Thinking the bids for the North will shape up as such:
MIAC: St. Thomas should be coming away with the AQ by beating Macalester on Saturday. However, should the Tommies lose this match, I believe they will suck up the only At-Large bid the North will be receiving.
IIAC: Luther and Loras will battle for the IIAC crown. Can see the loser getting the Pool C At-Large if UST wins this weekend.
UMAC: They play their semifinals today, final on Saturday. Hard to see anyone other than St. Scholastica taking the AQ, UW Superior may have a shout. Whoever draws these guys in the tournament should go out and buy a lottery ticket. This conference will not receive a Pool C.
MWC: Semifinals scheduled to be played Friday, final on Saturday. Would love to see St. Norbert College remove all doubt and win the AQ, especially after the fantastic campaign they've had this year. SNC plays Lake Forest on 11/3 and Knox College looms in the other semifinal, so it looks like they've got their work cut out for them. This conference will not receive a Pool C.
Pool B: I assume UW Platteville takes this bid over UW Whitewater since they've been regionally ranked all three weeks and Whitewater has not. The two may be closer than I initially thought- UWP end at 11-3-2 with 0-2-1 (.167) RvR and an SOS of 0.561. UWW end at 10-6-4 with 1-5-2 (.278) RvR and an SOS of 0.565. Although the 10 blemishes of UWW versus the 5 blemishes of UWP might indicate your tipping factor.
To sum up, I see the North sending 6 teams to the tournament this year. In previous years it seemed that we've gotten 7 bids (4 AQ, 1 Pool B, 2 Pool C) but only when the North teams had strong seasons, and the West region received 1 less bid because of that. This year, the North is down and the West appears to be more down? down-er? Who knows what the committee will do with these two regions, maybe another Pool C will be tossed to a stronger representative out East. Thoughts lads?