D 3 softball

Started by oldNorse, April 10, 2009, 06:34:25 PM

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WLCALUM83

Whitworth Regional Final update:

C/M/S and Linfield are tied 5-5 in the top of the 7th inning. (winner take-all).

WLCALUM83

Whitworth final:  Linfield 6, C/M/S  5  8 innings

WLCALUM83

2016 D3 Champions are:

UT-Tyler Patriots!


justafan12

Hopefully the ASC will go back to an East and West division with the addition of McMurray.

justafan12

Fastpitch News preseason All American teams

http://fastpitchnews.com/college-softball-news/2017-fpn-preseason-ncaa-diii-american-softball-teams/10715

Not sure about all of their selections but at least its not a group of coaches picking their buddies players.


justafan12

Quote from: justafan12 on February 01, 2017, 11:47:16 AM
NFCA preseason poll is out.

https://nfca.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7187:reigning-ncaa-division-iii-titlist-texas-tyler-starts-season-ranked-no-1&catid=148&Itemid=149

UTT - lost a lot but return some good pieces.
SJF - hard to tell since they play a weak schedule (didn't play a ranked team until WS last year).
Messiah - too high. Lost #1 pitcher
Emory - unsure on them. Lost a good leadoff and #3.  Finally playing a true conference schedule.
Berry - too low.  Lost basically no one from a SR team.
TLU - too high.  Lost 1-5 in lineup and their #1 pitcher.
Linfield - too low.  Same as Berry.
Birmingham S. - too low.  Lost no one from regional team. 


Phred

Luther,s Norse are #5 in the NFCA rankings.....22-2.  Lost one to Trine no. 4.
He who laughs last.......thinks slowest

justafan12

Why play a D3 softball conference championship?
In my limited research, I believe all 40+ D3 softball conferences have a yearend conference tournament to determine who gets their automatic NCAA bid.  My question is why?  It can't be for the money generated by the tournament.  Is it to give the teams with a not so good season a chance?  Most conferences play everyone in a round robin fashion 2 to 4 times during the regular season.  That is a tried and tested method to determine who your best team is.  Does a conference want a team with a sub 500 record making it in the NCAAs?  Maybe so, but does it cost your conference a bid for the regular season champion?  Do you want your representative team to be one that proved their worth over the entire season or the one that got hot over a weekend?  The only time I see having a conference tournament is if you have a split conference; like an east and west, and teams don't play everyone.  I believe the NESCAC conference does that. 
While a conference tournament does give an underdog a chance does it cost your regular season champion an NCAA bid.  Salem College last year did not get an NCAA bid dispute winning their conference championship with an 8-1 record. Agnes Scott won the conference tournament and the bid with a season record of 10-27.  Who was the better team; Salem in my opinion, but who had the better 2 days that mattered; Agnes Scott.
Linfield will probably get in the NCAAs this year with a 32-10 record but they went 0-2 in their recent conference tournament. A case could be made for leaving them out of the NCAAs because of that (10 losses in my measuring stick for an at large bid).  I would select them but the committee may have other upsets that could bump Linfield.  Without a conference tournament they are a lock for an at large bid with a 32-8 record but now doubt looms.  Same situation holds for UT Dallas this weekend.  With a 32-8 season record do they get an at large birth if they don't win the ASC tournament? 
Another issue with a conference tournament is how many times teams play each other.  I know of at least one instance where 2 teams played each other 6 times over a one week span; 3 in conference tournament and 3 in regionals the following weekend.  They also played 3 times in regular season so that's 9 times for the year. 
Finally, teams in the north east are struggling this time of year to get their games in before their conference tournament.  Due to late season starts and then make up games, teams are playing 8 games a week just to get their 40 games in.  St. John Fisher will play 14 games over a 2 week period during late April; right before finals and graduation.  With no conference tournament they would have at least another week to spread the games out over.

Gray Fox

Fierce When Roused

justafan12

Once again, it never ceases to amaze me how the cash cow that is the NCAA reduces itself to a penny pinching scrooge when it comes to the D2 and D3 athletics.  Let's not have a true tournament with actual seeding but lets have a regional based grouping for so the NCAA President can make another half million a year. 

Anyway, pretty easy brackets and road to OKC for:

Berry - only 1 NFCA ranked team in their way and regional seed higher than a 4.
Va. Wesleyan - 2 NFCA ranked teams and a regional seed of third in their way.
Who ever wins the Babson and Williams regionals.  Pretty weak 8 teams in those 2 regionals.

