable option.

Okay, enough about the financial stuff. The general point was to explain why the delay, some of the challenges, and when I will hopefully be on the air (soon, did I mention that?).

I want to continue our efforts. The student-athletes, coaches, programs, schools, division deserves it. I love doing it.

We will see you on air soon!

Dave’s Top 25 Ballot (’18-’19): Week 10

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Dave is watching everything … usually. It isn’t as helpful as one hopes.

Welcome once again to my D3hoops.com men’s Top 25 ballot blog. This is just to try and provide insight on how one, single, voter of 25 tries to understand the landscape of Division III men’s basketball.

This time of year, it becomes understood that teams, many teams, are going to lose especially when conference tournaments are in full swing. It also seems like February brings with it a new “understanding” for teams. With Regional Rankings out, teams have a larger target on their back. At the same time, others realize they are not in as good a position as they may have perceived previously. And conference races and tournaments change the mentality. Teams are fighting to get into tournaments or better seeding.

Now a game that even a month earlier might have had no motivation for the lesser team, suddenly has more incentive and new importance. The top-dog is a sitting duck.

Staying focused can be challenging as the regular season comes to a close.

Then there is the other factor for a lot of teams: wear and tear. Some teams have maybe peaked a little early or have been banged up and vulnerable as the regular season comes to a close. It almost feels like some of the top teams see the end of February coming and let off the gas ever so slightly. They’ve had a good season, so far, and don’t realize it can come unraveled quickly if they don’t stay focused – something that is hard to do when mentally, and physically, worn out from roughly 18 weeks of a 20 week season (it’s 19 weeks officially, but 20 weeks on the calendar to some degree).

It all adds up to a number of normally head-scratching losses and eye opening results. Teams are also stumbling or faltering coming to the finish line. In the meantime, others seem to found a second (or third) wind and are stretching winning streaks into conference changing results. Teams written off a few weeks or months ago are now back in the spotlight and teams thought to be the top of the heap are lost in it.

This week it resulted in a Top 25 ballot I don’t really like. I debated about starting over half a dozen times. I even slept on my initial feelings only to then redo it a number of times over the first cup of coffee of the day. What I submitted, I didn’t like. I wasn’t going to like anything I submitted.

This looks like Dave (yes, he’s that good looking!) contemplating ballot decisions this week (and most weeks).

The strangest thing about this ballot and the number of losses: I only removed one team from my previous ballot. For reasons I may be able to explain below, I didn’t remove any of the four teams that went 0-2 this week. They all came came dangerously close to being punted individually or as a group in one version or another, but I wasn’t that positive of their replacements being any better.

Okay, enough of me rambling on. Let’s get to my Week 10 ballot. As always, here is a reminder of last week’s ballot. (Quick note: I was stunned to see my previous top eight and the Week 9 top eight were identical. I haven’t gone that deep in a very long time where my thinking and the consensus was identical. It went haywire after those eight. LOL This week, just my top five were identical, to no surprise.)

1 – Nebraska Wesleyan (NC)

2 – Whitman (NC)

3 – UW-Oshkosh (NC)

4 – Augustana (NC)

The Yellow Jackets is now in the Top 5 while securing their spot at the top of the Regional Rankings. (Courtesy: RMC Athletics)

5 – Randolph-Macon (Up 2)
Wow. The Yellow Jackets are top five? Yeah. Considering they have only lost twice this season, haven’t lost since January 5, and have gone through some tough ODAC opponents recently, this is where RMC has risen to on my ballot. It seems high for where I thought they would end up, but I also thought they couldn’t get through ODAC play without more blemishes. This would very much be an “under the radar” team despite their ranking.

6 – Swarthmore (Up 3)

7 – St. Thomas (Down 2)
We should have probably seen a loss coming in MIAC play. There was no way any team in the conference was going to walk away with the season. I also have been waiting for the youth of this team to show their inexperience. I do not think the loss to Augsburg during a three-game week was because of youth, but I am also not surprised the Tommies didn’t get through the week. I moved them down because it is their third defeat and I do worry it could be an opening others can take advantage. I’ll wait and see.

AJ Jurko has been the glue for MIT, but he has also been banged up which has affected their results. (Courtesy: MIT Athletics)

8 – MIT (Down 2)
The Engineers are once again without the services of AJ Jurko who appears to be out with an injury (new or old, I am not sure). While MIT is still a very good team, Jurko seems to be what makes them click as the second leading scorer on the team. If Jurko (and everyone else) is healthy, MIT is going to be very difficult to stop in March. If not, this senior class is unfortunately going to have things end earlier than expected.

