I smell A Rat

[GoZips]

The following is an article found on Soccer News. Once again the NCAA Soccer Selection Committeecontinues to do a lot of underhanded dirty dealing. Just as twenty-third ranked Indiana has mysteriouslymanaged to get a top five RPI rating. Thus insuring them of a one or two seed in the up comingmen's soccer tournament. Beware Zippies. And to the person who wrote about being happy with a"six" seed. That means that more than twenty teams would be favored over the Zips. For my moneynothing less than a one seed would satisfy me.The tag line for Pepsi Max ads, “Wake up people”, seems to be an appropriate message to send over to the NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Committee. The folks selecting the teams and constructing the brackets for the Division II Men’s Soccer Championship have taken a bias toward limiting travel and forcing balanced geographic representation across the championship field to an absurd extreme. Just ask the men’s soccer team at St. Edwards University in Austin, TX. They finished the season with a 13-4-2 overall record and a 7-1-2 mark and 2nd place finish in the Heartland Conference. The Hilltoppers losses came at the hands of #3 ranked Midwestern State (0-1 on 10/03) (1-2 on 10/24), #2 ranked Fort Lewis (0-2 on 9/27) and conference foe Incarnate Word (0-1 on 10/19). The Hilltoppers were ranked #14 in the NSCAA/Adidas National poll (11/12/08). Simply put, they got slammed. They are not alone. West Texas A&M finished the season with a 12-5-0 record and a #22 ranking in the NSCAA/Adidas National poll (11/12/08). To make their exclusion from the tournament even more galling, the Buffaloes finished the season with a 3-2 overtime win against #3 ranked Midwestern State. Go figure. Unfortunately, the mess that is the Division II Men’s Soccer Championship is not limited to the exclusion of deserving teams. The brackets are so imbalanced in both number and strength of teams that a plausible explanation can not be found. Super Region 1 has the #2, #3, #6, #9, #18, #19 and #25 ranked teams, in addition to one unranked team. On the other end of the bizarre spectrum, Super Region 4 has the #8, #12 and #20 ranked teams and three unranked teams. Both have a straight shot at the semi-final match. It’s actually gets even worse. Southern New Hampshire (#8) and Dowling (#12) are in Super Region 4 and are the only teams in the tournament that have a first round bye. They only have to win two games to get to the semi-finals. To reach the semi-finals, #1 Lynn University has to win three games against potentially the #5, #11 and #17 ranked teams. The imbalance continues as #2 Fort Lewis also has to win three games to reach the semi-finals against potentially the #3, #6 and #19 ranked teams. The brackets used to be force fed with four teams from each of the eight NCAA geographic regions (Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast, and West). No automatic qualifiers are given and the selection criteria used is similar to that used in Division I, although one difference is that the RPI is replaced with the Quality of Winning Percentage Index. A recent change has each region placing as few as two teams or as many as six teams in the tournament. While you might think this is designed to accommodate several strong teams in one particular region, it seems to be used to maintain a geographic spread of teams in the tournament. Otherwise, how can you explain why Super Region #4 is comprised of six teams from the East Region, three of which were not even ranked in the NSCAA/Adidas National Poll. There are 35 teams playing DII soccer in the East Region representing 20.6% of the total teams in DII. The six selections from the East Region represent 18.8% of the 32 total selections in the tournament. The math works, it’s just not fair or logical. Similarly, take a look at Bracket #2 in Super Region 3. The Bracket is filled with four teams from the Atlantic Region representing 12.5% of the total selections in the tournament. The Atlantic Region has 24 teams representing 14.1% of the total teams in DII. While the selections provide a balanced representation in the tournament of the number of schools participating by region, two of the teams selected were not even ranked. Please don’t roll out the justification of limiting the cost of travel. Take a look over at the Division III bracket. Augsburg College of Minneapolis, MN has a first round match at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. The winner of that match then advances to play the University of Redlands in Redlands, CA. They seem to be able to make it work. For many schools at the Division II level, the men’s soccer program is THE event. Participation in the NCAA tournament should be based on records, rankings and strength of schedule not on geographic distribution and limiting travel costs.

[Zip Watcher]

Uhhh ...Those talking about a 6 seed are saying 6th OVERALL seed .. so basically a #2 seed in one of the regions. Home games until the final 8. That's what we're talking about. Being in the top 8 overall seeds.

[skip-zip]

I just hope that we don't have happen what happened a few years ago. My memory is a bit foggy on the details....but I believe we really got pushed back in the seeding, which made us have to play on the road by the 2nd game, and we were one of the top teams in the country.Can anyone clear me up on the details of that?

[ZipAlumn]

Uhhh ...Those talking about a 6 seed are saying 6th OVERALL seed .. so basically a #2 seed in one of the regions. Home games until the final 8. That's what we're talking about. Being in the top 8 overall seeds.

For my money the Zips should be one of the TOP FOUR SEEDS overall. Not #6, not #8, not #123. I am really sick of the NCAA's rationalization for rankings, seedings, and tournament selections in Football, Basketball, Soccer, and Tiddlewinks. No matter what sport, the Zips seem to always get the shaft. :nutkick:

[MDZip]

I just hope that we don't have happen what happened a few years ago. My memory is a bit foggy on the details....but I believe we really got pushed back in the seeding, which made us have to play on the road by the 2nd game, and we were one of the top teams in the country.Can anyone clear me up on the details of that?

In 2005, we were the number one ranked team in the country for a while and I think we finished around #4. When the seeds came out, we were #9 which meant we got an opening round game at home (I belive it was WVU), but then the next round we were on the road against #8 Connecticut. After that win we went on the road to #1 Maryland (outstanding game, I went to it), but a disappointing loss. Anyway, if you are seed 9-16, you get one home game, if you are 5-8 you get two if you win the first round, and 1-4 could get up to three - and then next step is the College Cup. I also believe that if a higher seed gets upset, the highest remaining seed gets the home game. And there are no regional seeds, just 1-16. That is how I remember it.

[bmaker]

You've got it right except we had a bye the first round. The WVU game was second round.