Regional Hosting Predictions Re-trey

We have our third go-around for regional hosting and Ricky has done another amazing job. No California teams flying to Colby, which makes a bit of sense to me although I know neither La Verne or CMS would complain an ounce on that. I’ll make this pretty quick because I don’t want to repeat a lot of what I did last week. Here are all of the brackets (with NPI rank):

1 Juniata 16 Ithaca 24 Christopher Newport 29 Cortland 40 Springfield 53 William Paterson 64 Allegheny 235 Marymount

2 MIT 15 Salisbury 21 William Smith 30 Babson 33 Stevens 44 Gallaudet 140 Hunter 234 Westfield

3 Johns Hopkins 13 Case 19 Franklin & Marshall 22 Whitworth 36 Eastern 43 Endicott 76 Hartwick 159 Manhattanville

4 Emory 10 Washington and Lee 17 CMS27 La Verne 34 Centre 42 Transylvania 63 Methodist 86 Asbury

5 Hope 11 Washington (MO) 28 Eau Claire 31 Stevens Point 39 Ohio Northern 49 Coe 62 Edgewood 153 Greenville

6 Marietta 14 Millikin 18 Gettysburg 25 Virginia Wesleyan 35 Carnegie Mellon 41 IL Wesleyan 88 Wittenberg 196 Alfred State

7 Colby 12 East Texas Baptist 20 Trinity (TX) 26 NYU 38 Smith 60 Lasell 67 Dartmouth 185 Maine Maritime

8 Oshkosh 9 Whitewater 23 Platteville 32 Chicago 37 Calvin 46 Northwestern 50 Gustavus 85 Cornell

Teams in bold require flights. You’ll notice it’s just the Region X teams and it’s only 5 flights. The volleyball gods are smiling on the Selection Committee. Ricky has once again given the Top 8 hosting gigs and even protected the Top 16 teams. Top 24 is protected except for Whitworth and the Top 32 is fully protected. By protected, I mean that 1-8 are a #1 seed, 9-16 are a 2 seed, 17-24 are a 3 seed and 25-32 are a 4 seed. Again, the exception is Whitworth being a 4 seed and UW-Eau Claire getting a 3 seed.

These predictions are based on the November 3^rd NPI Rankings. Teams leaving from the previous week are Southwestern, Middlebury and Plymouth State. One big change is Oshkosh moving into the Top 8 replacing Salisbury. This is a huge change for traveling as there has to be a WIAC (or WashU) regional due to the number of teams in that area. Getting Oshkosh into the Top 8 made this an easier bracket to populate. (Really easy for me because I did nothing!) Teams coming in this week were Smith, Springfield and Dartmouth.

Making this quick, here are some quick thoughts on each regional:

Juniata – It really doesn’t matter who they put in here. These are lambs to the lion.

MIT – I’d like to see a Region X team come in here just to test MIT a bit. There are some teams here I think NPI has ranked too high but I think MIT is really good so it might be for the best that we save our teams for other regionals.

Johns Hopkins – Solid. I’d like to see Endicott in the MIT bracket and Gallaudet moved here just because I think Endicott is a bit better. Whitworth doesn’t get a 3 seed but I think they are another team that is NPI ranked too high.

Emory – Yikes. CMS and La Verne will be tough outs. Emory is outstanding. Washington & Lee has been the surprise team and could be overlooked here. Transy has played well of late and Centre has a win over CMS. Tough group.

Hope – I like a number of these teams but I think it’s a Hope/WashU final.

Marietta – Good Top 6 here. This one is wide open to me.

Colby – Smith played Trinity really tough this year. ETBU really hasn’t been tested a lot and a second round Trinity match wouldn’t favor them, I think. It will be interesting to see how good Colby really is here.

Oshkosh – Region of Death? Calvin is a bit down this year. Northwestern is now healthy (I think). GAC has shown they can beat Oshkosh. I mean we protect Oshkosh as a Top 8 but that seems like Maxwell Smart is handling the secret service here. (Joke for the grandparents out there!)

Another great job by Ricky and a fun exercise (for him). Remember that you can find his site, here.