West once again gets screwed.  They did at least separate UTT and ETBU at regionals but could meet in Supers.  5 of 6 teams in West are all ranked.
SJ Fisher gets a huge break (again) in moving Ithaca to a completely different regional and opposite side of bracket. 
Same with Alma and Trine.

And what about Linfield; they don't make it in despite a 34-10 record.  I guess 5th in a tough West region is not as good as Chicago (6th in Great Lakes) or St. Thomas (5th in Midwest).

Bombers798891

Quote from: justafan12 on April 27, 2017, 12:01:06 PM
Why play a D3 softball conference championship?
In my limited research, I believe all 40+ D3 softball conferences have a yearend conference tournament to determine who gets their automatic NCAA bid.  My question is why?

Access to championships is a core tenant of D-III sports*, and one that trumps creating the best possible playoff field. Conference tournaments allow teams a second chance to get in. Go 10-27 in the regular season? You still have a chance to make it.

I've seen my team hurt by it (In 2009, Ithaca's then 3rd-ranked men's lacrosse team lost in the conference tournament and missed the NCAAs; the championship was won by Cortland State, who Ithaca had beaten 11-8) and helped by it (In 2012, the 12-13 men's basketball team earned a bid to the NCAAs by winning the conference title). Over the past few years, I've changed my tune and become an fan of it, albeit unenthusiastically. Extra games and opportunities are good for student-athletes.

*D-III, of course, is not the only division to offer auto-bids through the conference championships.

Just Bill

IMO the biggest benefit is a conference tournament makes the regular season better. If you didn't have a conference tournament, and you awarded the AQ to the regular season champ, by the mid-point of the season, half the league is likely out of the race. In the last week of the regular season, if you're lucky, there's still two or three teams competing, but it's just as likely one team has already clinched. That's a lot of meaningless games being played, and a lot of teams left with nothing to play for down the stretch.

But add a conference tournment, and now at the mid-point of the season, everyone still (likely) has a shot at qualifying. When you get down to the last week, you have multiple important races going on. Some teams playing for a the regular season title, some teams playing for byes/home games in the tournament, and some teams playing just to get in. Chances are only the very bottom 1-2 teams of your league are out of the running. That's the value of the conference tournament to me.
"That seems silly and pointless..." - Hoops Fan

The first and still most accurate description of the D3 Championship BeltTM thread.

Bombers798891

#899
Quote from: Just Bill on May 10, 2017, 08:42:42 AM
IMO the biggest benefit is a conference tournament makes the regular season better. If you didn't have a conference tournament, and you awarded the AQ to the regular season champ, by the mid-point of the season, half the league is likely out of the race. In the last week of the regular season, if you're lucky, there's still two or three teams competing, but it's just as likely one team has already clinched. That's a lot of meaningless games being played, and a lot of teams left with nothing to play for down the stretch.

But add a conference tournment, and now at the mid-point of the season, everyone still (likely) has a shot at qualifying. When you get down to the last week, you have multiple important races going on. Some teams playing for a the regular season title, some teams playing for byes/home games in the tournament, and some teams playing just to get in. Chances are only the very bottom 1-2 teams of your league are out of the running. That's the value of the conference tournament to me.

But the flip side is true as well. The games featuring the top teams in the conference are less meaningful because it's usually clear they're going to make the tournament, so the regular season game becomes about seeding, not the playoffs themselves. Looking at the E8 for women's hoops, for example, here's the record of the conference winner, 2nd place team, and 5th place team (which does not make the tournament).

2010: 16-0/12-4/7-9
2011: 15-1/12-4/7-9
2012: 13-1/12-2/5-9
2013: 13-1/10-4/7-7
2014: 13-1/13-1/7-7
2015: 15-1/14-2/7-9
2016: 15-1/15-1/7-9

There's rarely been any drama for the top two teams regarding qualifying for the tournament. But in 2016, instead of the final game of the season between Stevens and Fisher possibly having an NCAA Tournament bid at stake, it was just about home court for the tournament. That game, by the way, was a 75-72 thriller. A similar situation occurred in 2015, when Ithaca and Stevens met with 12-1 conference records. Even earlier games between 8-0/7-1 teams don't matter as much.

I still like the autobids via the conference tournaments. But it's not universally good for the regular season