BB: NAC: North Atlantic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

The North Atlantic Conference will see two institutions (Becker and Elms) move to the newly created New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) for the 2008-09 season.

The NAC Pool A bid earner, Castleton State VT, lost 9-5 to Champion Trinity in the first round of the Regionals and then lost to Harwich Regional finalist Southern Maine, 16-7.

The NAC still had its Pool A bid from 2007 with 6 teams, The NAC saw affiliate member, St Joe's Maine, leave after the 2007 season to the GNAC.

The NAC should see these schools fielding baseball teams in 2009.

Castleton State VT
Husson ME
Lyndon State VT (Provisional year 3)
U Maine-Farmington
Thomas

Conferences have 2 years to return to 7 full NCAA members to retain the AQ (Pool A bid).  The 2009 Handbook should be out in March 2009.
 
GNAC Baseball home page

[ecfaninri]

Ralph,
How many different conferences are there in the New England Region now? Eight? What about Mitchell. I seem to recall reading some post that they are coming into the NE Region region. Are they part of this new conference.  It just makes it difficult coming out of an eight team regional or having top teams shipped out to play in an eight team regional . Has the NCAA continued to looking at expanding each regional to include 8 teams for an even playing field. 8 teams - 8 regionals 64 teams? It would seem to allow these new conferences a bite of the pie. We all know that every conference has the upper and lower tier teams. But with conference champions getting an automatic bid, it might place more emphasis on regional play throught the season. Just a thought.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph,
How many different conferences are there in the New England Region now? Eight? What about Mitchell. I seem to recall reading some post that they are coming into the NE Region region. Are they part of this new conference.  It just makes it difficult coming out of an eight team regional or having top teams shipped out to play in an eight team regional . Has the NCAA continued to looking at expanding each regional to include 8 teams for an even playing field. 8 teams - 8 regionals 64 teams? It would seem to allow these new conferences a bite of the pie. We all know that every conference has the upper and lower tier teams. But with conference champions getting an automatic bid, it might place more emphasis on regional play through the season. Just a thought.

Mitchell is going into the new New England Collegiate Conference.

The problem with all of these conferences is that a couple may not have the minimum 7 members for the AQ.  The strongest New England conferences are stable in baseball.

I am going thru the lists now to check the changes. These conferences are fluid at this time.

CCC -- 12 teams, no changes
GNAC -- 8 teams and losing Daniel Webster
LEC -- 8 teams, no changes
MASCAC -- 7 teams, no changes
NAC -- 6 teams after the loss of St Joe's ME, losing and adding
NECC -- not enough full members to make an AQ (only 6 total so far)
NESCAC -- 10 teams, no changes
NEWMAC -- 7 teams, no changes

Please remember that the NCAA no longer confines a team to its region in post season play.  The ability to earn an at-large bid is considered by the committee on a national basis!

The toughness of the region is one thing.  The other thing is the demographical dynamics of how tough the competition is for that next at-large bid.

In baseball, I believe that the top 90 programs are one fielding error allowing unearned runs per season or one bad outing away from earning any bid.

In the ASC, I believe that 7 teams were good enough to earn the AQ.  We only got one bid!  In the ASC, I can show you where that team should not have lost a game to change the course of its season otherwise.

Webster was not on anyone's radar, but lost the Central region finals.  Where were the vaunted CCIW teams at that point?  Gone!

Adrian? Huh? Yeah, in the Final four teams playing!

 

[ecfaninri]

Ralph,
You're right about the ASC, Webster, and certainly Adrian. Stands to reason a 64 team field would be a natural fit since the ultimate is to end up in Appleton on Memorial Day Weekend instead of a picnic or on the beach.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph,
You're right about the ASC, Webster, and certainly Adrian. Stands to reason a 64 team field would be a natural fit since the ultimate is to end up in Appleton on Memorial Day Weekend instead of a picnic or on the beach.

Division III has determined that they will budget for one playoff bid for every 6.5 competitors in every team sport (with a few exceptions on the ratio) and capped at 32 for football (5 weekends) or 64 teams.

I think that we may be due another bid from the schools are being admitted as full members in summer 2008.  Whether baseball wants to deal with that awful creation known as the 7-team bracket and fund an odd-number of teams in the playoffs is another matter.

[Jim Dixon]

NAC forms partnership in baseball with NEAC

http://www.d3baseball.com/notables/2009/02/04/6289/nac-neac-form-baseball-partnership.html

[Ralph Turner]

The North Atlantic Conference will see two institutions (Becker and Elms) move to the newly created New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) for the 2008-09 season.

The NAC Pool A bid earner, Castleton State VT, lost 9-5 to Champion Trinity in the first round of the Regionals and then lost to Harwich Regional finalist Southern Maine, 16-7.

The NAC still had its Pool A bid from 2007 with 6 teams, The NAC saw affiliate member, St Joe's Maine, leave after the 2007 season to the GNAC.

The NAC should see these schools fielding baseball teams in 2009.

Castleton State VT
Husson ME
Lyndon State VT (Provisional year 3)
U Maine-Farmington
Thomas

Conferences have 2 years to return to 7 full NCAA members to retain the AQ (Pool A bid).  The 2009 Handbook should be out in March 2009.
 
GNAC Baseball home page

NAC forms partnership in baseball with NEAC

http://www.d3baseball.com/notables/2009/02/04/6289/nac-neac-form-baseball-partnership.html

That is how they handled it.

In 2010, the new NEAC-East should be
-Castleton State
-Husson
-Lyndon State (4th year-provisional in 2009-10)
-Maine-Farmington
-Thomas

The new NEAC-West should include:
--Cazenovia
--D'Youville (leaving for the AMCC in 2009-10)
--Keuka
--PSU-Abington (1st-year provisional in 2009-10)
--PSU-Berks
--PSU-Harrisburg (3rd-year provisional in 2009-10)
--SUNY-Cobleskill (2nd-year provisional in 2009-10)
--SUNYIT

NEAC-NAC Press release

As I understand the effect that this has on the Pools, the extra Pool A bid goes back to the Pool B/C allocation.

This also affects the access ratio for Pool B.  This year, the NEAC has 5 "Pool A" teams; the NAC has 4 "Pool A" teams.  These 9 teams now go into the "access ratio" numerator, and the number of Pool A conferences decreases by one.  That slightly increases the access ratio to determine the number of Pool B bids. 

[soxfan42585]

this confuses me.

does the NAC have a bid?

if so, whos tops in this conf?

anyone know??

[ecfaninri]

soxfan
It confuses me yoo.... last year Castleton St represented the NAC at the NE Regional  I don't know if it was an automatic or an at-large bid because that region has 8 teams in it. USM was an at-large bid because Keene got the automatic slot by winning the LEC.

[Stump]

Castleton should be the AQ, no way could they get an at large.
Husson is only other possibility to win conference and would have to beat Castleton.

[Ralph Turner]

this confuses me.

does the NAC have a bid?

if so, whos tops in this conf?

anyone know??

Sorry for the delay in answering your question.

This happens next year.  Both the NAC and the NEAC have bids this season (2009) .  Both conferences were going to lose their AQ bids.

By affiliating as they have, they maintain access to one bid.  For baseball that will be the NEAC's bid.

I will merger this board into the NEAC board after the season.