SBZipfan

Final RPIs are up. Akron is #27. Last team in (if going strictly by RPI) is #37 Loyola Marymount. Out are Michigan, Rhode Island, Cornell, Elon, Northeastern, Stanford, VCU, Central Arkansas, BUGS. The Zips are a lock for a slot. Might even get a home game.

Vermont wins, 1-0 Missouri St wins, 3-0 Notre Dame over Duke in the ACC final, 2-0. (No impact on Zips, both getting in regardless.) Grand Canyon up 1-0 at halftime.

Missouri St up 3-0 at 60' New Hampshire - Vermont 0-0 at 64'

NIU has tied it up, 1-1 with 39' to go. Georgetown-Providence going to OT 1-1

St.Louis up 2-1 on Duquesne with 5' left in the first half. GSt-NIU still 1-0 at the half.

They care, they want to win the league!

I agree with all of this. Go NIU! But: 1-0 GSt 15min in Free stream here: https://niuhuskies.com/watch/?Live=5814&type=Live Looks cold and snowy. Most players wearing gloves.

Wow, I had no idea RPI could be so unstable this late in the season. I have a Cornell connection in my family so I'm bummed ...

IMO, the Zips are a lock for a bid. Going strictly by RPI, the last-in team right now would be #38. And I believe there are now only 4 conferences (Missouri Valley, Atlantic 10, Colonial, Conf USA) in which a below 38 RPI team could still bump a team with a higher RPI than Akron. If all 4 have upset winners, the last-in team is #34. And Akron will end up in the mid-20s. So the committee would have to pull 10 or so teams with RPIs below #34 and put them in above #25ish Akron. And there just aren't ten teams with RPI below #34 that look better than Akron.

Grand Canyon beats San Jose 4-1 (good!) Marshall trails Florida Atlantic 1-0 at 60min (bad!)

#82 Duquesne pulls off the upset over #39 Rhode Island, 2-1. (RPIs are post game, per gaucho dan's continuous updating.) This reduces Rhode Island's change of an at-large bid, which I presume is why you wanted them to lose ...

Looks "sad" to me, but then I'm definitely from the pre-emoji generation ...

Fordham connection?

St.Louis wins the shootout, 4-2.

Irrelevant. Charlotte is not competitive with Akron for a bid. (And a shoot-out counts as a draw for each team for RPI purposes.)

NIU up 5-1 on BG with 15 to play ... And NIU takes it, 5-2.

And in the other ACC semi, Clemson totally dominates Duke, outshooting them 27-4 (!) , 6-1 SOG, 10-3 corners ... and loses 0-1. My theory is that the reason that soccer is so popluar in the third world is that it illustrates the fundamental unfairness of life. Duke moving up to #3 in RPI drops Pitt down to #5.

Two ND goals 12 sec apart, clips at https://twitter.com/NDMenSoccer

And Pitt, desptie the loss, remains at #4 with both the #1 SOS and the #1 OSS. Zips in very good shape for an at-large bid.

Ouch! Two goals in 14 sec might make Sports Center Top 10. Game now over, ND wins 2-0.

I did not know he is an Akron guy! His comments on the BS board have always been very neutral.

PSU downs Michigan in Big Ten semis, 2-0 IU over NWU in the other semi, 1-0 OT Both good results for Akron!

FWIW, regulars at the bigsoccer.com college forum all think Akron will get in.

Zips still have a decent shot at an NCAA bid IMO. They are currently RPI #24, and that won't move much. They would definitely get in if RPI was the sole criterion. They also have the #14 strength-of-schedule, and a significant win over #4 Pittsburgh. Record in last 8 games (one of the official criteria) is 4-3-1, including a win over the highest-RPI team in that group, #29 Penn State. Root for any team the Zips played to win against any team the Zips did not play!

3-3, end of regulation