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| Zoe Tomlinson and Colorado College, flying wherever they play in Division III. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com |
By Patrick Coleman
D3sports.com
The NPI, or NCAA Power Index, does away with four hours of work for people like us on Selection Sunday. The games are completed, the numbers are run, you hit refresh a bunch of times, and voila! You have 64 teams. We are guaranteed to get all of those right.
So what's left is mocking up a bracket with those 64 in it, one which is faithful to the NPI and the relative seeding of each team, and within the NCAA's not-entirely-clear rules for how many flights you can have in a bracket.
Here are our projections.
- NCAA Selection Show broadcast at 2:30 p.m. ET
- Who's in: 64 teams
- NCAA Tournament FAQs
Each pod is set up the same, with teams "seeded" 1-4, and the host team playing the 4 in the first round. Teams which fly in the first weekend are noted with an asterisk.*
Top left quadrant
No. 1 seed Bowdoin hosts No. 64 Brooklyn; No. 30 Cortland plays No. 33 Merchant Marine
No. 14 Johns Hopkins hosts No. 50 Immaculata; No. 22 Messiah plays No. 46 Montclair State
No. 5 Whitman hosts No. 51 Cal Lutheran; No. 26 Colorado College plays No. 38 Bates
No. 12 East Texas Baptist hosts No. 35 McMurry; No. 31 Texas Lutheran plays No. 45 UW-La Crosse
Bottom left quadrant
No. 4 Baldwin Wallace hosts No. 58 Stevens; No. 29 Southern Virginia plays No. 40 Washington & Jefferson
No. 16 Ohio Wesleyan hosts No. 57 Centre; No. 18 Carnegie Mellon plays No. 49 Geneseo
No. 6 Illinois Wesleyan hosts No. 63 Principia; No. 21 Trine plays No. 43 UW-Stevens Point
No. 9 Randolph-Macon hosts No. 59 Piedmont; No. 25 Western New England plays No. 42 Brockport
Top right quadrant
No. 2 NYU hosts No. 61 Gallaudet; No. 32 Amherst plays No. 36 Endicott
No. 15 Catholic hosts No. 53 SUNY-Cobleskill; No. 18 Christopher Newport plays No. 48 Vassar
No. 7 Gettysburg hosts No. 56 La Roche; No. 27 Washington & Lee plays No. 37 Tufts
No. 11 Smith hosts No. 55 St. Joseph (Conn.); No. 25 Elizabethtown plays No. 39 Bridgewater State
Bottom right quadrant
No. 3 Scranton hosts No. 60 Mount St. Mary; No. 28 Mass-Dartmouth plays No. 34 Trinity (Conn.)
No. 13 UW-Whitewater hosts No. 52 Wisconsin Lutheran; No. 17 Wartburg plays No. 41 Transylvania
No. 7 Gustavus Adolphus hosts No. 62 UW-Superior; No. 24 UW-Stout plays No. 44 Ripon
No. 10 UW-Oshkosh hosts No. 54 Calvin; No. 19 Bethel plays No. 47 DePauw
Five WIAC teams made the field, as we told you would happen as far back as Feb. 19. So when we needed to do something in Texas, because we can't put three SCAC schools in the same pod by rule, we sent UW-La Crosse there, and Colorado College conveniently had to fly no matter where it played, so we put them at Whitman. Some fourth team had to get to Whitman? Well, we conveniently had a New England team that was distant from everyone else, so we sent them there as well. There is no place to host that pod that doesn't involve three flights.
Keep an eye on D3hoops.com for coverage of the bracket reveal on Monday, and post your questions in the comments section below.