Before 1999, the bracket was seeded fairly simply: There were only 16 teams in the playoffs, four in each bracket, always four from each region and they never crossed over. The seedings followed the last regional ranking. Hosting privileges in the national semifinals rotated from region to region.

Starting in 1999 and beyond, the bracket got larger and more complicated, but we always got seeds from the NCAA, applied them to the bracket and passed them along to you, the Division III football players, fans and coaches. This year, apparently the seedings were never even discussed.

I explained that that seemed unlikely — that somehow they had determined who would play whom and who had home games this weekend. Therefore, there must be some pecking order of teams somewhere. I mentioned that our readers are familiar with the occasions where No. 1 does not play No. 8 because of geography, or No. 2 does not play No. 7, etc. I said that people understood that teams were seeded by bracket, not by region. I said you people know that sometimes teams cannot host because they didn’t file paperwork, or their stadium doesn’t meet standards.

But none of this had an effect.

I explained that openness was a good thing. That men’s and women’s soccer released their final regional rankings. That, as a result of the discussion at the NCAA Convention, everyone will be going in that direction soon, next year even.

But that didn’t help. They would have to reconvene the committee in order to seed teams.

What we can get, and we will pass along to you, is a set of scenarios that determine who will play where in the next round depending on who wins this week.

That will have to be what passes for openness.

But for the first time in my experience following the playoffs, back to 1994, we won’t know who will go where. Not yet.

What does the selection of Washington and Jefferson mean for future NCAA playoffs? What message does it send to coaches who want to schedule to help their teams get into the tournament? I think it’s fair to say Keith McMillan and Pat Coleman are more than a little concerned.

Plus, Keith and Pat break down the entire bracket and talk about all 16 first-round games, including the fact that one bracket has the No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 teams in the country in it? If only it had No. 1 and No. 2, it would be a men’s basketball bracket.

Yes, truth be told, it could be worse. That’s why we’re not calling it a Bracket of Death. But it’s a great bracket, with four games between teams that all have a legitimate chance of winning first-round games.

That makes this a long podcast, but hopefully worth it. At least if you’re a fan of a playoff team. Or the playoffs in general.

Click the play button below to listen.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

It’s an interesting conversation that any Division III fan who wants to understand the NCAA’s thought process should really listen to.

Click the play button below to listen.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Enjoy.

http://www.d3boards.com/playoffs/footballbracket2009.pdf

Plus, Advantage Catdome archived the selection show and posted it to YouTube, where you can watch it below:

This year at this time … well, it’s done.

Wednesday night’s projected hold up pretty well. All of the at-large teams remain the same, though selected in a different order. And the wrinkle of Maine Maritime, which is so far away from the rest of the field that there’s only one team in our projection it can drive to, actually got a fairly simple solution, if surprising to some.

But enough with the chit-chat and on with the brackets. Pool B and Pool C teams are noted. The rest got automatic bids.

Bracket 1
1. Mount Union
2. Delaware Valley
3. Alfred
4. Mary Hardin-Baylor (Pool C)
5. Montclair State
6. Maine Maritime
7. Johns Hopkins
8. Susquehanna

The games: Susquehanna at Mount Union; winner faces the winner of Maine Maritime and Mary Hardin-Baylor. Johns Hopkins at Delaware Valley; winner faces the winner of Montclair State at Alfred.

Why? Maine Maritime could only drive to one place: Montclair State. Mary Hardin-Baylor doesn’t have an opponent it can drive to. (Or, more accurately, it could drive to Mississippi College, but that would leave Huntingdon without an opponent. Basically, two flights are required in the first round no matter how we arrange the 32 teams, so why not match UMHB this way?)

Bracket 2
1. UW-Whitewater
2. Wittenberg
3. Case Western Reserve (Pool B)
4. Illinois Wesleyan
5. Coe (Pool C)
6. Wabash (Pool C)
7. Trine
8. Mount St. Joseph

The games: Mount St. Joseph at UW-Whitewater; winner faces winner of Coe at Illinois Wesleyan. Wabash at Case Western Reserve (again, yes); winner faces winner of Trine at Wittenberg.

Why? Coe wasn’t going to be in this bracket, but there’s a bind in the West that would either force Coe and Central to play each other or put Coe at St. John’s in the first round. Coe can get to Illinois Wesleyan easily within 500 miles, as well at UW-Whitewater.

