Realignment Update

Yesterday, the NCAA announced that they have approved how regional rankings will work in the new realignment. In summary, they are going with a 20% rule, which means that for the West Region (or is that the new X Region?) we’ll still be doing 8 teams (out of the anticipated 39).

I’ve written extensively on the realignment plan and my issues with it. For a refresher, please go HERE.

I really don’t want to rehash in depth what the NCAA has done since nothing has really changed from the last time I wrote about it. I struggle with the need for it since I believe simply doing a better job at picking the at-large teams satisfies the major problem with the sport and the division. This new 20% rule, unfortunately, just makes this job even worse. With 10 regions ranging (right now) from 38 to 53 teams it means that we’ll have regions ranking from 8 to 11 teams for a total (my best guess) of 87 teams. This is an increase from last year’s 72 teams. The larger regions that have been split into two regions will now have large bumps to their regionally ranked teams. Smaller increases will be made to a few other of the older regions but nothing that will compensate what the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic will get from this rule. In our own neck of the woods (West), the rule is disastrous. The West will still only get 8 regionally ranked teams. This means that our teams will amount to only 9% of the total ranked teams as opposed to 11% with how the regions were structured before. In a nutshell, this means the West will be at a bigger disadvantage when it comes to one of the five selection criterion.

Just to add some perspective from last year. Whitworth, who won their conference’s automatic qualifier, only had 4 matches against regionally ranked teams. This is because of finances, which should only get tighter in the years to come. When they do travel they have to hope that their opponents will be regionally ranked at the end of the year. Chapman, who didn’t make the tournament, only had 8 regionally ranked matches with 6 of those coming from within the conference (a conference that “ironically” only sent one team to the NCAA Tournament). The three at-large teams from New England averaged 11 regionally ranked matches and they never had to fly to get those games! With these new changes, this problem gets a lot worse.

In the end, the problem remains the same; make sure you pick the right at-large teams. The realignment and this new regional ranking rule just makes this process even tougher. Remember that this all comes together in 2021. We’ve got other problems this season.