Conference Championships

Geezaldinho wrote:AWK has us paired with OSU for round 1. He also has us at home, which I think is less likely. Even though we beat them, they are the better RPI team.

He also has us going to Duke, which I think is highly unlikely considering the teams on the west coast that will still be around for round 2.

Here is his pod for us.

Prospective Durham Regional

(1) Duke vs Radford
Portland vs Oregon State
Maryland vs La Salle
(4) Penn State vs Long Island

Frankly, a lot about his selections look dubious, and considering how the committe has traditionally dealt with us, I think we are still very much on the bubble.

The first round matchup listing was a mistake, and has been corrected to show the game would be in Corvallis.

The reason the winner would be shipped out is because the other teams on the west coast are all either Pac-12 or WCC affiliated, and I'm assuming that teams from the same conference still can't meet until the third round. The only way to ensure this doesn't happen with the makeup of teams is to ship someone out. Portland/OSU is easiest in this respect geographically.

Care to provide insight on what you find dubious about some of my selections?

ChrisAWK wrote:
The first round matchup listing was a mistake, and has been corrected to show the game would be in Corvallis.

The reason the winner would be shipped out is because the other teams on the west coast are all either Pac-12 or WCC affiliated, and I'm assuming that teams from the same conference still can't meet until the third round. The only way to ensure this doesn't happen with the makeup of teams is to ship someone out. Portland/OSU is easiest in this respect geographically.

Care to provide insight on what you find dubious about some of my selections?

Hi Chris, love your site. I already looked up OSU's ticket office for speed dial.


i guess I'm not convinced the travel computer will allow as much travel as you show. rather than the top 16 paired with the bottom 16, etc, I think there might be pairing to avoid plane rides, rides across the country will be rare, and the tournament will be more regional than in the past. The soccer committe sold it to the competition committee as revenue neutral or even cost saving over the old method and will feel compelled to come through on that. To that end, i'm not sure either OSU or UP end up on the East coast or Boston U. at Stanford, but I guess I could be wrong.

past history has NW schools somewhere in the mountain states or Midwest, or Big12 country if we travel. By the quarters, the NW is always paired with California or the Midwest. There being no Midwest prospects unless they jump seeds to OK state, I think California it is. I also think OSU might be too high a "seed" for Duke in the second round, taking into consideration my premise that travel will dictate more first round pairings. If it didn't, we wouldn't be meeting OSU in the first place.

I also think the seeded pairings the second weekend will be stricter, so BC will go to Duke, etc.
I think UNC goes to Memphis . like it or not, Memphis does have the #5 RPI in the country. I don't see reasons to ignore that, even if their best win is #28. it seems to me Notre Dame had a season like that a few years ago and got a #1 seed. They get a 2 seed and get rewarded with the Tarheels.

I'm not even sure SCU gets seeded. In fact, as the third team in the conference who's only top 40 win is Pepperdine,(OK, Cal just squeaks in) , I think it's unlikely. I think Baylor will be at Stanford as the 4 seed. Unless I missed it, SCU doesn't have a head to head win or common opponent advantage to jump over Baylor.. I don't 'even think WVA is completely out of the seed picture before SCU. The WCC had a good year in non-conference, but not that good.

So I think it's less travel in the first round and more adherence to RPI for pairings in the second weekend, especially with seeded teams.

But what do I know? this is the first time under this format. having virtually the entire ACC in the tournament makes things harder. It will be interesting to see if the committee is as flexible as we were sold when it got voted on. originally, the travel computer was going out the window because of the savings the first weekend. I have my doubts.

and I still think my team is on a big bubble. We'd be the only .500 team in the tournament, wouldn't we?

We find out in a few hours.

Anyone know where we can watch the selection show? I went to the NCAA site and while it seems to indicate the show will be available on their site, there is no link to the actual event. Is the assumption they will put up the link closer to the time of the event or am I missing something? Thanks!

A_Fan wrote:Anyone know where we can watch the selection show? I went to the NCAA site and while it seems to indicate the show will be available on their site, there is no link to the actual event. Is the assumption they will put up the link closer to the time of the event or am I missing something? Thanks!

Not sure it will be on broadcast, but NCAA.com will have it. Go to

Women / Soccer / Championship Info. Then click on " Championship Program" under the schedule area. The page is up with " available nov 10" or something like that plastered over it. I think that will be the spot if they don't plaster it on the front screen of the women's soccer section.

World's easiest navigating

I'm very wary of the travel too. I designed this bracket with the intent that I was believing the committee would maintain some seed integrity with the top and bottom sixteen teams. There's a very real possibility that the committee will go the other way and base things across the entire bracket on geography which will enrage the seeded teams which may get more difficult matchups in round one in some cases.

Santa Clara was the very last team in my bracket to get seeded, so I wouldn't be shocked if Illinois or West Virginia were seeded above them. I don't see Baylor getting seeded as they have less than Santa Clara does on their resume.

You might be on the bubble, but I'm very confident over your chances. That win over Florida State is a big thing in your favor, with the win over Oregon State also looking good along with the victory over Washington State for head-to-head purposes. Very few of the bubble teams I left out really have a leg to stand on (Washington State would have the best case).

ChrisAWK wrote:I'm very wary of the travel too. I designed this bracket with the intent that I was believing the committee would maintain some seed integrity with the top and bottom sixteen teams. There's a very real possibility that the committee will go the other way and base things across the entire bracket on geography which will enrage the seeded teams which may get more difficult matchups in round one in some cases.

That's why I think the integrity of the seeding will be in the second weekend instead of the first. If you think some team would be mad at getting a higher seed in the first round than warranted, imagine what it would be in the third round.


I think it's entirely likely that any top 16 could draw any bottom 16. And the more I think about it, we may not get paired with OSU at all. The committe has never had qualms about us traveling in the past, even when we were a #1 seed. Both teams might be the ones who hop on planes to even things out, and stanford is a natural for us. Paired with a California team The NW is on a different planet, apparently.

But we have no track record, so it's all up in the air.