Bracket 3
1. Wesley (Pool B)
2. Thomas More
3. Hampden-Sydney
4. Huntingdon (Pool B)
5. Albright (Pool C)
6. Mississippi College
7. Ohio Northern (Pool C)
8. North Carolina Wesleyan

The games: North Carolina Wesleyan at Wesley; winner faces winner of Mississippi College at Huntingdon. Ohio Northern at Thomas More; winner faces winner of Albright at Hampden-Sydney.

Why? Well, Ohio Northern is here because it’s closer to the rest of the teams than DePauw is, even though DePauw is in the NCAA’s South Region. I put Albright here instead of swapping them with Johns Hopkins because Albright would likely have had been seeded to play Delaware Valley if both were in the same bracket.

Bracket 4
1. St. John’s
2. Central
3. Linfield
4. Monmouth
5. St. Thomas
6. Cal Lutheran
7. DePauw
8. Lakeland

The games: Lakeland at St. John’s; winner faces winner of St. Thomas and Monmouth. Cal Lutheran at Linfield; winner faces winner of DePauw and Central.

Why? Cal Lutheran was going to play Linfield no matter what. Central nudged ahead of Linfield in my mind with a .537 SOS compared to Linfield’s .508. Each was 1-0 against teams in our mock regional ranking: UW-Stevens Point did not make the ranking.

When Ohio Northern was selected as our last Pool C team, Springfield, Washington and Jefferson and St. Norbert were left on the board. Ohio Northern has a win against a regionally ranked team, which those teams lacked.

The final board, with regional record, strength of schedule and results against regionally ranked opponents:

Springfield 7-2 .568 lost to ALF
Ohio Northern 8-2 .537 beat NCC, lost to MTU
Wash. & Jeff. 9-1 .433 lost to TMRE
St. Norbert 9-1 .491 lost to MONM

This is a fairly unusual-looking bracket for those who may still be stuck in the pre-Pools era and expect to see only East, South, North and West teams in their respective brackets. But when you have a South team from Indiana and another from suburban Cincinnati … when you have three East teams from Pennsylvania and a South team even further East, in Delaware, you simply cannot build a bracket that makes sense to the old guard.

This bracket makes the best use of the limited first-round flight resources, and does so in a responsible manner. It makes sense.

We’ll see if it makes the big screen tomorrow.

The conferences with automatic bids are listed below:

ASC Mississippi College
CC Johns Hopkins
CCIW Illinois Wesleyan
E8 Alfred
HCAC Mount St. Joseph
IIAC Central
LL Susquehanna
MAC Delaware Valley
MIAA Trine
MIAC St. John’s
MWC Monmouth
NATHC Lakeland
NCAC Wittenberg
NEFC Maine Maritime
NJAC Montclair State
NWC Linfield
OAC Mount Union
ODAC Hampden-Sydney
PAC Thomas More
SCAC DePauw
SCIAC Cal Lutheran
USAC North Carolina Wesleyan
WIAC UW-Whitewater

This is where we take the 23 automatic bids, 11 of which are not yet set, then figure out at-large bids, some of which will lose between now and Selection Sunday, then seed them and pair them up logically … or fiscally … or geographically … or fiscally, depending on the bracket.

In doing this every year, we have to toe a fine line. We can call some conference races, leave some open, pretend we know what’s going to happen, or ignore what has yet to be played. This is an inexact science, but it’s an attempt to look at the entire field using the NCAA’s stated selection/seeding criteria. But you can’t simply try to project one bracket by itself. How do you know if there are eight West teams getting into the field, and not seven or nine or 10?

First, the basics:

Thirty-two teams will form four eight-team brackets. And we know the champions of 23 conferences will get an automatic bid to the playoffs. Three bids (Pool B) are set aside for independents or members of non-automatic bid conferences. The remaining six bids go to what’s called Pool C, which is everyone left over.

So how will the brackets be formed, who will play whom? That’s what we hope to answer. For more info check out our Playoff FAQ.

We projected the following results for Week 11: Wabash beating DePauw, Thomas More beating Mount St. Joseph, Johns Hopkins winning the Centennial. We didn’t project a winner in the NJAC, NEFC, Liberty League, USA South or NATHC because it didn’t appear it would matter to seedings. Nor did we project an Albright/Lebanon Valley winner. Their numbers are fairly similar no matter who wins.

Teams that have clinched playoff spots are in bold. On with the brackets:

Mount Union Bracket (seeded No. 1)
1. Mount Union
2. Delaware Valley
3. Alfred
4. NJAC winner
5. Lebanon Valley/Albright winner (Pool C)
6. NEFC winner
7. LL winner
8. Johns Hopkins
If Susquehanna beats Union, we’d probably flop them with Susquehanna. That would put JHU at Delaware Valley, but the NCAA committee only tries to avoid conference rematches in the first round. It doesn’t worry as much about non-conference rematches. If Averett wins the USA South, I would put it No. 8 in this bracket. The schools are within 500 miles of each other. The other USAC contender is North Carolina Wesleyan, which is more than 500 miles from Mount Union, outside the driving radius. Oh, and I guess I should just point out that Mount Union is in a bracket filled with primarily East teams.

