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Post by Pirate VB Fan on Oct 25, 2011 16:35:57 GMT -5
Then again, given the D3 regional approach in the tournament, you could probably get some reasonable results if you restrict it to regional rankings. Since teams in the midwest are not competing with teams on the east coast for tournament slots, it really doesn't matter how those teams are ranked relative to each other. The D3 tournament selection committee has minimizing travel costs as their #1 priority. Last year only five teams from a state west of the I-35 corridor made the tournament, with the committee leaving western teams at home in preference to far inferior eastern teams. |
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Post by The Bofa on the Sofa on Oct 25, 2011 16:43:42 GMT -5
Then again, given the D3 regional approach in the tournament, you could probably get some reasonable results if you restrict it to regional rankings. Since teams in the midwest are not competing with teams on the east coast for tournament slots, it really doesn't matter how those teams are ranked relative to each other. The D3 tournament selection committee has minimizing travel costs as their #1 priority. Last year only five teams from a state west of the I-35 corridor made the tournament, with the committee leaving western teams at home in preference to far inferior eastern teams. Its not about minmizing travel, its just completely regionalized. There are either 7 or 8 teams from each region (see the manual for regions). With 42 conferences and mandatory picks from the independents there aren't many openings for at large selections. |
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Post by mnvb56 on Oct 25, 2011 17:25:22 GMT -5
The D3 tournament selection committee has minimizing travel costs as their #1 priority. Last year only five teams from a state west of the I-35 corridor made the tournament, with the committee leaving western teams at home in preference to far inferior eastern teams. Its not about minimizing travel, its just completely regionalized. There are either 7 or 8 teams from each region (see the manual for regions). With 42 conferences and mandatory picks from the independents there aren't many openings for at large selections. I was surprised at how small the West region is, compared to the rest of them: a total of 3 conferences containing 18 teams, plus 3 Independents (compared, for example, to the New England region with 9 conferences/76 teams/2 Ind. or Mid-Atlantic region with 9 conferences/69 schools/0 Ind.) So it isn't surprising that a much smaller number of western schools participated in the tournament--there just aren't very many of them! Here is a link to the championship manual: www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/4c88d70048a3def591f6b74c8af46e6f/Pre-championship_Manual.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=4c88d70048a3def591f6b74c8af46e6f |
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Post by d3follower on Oct 25, 2011 18:02:14 GMT -5
The D3 tournament selection committee has minimizing travel costs as their #1 priority. Last year only five teams from a state west of the I-35 corridor made the tournament, with the committee leaving western teams at home in preference to far inferior eastern teams. Its not about minmizing travel, its just completely regionalized. There are either 7 or 8 teams from each region (see the manual for regions). With 42 conferences and mandatory picks from the independents there aren't many openings for at large selections. But teams from differing regions are competing for at-large bids. After Pool A and B teams are determined, the eight regions send their best remaining team to the table for selection. So it's conceivable (but 99.9 percent improbable) that two or three regions could snag all 20 Pool C bids. The West Region is at a disadvantage in every D-III sport due to its relatively low strength of schedule. It's long been a major concern of mine. Other regions have a lot of potential crossover matches, allowing for a more varied strength of schedule. Tufts (or pick an eastern or even midwestern team) can play easily driveable in-region matches against several teams, including teams in New York or the Mid-Atlantic regions. Most top Central Region teams can handpick the best Midwest Region opponents for strength of schedule purposes. Because the West has two clusters of volleyball teams hundreds of miles apart, it's difficult to even play in-region nonconference matches. Yes, a Pacific Lutheran team can technically play an in-region match against Concordia-Moorhead or Washington-St. Louis, but who do you think is driving or flying to whom in that scenario? What program has that yearly budget? Colorado College plays in a far-flung conference that allows for more regionally ranked opponents, and it's the West Region exception. The NWC and the SCIAC are great volleyball conferences, but its teams can't compete with Colorado's strength of schedule. But it's the others in the