NCAA Championship Notes (11/14/17)

Just FYI to start with but you can now access the website via http://www.d3vbwest.com. You no longer need to add the “wordpress” but that still works. The base website actually just forwards it to WordPress. I will say this was a transaction long in the works as I had to bid against Google, Microsoft and Disney for the website name. After many billions of dollars I won just so you could access the site easier. (So, if you would, please remove any bookmarks of my site and always enter the new name so that I feel I’m getting my money’s worth.)

Just to jump on the above and I realize neither paragraph has anything to do with the championship…when I explain to people this blog I get one of two reactions. 1) Wow, you kind of limit yourself there, don’t you? Or, 2) Wow, what is the website name!

Reaction 2 is the issue. After explaining that I write a blog on D3 volleyball with a strong emphasis on the West Region, I then tell them the website name. I say, “www.”, and at this point, we are good. I then say, “d3”, and then get “Wait. What?”. I then go, “vb”, and all heck breaks out. Here I thought “vb” is a commonly used acronym for “volleyball” but I guess it sort of like saying “Pac Lu” to a Lute and them saying nobody but you calls us that. Once we clear these two hurdles I have to throw in the “west”, which always seems to go quite well and then the “.wordpress.com”, which sends us off the rails again. Well, I’ve resolved the last issue at least. Again, either website name will get you here.

The All-American announcement will be made today (maybe as I write this). The schools, coaches, players and parents have already been notified so they could get travel in the works. The close friends of the All-Americans have all been told with the caveat of it’s a secret…don’t tell anyone. Such an exclusive club that anyone getting the award should be thrilled.

The championship banquet is tomorrow (Wednesday). I’m not there and won’t be going but I’ll assume we are having chicken. It’s a nice little show and the All-Americans gets announced. Enjoyed my time last year but not sure I need to go to another one. The Elite 8 Academic award also gets presented. (Not the official name.) It goes to the player in the Elite 8 with the highest GPA (which will be a 4.0) and in the case of a tie (which there will be) it will go to the student with the most credits. My daughter had a B+ in one class but could have graduated early. She figures she lost out because of that B+. As the caring dad, my response was, “Well, I guess you shouldn’t have gotten that B+.” Yeah, I’m a cool dad.

I looked at the re-seeding a bit more. How do you think the original brackets would have been ranked? I figure:

1. IWU

2. Southwestern

3. Otterbein

4. Stevenson

5. Northwestern

6. Emory

7. Johnson & Wales

8. Clarkson

Maybe Southwestern is #1 but I went with the bracket that had 6 ranked teams as opposed to the one with 4 of the top 6 teams. This would have given us a bracket of:

Calvin v Ithaca Swarthmore v Gust. Adolphus

Wittenberg v Emory CMS v J&W

Kind of interesting and I think we’ll be seeing the re-seeding done permanently from this point forward. The only downside is the high ranked team playing in a poor bracket. They get an easier path through the regional and then are rewarded with an easier first round match-up. Let’s call this, oh I don’t know, the Emory Rule moving forward.

Whoops – All-Americans just dropped! Gotta go!