UW-Whitewater Bracket (seeded No. 2)
1. UW-Whitewater
2. Wittenberg
3. Case Western Reserve (Pool B)
4. Illinois Wesleyan
5. Wabash (Pool C)
6. Trine
7. Ohio Northern (Pool C)
8. DePauw
DePauw with a loss would be looking at the No. 8 seed. With a win, they would grade out ahead of Trine, Wabash isn’t in this bracket, or even in the field. Dickinson would be next on the list if it wins and doesn’t get the Centennial Conference bid. Ohio Northern is in over Dickinson for now because it possesses something no other Pool C contender has: a win against a regionally ranked team. It also had the highest SOS of any Pool C contender. UW-Whitewater moved into this bracket

St. John’s Bracket (seeded No. 3)
1. St. John’s
2. Linfield
3. Central
4. Monmouth
5. St. Thomas (Pool C)
6. Coe (Pool C)
7. Cal Lutheran
8. NATHC champ
I was tempted to swap Monmouth and Illinois Wesleyan, but either way, one bracket would have had four unbeaten teams at the top. This would be a spot where we’d break apart the brackets, not because of geography but because the NCAA would not have Coe and Central meet in the first round. So, the Northern Athletics Conference champ at Central and Coe at St. John’s.

Wesley Bracket (seeded No. 4)
1. Wesley (Pool B)
2. Hampden-Sydney
3. Thomas More
4. Huntingdon (Pool B)
5. Mississippi College
6. Mary Hardin-Baylor (Pool C)
7. Mount St. Joseph
8. USAC winner
Mount St. Joseph fits better in this grouping than DePauw does, geographically. Mary Hardin-Baylor is flying to Thomas More, but heck, it has to fly somewhere.

St. Thomas, Coe, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Wabash, Lebanon Valley-Albright winner and Ohio Northern were the six Pool C teams I chose. Left on the board: the NJAC runner-up representing the East, North Central representing the North, Dickinson from the South and St. Norbert from the West.

Teams are listed with their regional record first, followed by their overall record. For more information about the playoff format and how participants are determined, check out our FAQ.

We will pass along any needed corrections in regional records to the NCAA.

East Region
1. Albright 6-0 7-0
2. Alfred 6-0 6-0
3. Delaware Valley 5-0 6-1
4. Kean 6-1 6-1
5. Rowan 6-1 6-1
6. Montclair State 6-1 6-1
7. Springfield 6-1 6-1
8. Lebanon Valley 6-1 6-1
9. Union 5-1 5-2
10. Curry 6-1 6-2

North Region
1. Mount Union 6-0 7-0
2. Otterbein 7-0 7-0
3. Wittenberg 5-0 7-0
4. Case Western Reserve 6-0 7-0
5. Mount St. Joseph 7-0 7-0
6. North Central (Ill.) 6-1 6-1
7. Wabash 5-1 6-1
8. Wheaton (Ill.) 6-1 6-1
9. Illinois Wesleyan 6-1 6-1
10. Trine 6-1 6-1

South Region
1. Wesley 3-0 7-0
2. Mississippi College 6-0 6-1
3. Washington and Jefferson 7-0 7-0
4. Hampden-Sydney 8-0 8-0
5. Mary Hardin-Baylor 4-1 6-1
6. Thomas More 7-0 7-0
7. Centre 6-1 6-1
8. Huntingdon 3-0 6-1
9. Dickinson 6-1 6-1
10. DePauw 5-1 5-1

West Region
1. Linfield 6-0 7-0
2. Central 8-0 8-0
3. St. John’s 8-0 8-0
4. UW-Whitewater 5-0 7-0
5. Monmouth 8-0 8-0
6. St. Thomas 6-1 6-1
7. Coe 6-1 6-1
8. Occidental 5-1 5-1
9. Cal Lutheran 5-1 5-1
10. UW-Stevens Point 4-1 5-2

Pool A, Pool B and Pool C are the labels given to groups (also known as Pools) of bids awarded to the playoffs. The field is 32 teams, who meet in five rounds of playoffs culminating in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 19, in Salem, Va.