9 – Amherst (Up 11)
Yeah. The Mammoths are flying up my ballot (Jumbo reference maybe? Nope, Tufts isn’t in this conversation). I had been debating even having them on my ballot for the last four weeks, but when you reevaluate what they are doing coupled with beating both Middlebury and Williams on the road and Amherst takes on a completely different look. They are going through a very difficult finish to the season and they are the only ones not losing in the NESCAC. One game left, against Hamilton, which has a lot of ramifications – despite the fact Mother Nature is trying to delay it for the second time. However, watch out for what Hixon has been able to get to work, because they could easily be a surprise team in Fort Wayne this year.

10 – Hamilton (Down 2)

11 – St. John’s (Up 1)

12 – Wooster (Down 2)

13 – Capital (Up 1)

Isaiah Hernandez seems to be the go-to guy for the Pirates recently. (Courtesy: Whitworth Athletics).

14 – Whitworth (Down 4)
My concerns the Pirates are “leaking oil” continue. Watching their games against Linfield and George Fox did not help with that worry. Yes, they won, but they barely survived. Compare that to how Whitman played the same two teams and it is night and day. Maybe Whitworth already peaked at the D3hoops.com Classic and though the Whitman loss in early January. The other problem, they may be left out of the NCAA tournament if they don’t win the NWC tournament (beating Whitman most likely) because their best win right now is against Johns Hopkins.

15 – Nichols (Up 3)

16 – Pomona-Pitzer (Up 3)
There really isn’t anything I can say about the Sagehens. I don’t love having them up this high on my ballot. The SCIAC hasn’t really shown to be a beast of a conference and they have one game – one – of note: A win over Whitman back in late November. However, they have risen because while others are taking losses in conference, Pomona-Pitzer has escaped losing that kind of focus at least. I also didn’t feel the teams I slotted behind them have proven they can be as consistent.

17 – Arcadia (Up 5)
The Knights, Captains, and Colonels (what a great trio of mascots!) rise because of a vacuum created a bit last week moved a little down the ballot to this area this week. Those four teams which went 0-2 caused a number of teams to slide up.

18 – Christopher Newport (Up 6)

19 – Centre (Up 6)

The Tigers have stormed back into the national conversation thanks to a win over rival Wooster. (Courtesy: Wittenberg Athletics)

20 – Wittenberg (NR)
I have brought the Tigers back to my ballot thanks to the accurate point by Ryan on Sunday’s Hoopsville. Wittenberg stumbled and looked like they were going to limp to the end of the season, but they seemed to have fixed the flat tire and have come storming back taking out Wooster to split the series this season. They seem to be back to playing good basketball, though I don’t think they are the Top 10 team I thought they were earlier in the season.

21 – Marietta (Down 8)
First team that went 0-2 last week. I saw the loss to Mount Union coming. I think the Raiders are sneaky good. However, that didn’t wake Marietta up and they proceeded to lose to a challenging Wilmington squad as well. This is now three losses (all on the road) in four which probably should have had me pull the rip cord and let the Pioneers go. These kinds of stretches can completely derail a season. Two home games remaining before the conference tournament where Marietta is going to have to win on the road at some point to prove themselves.

22 – North Central (Ill.) (Down 7)
I feared the Cardinals could have a rough stretch. Losses this week to Illinois Wesleyan and Wheaton after a big win over Augustana is one thing, but BOTH losses were at HOME! Here was another team I considered just pulling off my ballot altogether, but I wasn’t sure if there was any teams I would replace them with that were absolutely better. We shall see, for now.

Williams has Dave like …

23 – Williams (Down 7)
The Ephs have ephed up things down the stretch. Three losses in a row including home losses to Amherst and Hamilton. If anyone (me) thought the overtime loss, on the road, to Bowdoin would be the perfect wake up call, were wrong. Williams was sitting off my ballot in at least half of my previous versions. I decided to hold off that idea to see what happens in the NESCAC tournament. Williams has a week to compose and find themselves because the very good Williams team of earlier in the season seems like a distant memory right now.

24 – Wabash (Down 7)
The Little Giants are now 3-2 in their last five games including a loss to DePauw this past week. Here is another example of after the fact I am second-guessing the reasons I left a team on my ballot this week. Ultimately, I didn’t think four losses on their resume were worse than other teams’ resumes. I really worry Wabash, as good a season as they have had, peaked early. They are at Wittenberg this week – probably another reason I should have pulled them out this week, right?

25 – Loras (Down 2)
The Duhawks didn’t move down my ballot because of anything negative. I just felt that those ahead of them, despite stumbling, were still better than Loras. Interestingly enough, I may have had Loras higher had I pulled the teams on my ballot out and replaced them with others.

Dropped Out:

Marcus Curry and the Quakers, while off Dave’s ballot, should be watched in the ODAC tournament. (Courtesy: Guilford Athletics)

Guilford (Previously 21)
I still think the Quakers are a good team and playing well, but they were on a short leash to begin with before losing to Roanoke this past week. With so many teams with four or more losses, there are a lot of teams to consider each week and I just felt as good as Guilford had been playing, a loss would indicate they weren’t necessarily better than anyone else.

