Good morning, Division III fans.
As those of you focused on the playoff picture eagerly await Wednesday afternoon’s release of the selection committee’s regional rankings, I thought I’d further an experiment I started Tuesday morning on the Pool C thread of Post Patterns.
Attempting to illustrate the not-seen-before possibilities the geography of this year’s potential field allows, I slapped together a mock bracket to get some discussion going. I’ll run a slightly-adjusted version of that bracket below, plus a more traditional one, and maybe even a third to show how slightly altering the field via Pool C can have a domino effect.
Let it be very clear that these are not things I think will or should happen, necessarily. And I wouldn’t want anyone to confuse a few of my hastily-assembled mocks with Pat and Gordon’s carefully crafted, traditionally accurate night-before-Selection-Sunday projections. There are too many unknowns as of yet to spend a lot of time working up something we’re likely to see Sunday, but it’s not too early to consider as many possibilities as situations might allow.
Mock One
Pool C teams: UMHB, St. Thomas, Coe, Wabash, Redlands, Lebanon Valley/Albright winner
1 Mount Union
8 Union
4 Thomas More
5 Alfred
3 Case Western Reserve
6 Mount St. Joseph
2 Wittenberg
7 Trine
————
1 UW-Whitewater
8 DePauw
4 Ill. Wesleyan
5 Wabash
3 Monmouth
6 Coe
7 St. Thomas
2 Central
———–
1 Wesley
7 LV/Albright
3 Hampden-Sydney
8 NCWC/Averett winner
4 Kean/Montclair State
5 Curry
2 Delaware Valley
6 Johns Hopkins
————
1 St. John’s
8 NathCon champ
3 Huntingdon
6 Mississippi College
4 Cal Lutheran
5 UMHB
7 Redlands
2 Linfield
Mock Two
Pool C teams: St. Thomas, St. Norbert, Dickinson, Coe, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Ohio Northern
1 Mount Union
8 Susquehanna
4 Mount St. Joseph
5 Ohio Northern
3 Case Western Reserve
6 Alfred
2 Kean/Montclair
7 Johns Hopkins
————
1 UW-Whitewater
7 Trine
4 Wittenberg
5 Thomas More
3 Monmouth
6 Ill. Wesleyan
8 (Nath Con)
2 Central
———–
1 Wesley
8 Curry
4 Huntingdon
5 Mississippi College
3 H-SC
6 NCWC/Averett
2 Delaware Valley
7 Dickinson
————
1 St. John’s
8 St. Norbert
4 St. Thomas
5 Coe
4 UMHB
5 DePauw
7 Cal Lutheran
2 Linfield
Mock Three
Pool C teams: LV/Albright, Otterbein, Wabash, W&J, UMHB, St. Thomas
1 Mount Union
8 Wash. & Jeff.
4 Case Western Reserve
5 St. John Fisher
3 Montclair/Kean
6 Maine Maritime
2 Susquehanna
7 Delaware Valley
————
1 UW-Whitewater
8 Concordia (Wis.)
5 Otterbein
4 Wabash
3 Wittenberg
6 Mount St. Joseph
7 Illinois Wesleyan
2 St. John’s
———–
1 Wesley
8 Randolph-Macon
4 Dickinson
5 Leb Val/Albright
3 Miss. Coll.
6 UMHB
7 Averett
2 Huntingdon
————
1 Central
8 St. Thomas
4 Thomas More
5 Trine
3 Monmouth
6 DePauw
7 Cal Lutheran
2 Linfield
No. 1 seeds: as for the top seeds, I did not determine who would meet in the semis with these brackets. But I think it’s likely that UW-W and St. John’s brackets would be paired and Mount Union and Wesley would, based on how the teams have been ranked.
Quick observations: This is hard work. … As you can see in mock 3, I tried, but I don’t think with all the Ohio area teams set to make the field that it’s a great idea to build the East around Mount Union. It makes sense to do the North there and group a bunch of the Pa. teams around Wesley … I tried in mock 3 to throw some of the improbable AQ winners in there to bump the familiar names … unless UMHB misses out, splitting up those three deep south teams is going to be costly … seeds vary a lot through the mocks, and some of the brackets would likely be seeded differently than the traditional 1-8, 5-4, 3-6, 7-2.
Anyway, let me know what you think below. Happy speculating!
