https://www.ncaa.org/news/2024/4/18/media-center-diii-management-council-supports-expanding-football-team-sport-brackets.aspx
The D3 Management Council this week recommended expansion of all playoff fields to support a 1:6 access ratio, meaning that if the President's Council approves (which they almost always do), 2024 will see 40 teams selected. There will be a single at-large pool; no more "Pool B" (which almost never had enough qualifying football teams to get a bid)/"Pool C".
They also recommended replacing the current Pool C selection criteria with the "NCAA Power Index", aka Pairwise, for all sports starting in the 2024-25 school year.
Not sure I love the idea of Pairwise for football, but it's not like the current system didn't have it's issues. It will take out the purported "gamesmanship" of different regional committees sneaking in a team to add a result. And from what I understand different sports will have the ability to weight different factors as they prefer, though once they select weightings they are supposed to stick with them for a few years so you can't tweak on an annual basis.
The expansion to 40 teams will definitely be helpful. On the other hand, the decreased focus on SoS could increase the number of conferences with 10 or more teams, something I find less attractive. I like OOC games. I know they can be a pain to schedule and having large conferences provides for scheduling certainties, but I miss the days of 6 or 7 conference games and a couple of OOC games that bring in new teams or hold up old rivalries.
I will also miss many of the arguments and long discussions we've had on the boards about who deserves what and how things will shake out. On the other hand, Pairwise will be much more transparent.
I'm sure there will be people complaining that team #41 was left out, but with an extra eight at large bids there's much less room for arguing compared to currently. It's also enough teams playing the opening round (16 play, 24 have a bye) that the committee can avoid adding a bunch of extra flights.
I'm excited. No system will ever be perfect. E.g. I know Logan Hansen has reservations about Pairwise. But this gets us to a better balance between the championship access for conference champs that has been a hallmark of D3, while also ensuring we have the best teams in the field.
My assumption is we will see some lopsided games in early rounds, per usual. This should also get us more competitive games in the rd of 16 and beyond. There's still a path for Cinderella, which I like. And if Cortland showed us anything, we can no longer presume who the top 2-4 teams are. Ideally more teams having access will increase the number of teams building playoff experience and make the depth of the entire field stronger.
I agree that it won't eliminate blowouts. Even some of the teams in the first round will get blown out -- it can't be avoided if we let them in the playoffs, basically. If we'd had 40 last year, our mock bracket had Morris playing St. John's instead of UW-La Crosse and I don't think that outcome is any different for Morris.
However, Belhaven drawing Berry in the first round instead of North Central would be a huge difference. Western Connecticut vs. Salve Regina instead of Johns Hopkins, also a big difference.
Totally agree Pat. It feels like the right balance. And getting a competitive game in Rd 1 for those new to the bracket is a big deal.