Previous Ballots:
Week 9
Week 8
Week 7
Week 6
Week 4
Preseason (Top 10, 11-20, Final Five)

Yep … this sums it up.

As you can see, I am torn with a number of teams. While I only dropped one squad this time around, I probably had a reasonable argument to drop four more. And it came down to this: either I was pulling all five or just pulling one. I couldn’t pull just one or some of the four teams left on my ballot (Marietta, NCC, Williams, and Wabash) without pulling them all because they all had the same reasons for either going or staying.

When I pulled those four teams, I was left trying to find four teams I thought were better. While there are teams with very good (or better) records, their resumes aren’t necessarily better. Or their results are not against the same quality opponent the quad-group faced in their losses. None of them lost to bad teams. Others’ wins over bad teams just do not compare … for now.

With conference tournaments starting this week, a better grasp of who is playing their best is possible. That said, there will be more losses because remember: Parity.

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NCAA Regional Rankings: The dry run that isn’t

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On Wednesday the NCAA released its first set of regional rankings, which provide a look at teams have the best chance of receiving at-large bids to the 2019 NCAA Tournament if they fail to win their conference’s automatic qualifying bid.

If you want to dig into the ranking process, here are a few shovels to get you started.

• NCAA Tournament FAQs
• Discuss Regional Rankings on the message board
• Regional ranking archive

The first set of publicly released regional rankings is sometimes described as a dry run because it doesn’t include one important criterion, records against regionally ranked opponents. It’s hard for the eight geographically based regional ranking committees to take that into consideration because they don’t know which teams are being ranked in other regions. And while you eventually can solve that through an iterative process on Selection Sunday, that’s not worthwhile for this first set.

But to what degree is first set of regional rankings a good predictor of which teams will eventually get one of the coveted at-large bids? I made a list of all the at-large selections over the last five seasons on the men’s side and then compared that to their regional rankings. You can download and play with that data here.

I don’t know how well the first set of regional rankings predicts which teams will get the at-large bids but it’s a very good predictor of which ones won’t. If your team wasn’t listed in the first set regional rankings, it’s almost certain they aren’t getting one of those bids, no matter what happens over the next three weeks.

For a large part of Division III, this is a missive from Captain Obvious. By virtue of their relatively low winning percentage or their weak strength of schedule, a lot of teams should already know their only path to the NCAA Tournament is the conference’s automatic qualifying bid.

But for those teams that weren’t ranked on Wednesday and are nursing hopes that they are right on the cusp of being in the at-large conversation — if they can just get hot and the right teams above them get cold – recent history is not on their side.

Over the last five seasons only three teams ultimately received at-large bids despite not appearing in the first set of regional rankings:

• New York University received an at-large bid in 2016 despite not being in the first set of East Region rankings. The East Region was also one of Division III’s smallest, so there were only six teams ranked in the East that year.

• Endicott received an at-large bid in 2017 despite not being in the first set of Northeast rankings. The Northeast is Division III’s largest region so they ranked 11 teams in 2017. The Gulls were unranked in the first set and then only ranked 10th in the next three sets of rankings. The National Committee went deep into the list of Northeast candidates that year, including taking Keene State at No. 9.

• UW-Oshkosh received an at-large bid in 2017 despite not being ranked in the first set of regional rankings. The Titans weren’t ranked in the second set of rankings either. They are the unicorn of the at-large selection process, earning an at-large bid despite finishing with double-digit losses.

Last season was unusual in that it had two teams that appeared in the first set of regional rankings, dropped out in the second and still earned an at-large bid less than two weeks later – North Central did that in the Central and LeTourneau did that in the South.

The cut-off point for being a strong at-large candidate also differs by region. The Atlantic Region has only had four at-large bids in the last five years and only one of those bid recipients was ranked lower than third in the first set of rankings.

Based on the historical data, here are the apparent cut-off points within each region.

• Atlantic: 4 at-large bids with an average ranking of 2.8; lowest bid recipient was 2017 New Jersey City (5th)

• Central: 15 bids with an average ranking of 4.4; lowest recipient was 2017 Oshkosh (unranked)

• East: 9 bids with an average ranking of 3.3; lowest recipient was 2016 New York U (unranked)

• Great Lakes: 14 bids with an average ranking of 3.6; lowest recipient was 2015 John Carroll (8th)

• Mid Atlantic: 13 bids with an average ranking of 3.8; lowest recipient was 2018 Franklin and Marshall (7th)

• Northeast: 27 bids with an average ranking of 4.3; lowest recipient was 2017 Endicott (unranked)

• South: 8 bids with an average ranking of 4.3; lowest recipient was 2018 LeTourneau (8th)

• West: 10 bids with an average ranking of 2.4; lowest recipient was 2018 St. Olaf (4th)

So in the West region it’s not just a matter of whether you’re ranked, but whether you’re ranked in the top four teams.

Turns out that dry run is a pretty good predictor of which teams aren’t going to cross the line.