NCAA releases playoff field - DIII Baseball

Pulling for many D3 folks on this site that I follow.   Good luck. 

Leave it to the NCAA to totally botch this announcement. (no surprise I guess) Middle of the night, no seedings, nothing. 

 

I will be at the West Regional for the fourth straight time, hoping to finally break through, but just happy to be able to see my son play for a little bit longer.  

 

 

My alma mater, MidAtlanticDad's son's future school, and BOF's son are in different regionals, so I can root for all of them for at least the first week.

my son's future team didn't make it this year  (despite a 32 win season blew too many games against weak opponents, I gather).   Ah well, that will put some fire in the belly for the next year's guys, I guess.   

 

This being the first time I have followed the DIII tournament closely, I was surprised to see that only 16 teams (out of 56) get an at-large bid. I think DI has 33 at-large out of 64 teams.

 

Here's the NCAA version of the announcement.

http://www.ncaa.com/news/baseb...aseball-championship

 

D3 uses a formula to determine the number of Bids. Subtract all the bids form the Pool A (conferences that earn an automatic Bid, by having 7 members) Pool B (conferences that have less than 7 members and independents. These schools all compete against each other for the 2 pool B bids) then what is left are Pool C or at large. There are a total of 56 teams this year. 

Nope, they didn't win the AQ by winning the post-season tournament.

When it comes to D3, being in Pool C where only 14 teams are selected, on a National basis, has been shown to be hazardous for post-season consideration.

MAD, the D3 path is very different than D1 ball. Teams are not seeded Nationally and there is one Regional and those winners go straight to the CWS, which makes it tough for West and South teams, as they tend to have higher rankings(relative to the number of teams) but get pooled together for their Regionals. A couple of years ago there were three top 10 ten teams in the West region, my son's team was arguably the second best team in the nation and lost to the CWS winner in the Regionals. They do it to keep the costs down. 

 

They have 56 teams and 40 are from the conference winners and the 16 are are picked on a pseudo national ranking basis, with some regional cost considerations. The key is to win your conference as SluggerDad pointed out there are a number of 30 win teams left home each year. 

 

Regardless it is great to be in Regional play and there are some very good teams and games. There is really nothing better than conference and regional/CWS games as far as intensity and level of play.

NCAA just posted seedings and games:

 

http://www.ncaa.com/news/baseb...i-baseball-regionals

 

This is where the NCAA seems to be at its very worst, for the players but especially for parents and fans.

The Regionals were announced in the middle of the night, somewhere between Midnight and about 5am EDT.

The Regionals start on Wednesday, May 13.  For two West Coast teams who received Pool C, one needs to get from Portland to Tyler, Tx and be ready to compete on Wednesday.

One needs to get from Seattle to Demarest, GA and be ready to compete on Wednesday.

For parents and family and fans, I can only guess how challenging and costly those airfares will be, assuming they can get air travel, hotels and an auto rental..

I agree, I would like to see them push back regional's. Many pool A bids were not decided until lat weekend, so I know they could not release the Pool C bids until all those games were done. But I am sure theses young men would be willing to stay on campus a week longer. 

I know some of the schools actually charge the players by day to stay on campus after the school year ends and before regional's start. 

How do you know what Pool a team was in? Is it something you just have to be following? Only curious because there is actually a 3rd West Coast team that has to be in Texas and ready to play by Wednesday.

 

Also, does anybody know if the NCAA helps cover some of the post-season cost at the D3 level?  Just wondering how comparable it is to the D1 and D2 levels.

BLD - Sad to see that Ohio Wesleyan is not in the playoffs - they had a fine year this year.

Pool A are teams from conferences which have at least 7 members and are recognized as receiving automatic bids. There are 40 conferences which receive Pool A automatic bids. These teams all know they made the Regional but a number did not know where they would play until very early this Morning. The 3rd West Coast team was  a Pool A with a pretty good idea they would play in the West Region, for planning purposes.

Pool B is made up of a small number of conferences with less than 7 members for baseball and also independents at the D3 level.  Pool B gets 2 selections for the post-season.

Pool C is everyone else and gets 14 bids. In other words, every team which did not win the AQ for their conference and every other Pool B can be selected as a Pool C(at large bid).  These are ranked nationally, which can be a major challenge for D3.