Understanding Pool A is fairly simple — let’s just pretend that ‘A’ stands for automatic. Those are the 23 automatic bids that are awarded. If there’s a tie at the top of a conference’s standings at the end of the season, the conference itself is responsible for determining who gets the automatic bid. (Most, if not all, conferences separate two-way ties with the head-to-head result.)

If you are not in one of those 23 conferences, there are three bids set aside for you, which are referred to as Pool B bids. The best three teams out of that group, which encompasses all independents, the Atlantic Central Football Conference, the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference, the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference and University Athletic Association, get bids.

Every eligible team not already selected is dropped into Pool C, which consists of six truly at-large bids. At-large bids are determined using the NCAA’s criteria, which includes regional winning percentage, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, results against common opponents and results against regionally ranked teams.

If your conference has an automatic bid and your team doesn’t win it, then you are only eligible for Pool C bids. If your conference doesn’t have an automatic bid, you are eligible for Pool B or Pool C.

Q: How can my team guarantee it will get into the playoffs?
A: Win your conference’s automatic bid. There’s no guarantees otherwise. If you’re a Pool B team, running the table is all you can do. No team has ever been left out of the playoffs in this system after running the table, regardless of strength of schedule. But one-loss teams with a weak schedule have not been as lucky.

Q: When will we find out which brackets meet in the national semifinals?
A: On Selection Sunday. They are not predetermined and do not rotate. The NCAA committee determines who it thinks the two best No. 1 seeds are in the bracket and makes sure they are set on opposite ends, to meet in Salem.

Q: If the two best teams are in the same region, will they be placed in separate brackets?
A: This is at least possible, but highly unlikely. They don’t seed this tournament like a D-I tournament, unfortunately. Teams are placed in groups according to geography and seeded, though keeping teams from having to travel 500 miles in the first round is more important to the NCAA than maintaining proper matchups.

Q: There are a lot of criteria to go through. How can I tell where my team stands?
A: The NCAA releases regional rankings after Week 8, 9 and 10. They use the same criteria that they’ll use to select at-large teams, so they’re a good indication of where teams in the same region are relative to each other. However, being No. 6 in one region doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ahead of a team that’s No. 7 in one of the other three.

Q: So if I’m ranked eighth in these rankings, I’m in the playoffs?
A: No. There are still the 23 automatic bids. They’ll all get in first. Take the 23 automatic bids out of the rankings (and keep in mind some conferences don’t have anyone in these rankings) and three Pool B teams, then the remaining seven get in.

Q: Why doesn’t the NESCAC get an automatic bid?
A: It doesn’t want one. The league doesn’t want to participate in the NCAA playoffs in football.

Q: I have a question you haven’t answered. What do I do?
A: E-mail info@d3football.com and/or post below in the comments section.

Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com Wayne Burrow accepts a token of appreciation from Carey Harveycutter and the City of Salem at his final Stagg Bowl luncheon.

It is not like me to wax poetic about the NCAA liaisons. They hold the purse strings of the NCAA and have to enforce the budget rules that the Division III member schools and conferences have put in place. But I’m going to wax about Wayne.

While Wayne certainly did many, many things with the NCAA in his long career there, his lasting impact upon Division III football fans is the attention he paid to the sport and the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. While the NCAA is certainly a target of wrath from misunderstanding fans, Wayne’s work elevated the level of Division III football’s championship game and worked with the City of Salem for more than a decade to make this a centerpiece event for not just Division III football, but Division III athletics in general.

As the article notes, he has worked as the liaison for D-I baseball, D-III football and D-I swimming and diving. He also had been the championships manager for D-II baseball, D-II women’s basketball, men’s and women’s fencing, men’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, D-III women’s soccer, D-II swimming and diving, women’s water polo and D-I wrestling.

To me, it was clear that Wayne brought a lot of the Omaha mentality from his time as the Division I baseball championships liaison into his work with Salem. From all I’ve heard, every time the Stagg Bowl is able to be played at a time other than 11 a.m. ET, it’s been because Wayne used his influence behind the scenes to nudge the game into the later time slot. If Wayne weren’t committed to the Stagg Bowl in Salem, Va., it may not have stayed beyond the first couple of contracts, but instead, the long-term relationship has helped the city gradually improve the stadium and the events surrounding the Stagg Bowl to what we see today: better lights, field turf, video replay board, new locker rooms, the whole nine yards.

Wayne’s last year as the football liaison was 2007 and we do have high hopes for Shonna Brown, as there are certainly many places where she can have an impact herself on the Stagg Bowl.

But Wayne is missed by Division III football already. And we wish him well in his next endeavor.