Championship Reseeding Results

*Update at the bottom*

The NCAA started to reseed their Elite 8 last year and they continue with the practice this year. I’ve called this new rule “The Emory Rule” because that was the program that really pushed for this change. Prior to this rule, the brackets were ordered on selection day based on which were the toughest and contained the best teams. Traditionally, the South, New York and New England Regionals would be the weakest and their winner would receive the worst seeds in the Elite 8. With Emory being the class of the South a few years back they would typically get an easy region and then get a poor seed. I know heart-breaking. One of the better aspects of the old rule was that the West Regional was typically deemed one of the hardest so our schools would get a higher seed.

If we look back at 2016, the last year with the old rule, Emory was shipped out of the South as the NCAA didn’t have enough teams for a South Regional. Sound familiar West Region? Like the West teams this year Emory was shipped to the very tough Northwestern Regional. Wait, no that was Cal Lutheran. They were shipped to the Calvin Regional…the UW-Whitewater Regional…oh, that’s right it was the second New York Regional held in Brockport. Like CMS this year, Emory was awarded the #2 seed. Wait, no they got the #1 seed for some reason. Like CMS with the Gustavus Adolphus Regional, the Brockport Regional was the deepest…toughest…most difficult…yeah, it was pretty easy. Excited by the prospects of blowing through an easy regional, Emory complained that the NCAA thought the South was in New York. It’s kind of vomit inducing if you think about it.

Once the Elite 8 teams were determined, Emory was bracketed for a quarterfinal match against Calvin (the eventual champion) and this is where the new rule comes in. It was deemed unfair to Emory, who was a very good team to have to play perhaps the best team in the nation all because their weak regional was deemed the 7th easiest. (Which regional was the #1 seed…the West’s UT-Dallas Regional. For you youngins, way back in our history the West would actually receive a regional. I know…strange.) So for the past two years, the NCAA has reseeded the final 8 teams based on their merits…difficulty of schedule…whatever they think is important. This ensures that good teams that get to play in easy regionals are rewarded with an easier quarterfinal match. In all seriousness, I have no issues with reseeding the Elite 8 IF the NCAA would equal out their regionals. As we saw this year, even when given a chance to do so they will not do this to the East Coast regionals. My take is that until the NCAA fixes this that teams that benefit from this bias shouldn’t then be rewarded. It blows my mind if the West, Midwest, Central and Great Lakes would ever support this rule.

I know I buried the lead but here are the 2018 Elite 8 seeds (Regional Rank):

1. Calvin (GL 1)

2. Juniata (MA 1)

3. Emory (S 2)

4. UW-Eau Claire (MW 2)

5. Babson (NE 3)

6. Ithaca (NY 1)

7. Wesleyan (NE 4)

8. Aurora (MW 5)

I think Calvin is a no doubt #1 seed and it’s good to see them in this position. They have actually beaten three of these other teams – Juniata (5-sets), Aurora (5-sets) and Ithaca (sweep).

No issues with Juniata at #2 as they beat Emory earlier in the year (5-sets). They also have a loss to Ithaca the first weekend (5-sets).

Emory and UW-Eau Claire is fine at 3 and 4 although Ithaca could have put a claim in here. I wouldn’t have liked it but they did have a win against Juniata and they were their regions #1 team.

Babson at #5 is a joke. They are the 7th best team in this grouping. I’m not going to get worked up over it because it helps out Eau Claire.

I would have been fine Ithaca at 5 or here at 6.

Wesleyan is the last team in this grouping in my mind but losing to Juniata or Calvin is like choosing between the electric chair and the guillotine.

Aurora definitely got the shaft here. I understand going by the regional rankings (well, no I don’t) but then why is Ithaca not the 3 seed? Is the NCAA saying that the New England Region is better than the Midwest Region? I would have Aurora 6th but I could even make a case for them at 5, which I wouldn’t do because I wouldn’t want two Midwest teams playing in the quarterfinal.

How would this have looked if the 2016 rules were in effect? My best guess is:

1. UW-Eau Claire

2. Aurora

3. Calvin

4. Emory

5. Juniata

6. Wesleyan

7. Ithaca

8. Babson

You could swap a team here or there but you can see that Juniata and Emory would complain about this setup. Is the reseeding fairer? Sure. Is the entire bracketing process fair? Heck no. I would argue that the problem you see above is more about the #1 seeds not making the Elite 8 than anything else. Why shouldn’t the teams that typically beat those #1 seeds (and have proven they are better) be rewarded with the spoils? Hey, I’m a Pirate after all. Loot and plunder, baby.

I haven’t seen the NCAA statistics get updated but based on the hitting percentages from last week, Calvin is the only team through to the Elite 8 that is in the Top 10. That means they will win this thing. UW-Eau Claire was in 14th, Juniata in 18th and Emory in 19th. Those are your top 4 seeds and hitting wins so let’s see if that holds true on Thursday.

*Update*

“Ned” in the comments below thought that the order falls inline with what the criteria spells out. As we all know, there are different thoughts on how to work the criteria so I thought I would give it a go. Not going to bore you here with a lot of numbers.

1. Calvin has the advantage over everyone.

2. Juniata ties Eau Claire and has the advantage over everyone else.

3. Eau Claire tied Juniata and also ties Emory. I give them the nod.

4. Emory has the advantage over the teams below.

5. Ithaca loses to Aurora and I almost put them here but has advantages over NE teams.

6. Babson

7. Wesleyan

8. Aurora

A lot, as is always the case here, is how you evaluate ranked wins. I also used the NCAA Tournament wins because, to me, these are your most applicable results. I almost put Aurora in the 5th spot and I honestly believe that is what they deserve but they lose the criteria battle to the New England teams. Swapping Eau Claire and Emory isn’t a big deal although I’d rather play Juniata than Calvin so maybe it is.

The really strange one is Babson and Ithaca. Babson has record advantage and Ithaca has SOS advantage. No head-to-head or common opponent advantage. But, I would take Ithaca’s ranked wins based on the quality (specifically their Juniata victory). My guess is that they went on ranked win percentage and gave the nod to Babson. Just silly.