The NCAA will bus any team within 500 miles of a regional and limits the number traveling by air. This  is very different than D1 where they try and balance the strengths across each Regional, provide earlier notice of the selections and at least a one to two day later start date for each Regional.

The NCAA does pay(reimburse) the school for the cost of the team travel and hotels and some for meals. 

 

Without drilling down too far, it seems odd that teams ranked 11, 15, 16 and 20 would get left out.  You'd think most of the teams above them would qualify without requiring one of the 14 at-large births.

The NCAA does not follow, or apparently even consider, National Rankings done by organizations outside the NCAA. Nationally ranked teams get left out every year.  On the other hand, some regionals are filled with ranked teams, as BOF noted. When our son's team competed in 2004, all six teams were ranked in the top 25, while other regionals had no nationally ranked teams.  Probably not too coincidental the winner of that regional also won the CWS.

What is considered by the NCAA are Regional rankings which are done within the D3 level by the NCAA( a very small group of coaches).  They started the Regional rankings 3-4 weeks ago.

Within the regional rankings, the selection group will try and compare a number of things including SOS, head to head competition and a few other criteria for a team in New Jersey balanced against a team in CA, for instance.

It is a massive job, to be honest.  I don't envy anyone tasked with that effort. Where the process is problematic, in my view, is the announcement process-way too late(middle of the night) contrasted with the Regional start date 2 days later-Wednesday across the nation. This is less of a travel issue in New England, the mid Atlantic and parts of the mid-East for instance, but quite challenging for teams in the West.

This was also an unusual year for the Pool A's.  Many lower ranked teams ended up winning the conference tournament and the AQ for Pool A. The biggest upset of those was Oberlin College which qualified for its very first post season play in D3 baseball, with a much less than .500 winning percentage.  Three of the 4 West Region conferences ended up with the top seed losing so that two teams seeded 4th for the conference tournament and one seeded #3 got the AQ, leaving at least 6  teams, most with national rankings and  with stronger records battling in the Pool C.

Oberlin College won it's first NCAC tournament this weekend and get's its first post season bid in school history!  The payback for making it? They get to the number one seed in the tournament (SUNY, not sure which one). 

That would be Cortland State. D3Baseball.com has them ranked #1 in the country.

Thanks for spelling things out Infielddad.  This is undoubtedly the primary culprit behind the ranked teams staying home.

Thanks Cleveland Dad, we were one out away from playing Oberlin in the championship, and our pitching was all lined up. They did have a fine year though. They beat some really good teams and gained some confidence. Hopefully they carry that into next year and take the next step.

There are ranked teams and 30 win teams left home every year in D3. there are always some 30 win teams left at home. Wooster was left home with a 36-9 record but a terrible SOS, 237. 

The thing we all must remember about the rankings is that they are done by a 3rd party, D3baseball.com/ncbwa:

The D3baseball.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly. Full members of NCAA Division III are eligible.

And while they do a great job, there is no way they can see all the teams play. they rely on stats and other resources. They may miss some good teams. It is an honor to be named but as infielddad has said it has nothing to do with who goes to regionals. 

Each regional has there own committee and they rank the teams in their region. They send their rankings to the National committee, who may make corrections if they feel the regional committee missed someone or made a mistake. (changes are not made very often). Then the National committee compares teams across the regions. All the first ranked teams are on the board together first. AS one is selected a two from that region is now in consideration with all the first ranked teams left. Through this process some very good teams never make the board, because they get stuck behind another team because of one of the criteria.

 

 

 

 

What seems true at first pass  -- looking at it from a distance --  is that some number of teams that might, if included, have a decent chance to actually compete for a regional title,  are left off -- especially when there are a fair number of upsets in end of season conference tourneys. 

I am not an expert on D3 baseball but I know a little about it.  The unnamed factor in all this is reputation and if things were "equal" the team with the reputation always wins out.  IMHO. Marietta out-reputationed Ohio Wesleyan and probably other teams.  I am not dissing those who made that decision but I get it.

Strength of Schedule is a strong factor in deciding at-large bids and regional rankings, just having a quick look, Marietta's SOS was #2 in the nation behind UW Steven's Point, Ohio Wesleyan was #216.  Both teams had the same number of wins.  The selection of Marietta appears perfectly reasonable.

Marietta won an automatic bid.

Thanks for fixing that, there you have it.