West that are disadvantaged. If you play the same limited teams, your strength of schedule is destined to be closer to .500 because there's not enough variance in the numbers and the opponents. NWC and SCIAC teams that have the budget to travel would be wise to enter invites that feature top teams anywhere from Illinois to the Pacific Ocean because those are in-region games. The inverse would be to recruit those top Midwest and Central region teams to their own invites. According to the rules set forth by the NCAA, the West Region gets the correct number of at-large volleyball bids each season. Why? Because of modest primary selection criteria credentials. It's difficult to curve the SOS and results against regionally ranked teams to allow fairer outcomes for the West, so it's easier to select a Tufts team that has a .614 SOS and an 11-4 record against regionally ranked teams over a Pacific Lutheran team with a .479 SOS and a 5-1 record against regionally ranked teams. Those numbers are contrived (the SOS numbers are accurate), but it's the scenario that the West faces every season, in every sport. The West is further hurt by there being two full Pool A conferences in the region. New England has eight full Pool A conferences. There are several built-in advantages for New England just on that fact alone. This is from the NCAA Pre-Championship Manual: TheDivision III championships philosophy is to field the most competitive teams possible while minimizing missed class time; to emphasize regional competition in regular-season scheduling; and to provide representation in NCAA championship competition by allocating berths to eligible conferences, independent institutions and a limited number of at-large teams, realizing that this may be done at the expense of leaving out some championship caliber teams. If West Region teams must manipulate their schedules to improve their stock. That could require a lot of money and diligence that the other regions don't necessarily have to account for. |
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Post by diggerdive on Oct 25, 2011 19:10:01 GMT -5
WOO HOO! Go SUNY Cortland Dragons! It's my alma mater. :-) I remember going to a couple of games back in the 90's and maybe 75 people would show up. Then I came to Texas and went to a UT game with 4000 volleyball fans. Heaven.
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Post by Momof2D3 on Oct 25, 2011 19:54:26 GMT -5
Big night in New England. Plymouth State toppled UMass Boston in 3 (25-17, 25-20, 25-21) Coast Guard tops Wellesley in 3. (25-22, 25-18, 25-14).
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Post by Momof2D3 on Oct 27, 2011 13:24:04 GMT -5
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Post by psuvbfan10 on Oct 27, 2011 13:46:00 GMT -5
Some good matches this weekend, Wash U hosts Eastern & Emory, Heidelberg & Juniata all battle it out at Emory!
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Post by mnvb56 on Nov 3, 2011 14:57:08 GMT -5
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Post by Momof2D3 on Nov 5, 2011 10:01:19 GMT -5
Huge D3 weekend! Good luck and let the games begin! Looking forward to updates tonight.
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Post by vbnerd on Nov 5, 2011 10:23:07 GMT -5
Some conference tournament brackets with bids on the line... New York www2.skidmore.edu/nysvb/public/conftourns11.cfmNew England Nov 5: #1 Roger Williams vs #2 Endicott (CCC Championship, 1pm at RWU) #1 Southern Vermont vs #2 Newbury (NECC Championship, 2pm at Southern Vermont) #1 Emerson vs #2 Rivier (GNAC Championship, 1pm at Emerson) #1 Colby-Sawyer vs #2 Maine Maritime (NAC Championship, 12pm at Colby-Sawyer) #1 Plymouth State vs #5 Eastern Conn (Little East Semis) #2 UMass Boston vs #3 Keene State (Little East Semis) #1 Springfield vs #4 MIT (NEWMAC Semis) #2 Coast Guard vs #3 Wellesley (NEWMAC Semis) #1 Bowdoin vs #4 Trinity (NESCAC Semis, 1pm) #2 Tufts vs #3 Middlebury (NESCAC Semis, 3:30pm) CAC finals... Salisbury and Stevenson SCAC www.gomajors.com/sports/2011/10/24/WVB_1024115655.aspx?path=wvball |
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Post by The Bofa on the Sofa on Nov 5, 2011 11:21:44 GMT -5
Off twitter I see that Wittenberg (NCAC) and Bethany (PAC) have both reached their conference finals, although they didn't say against whom (suspect Hiram in the NCAC but don't know for sure)
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Post by Not Me on Nov 5, 2011 12:19:39 GMT -5
Wittenburg plays Hiram
Bethany plays Geneva
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Post by mnvb56 on Nov 5, 2011 12:21:55 GMT -5
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Post by Momof2D3 on Nov 5, 2011 18:10:42 GMT -5
Springfield breezed past MIT, 25-16, 25-10, 25-15 with its best hitting efficiency of the season.
Coast Guard put up a good fight against Wellesley, but then started to fall apart in game 4 and lost 24-26, 25-18, 25-20, 25-19. Two very good teams.
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