The issue with D3 seems to be that so many spots (40 out of 56)   are handed out via the results of league tournaments that if lots of unranked teams manage to win their leagues, then the competition for the 14 pool C bids can be really extraordinarily fierce,   If Trinity, for example, had not won its league tourney -- given that they were not ranked in the region, they would probably have been left sitting home -- like Cal Lu which didn't win it's post season tourney (lost to an unranked team) though it did win the regular season crown and  was regionally ranked). That  places a very steep premium on winning one's league -- and also a very steep premium on strength of schedule for pool C bids. 

BTW, on another note, Sluggerdad, congratulations on your son entering Cal Lu next year.  They have had so many great players run through that program.  Our son just completed his Senior season as a player in the NWC.  One of his first pitching appearances his Frosh year was against Cal Lu, gave up a 315' HR right down the LF line on a great change-up to the Cal Lu SS, Koons, who was an absolute beast, dude was completely on his front foot and just flicked the ball over the fence in that dry Arizona air, he said, "guys in HS couldn't do that" - Koons ended up batting .395 or so that season.  Son's team hung 7 runs on the Cal Lu starter, some kid named Aaron Roth, who turned out to be pretty darn good as a closer to say the least ha ha ha.

 

Anyways, congratulations to your son - I hope he makes his mark.

Best of luck to all!

Everyone in D3 knows that it is really tough to get to a Regional.  That is one reason why everything which happens during the Fall  often times means as much as what happens from February to May.

SD, none of this seems overly tough to me after the 2002 Regional. Our son's team played perhaps their best game of the season in game 1. They seemed to have huge momentum.  They showed up in  the Morning for winner's bracket game.  About one hour earlier, they learned their beloved assistant coach had passed away in their hotel during the night-discovered by some players including the starting pitcher that morning.

Upon arriving at the field, they were given two options: be ready to play in 90 minutes or forfeit.

Thanks a lot like2rate.  He's really psyched and plans to work his tail off this summer to be ready when he steps on the field in the fall.

This is correct. Also the D3 model is not completely about choosing the best team in the country, part of it is on access. Access is where the Pool A comes in. Win your conference and you have a shot. The other part is region based. Teams usually play in the regional their school is in. There is some moving around, See Oberlin to New York. But by and large Schools are placed in there region. 

Also we talk about non ranked teams winning their conference. What does that tell you about the non-ranked teams? They got hot at the right time AND there isn't always that much difference between D3 teams. Yes there will always be the dominant teams, that are head and shoulders above the rest. But in many cases the second tier teams are not that far behind them, hence the upsets in the tourneys. 

Also reputation will always play a roll. The teams that have been good for so long will have the benefit of the doubt, against teams that are having a stand out year. A comparison I am very familiar with and Cleveland Dad spoke of earlier is Ohio Wesleyan and Marietta. IF both were up for a pool C bid, and had similar schedules and SOS, Marietta is going to get the pick nine out of 10 times. It is just the way it is. 

So remember unlike D1 which has a national flavor, D3 attempts to attain a regional flavor. The CWS for D3 is not seeded. Each regional champion is pitted against another regional champion, in the first round. These match-ups are predetermined before the teams are selected. Many very good teams come from the West and the South, yet many times they face each other in the first round of the CWS.

 

My son's team made it in despite losing a thrilling 12 inning NESCAC championship game Sunday afternoon.Unfortunately, he will not be making the 5 hour bus trip with team today.He has two finals tomorrow and has to take them in class not at the hotel.At his school,the class professors have the last say not athletic coaches.Some will work with the coaches some won't.He will rejoin the team if they advance to Friday's game.

 

The D3 regionals begin during finals week.Each year Amherst has made the regionals they have to shuttle players back and forth to campus to take tests.It's been an exhausting spring semester and baseball season for the players.All 39 games were on the road this season due to the brutal winter, and a home field that was not playable due to construction.

 

Good luck this week to everyone whose son or team has made it this far.It should be a very competitive week of baseball.

 

GO AMHERST !

I've been following the mid atlantic regional closely and Salisbury state looks to be on fire as they have not lost.

Regional winners:

 

Central: Webster
Mid-Atlantic: Salisbury
Mideast: Frostburg State
Midwest: Wisconsin-La Crosse
New England: Ramapo
New York: SUNY Cortland
South: Emory
West: Trinity (TX)

Not only are Salisbury and Frostburg State both Maryland public universities, but they play in the same conference. Frostburg beat Salisbury in the conference final.