Now public, Overway to Green Bay: https://x.com/i/status/2044944227554013190

Green Bay has been very active with high-level D3 players in the portal the last couple years - some they've gotten, and some they haven't. Justin Allen had a big year for them this past season after transferring from Carnegie Melon.

It looks like the C2C will officially be without their AQ to the men's basketball tournament for the next two years as they have used up the two-year grace period and Regent and JWU Charlotte are two years away from getting the conference back to the membership minimum for an automatic bid.

The league made a waiver request to the championships committee but the group did not support it, noting that they "understood the rationale but did not support granting a waiver that would in effect double the grace period and set an undesired precedent."

Bringing this back forward:

Provisional Pipeline for 2025-26 (now confirmed)
Full Membership: Hartford, Lyon
3rd year provisional members: none
2nd year provisional members: Carlow, Penn State-Brandywine
1st year provisional members: Regent, Johnson and Wales (NC)

Provisional Pipeline for 2026-27
1st year provisional members: Azusa Pacific (reclassification from D2), St. Francis (PA) (reclassification from D1)
Exploratory year: Maine-Augusta

*Games against Year 3 provisional members count the same as games against full-members for NPI and tournament selection purposes (possibly changing to include provisionals that conform to all D3 bylaws but may be earlier in the pipeline)

Conference Changes Starting in 2025-2026
Anna Maria leaves GNAC for the MASCAC
Bryn Athyn (UEC) drops athletics
Ferrum leaves the ODAC for D2
Fontbonne (SLIAC) closes
Hendrix leaves the SAA for the SCAC
Hiram leaves the NCAC for the PAC
John Carroll leaves the OAC for the NCAC
Johnson & Wales (NC) joins the C2C
Johnson & Wales (RI) leaves the GNAC for the CNE
Keystone (UEC) is doing the limbo, but allowed to play
LeTourneau leaves the ASC for the SCAC
Northland closes
Regent joins the C2C
Southwestern leaves the SCAC for the SAA
St. Elizabeth leaves the UEC for the AEC
Trinity (Texas) leaves the SCAC for the SAA
Expecting 43 automatic bids, 21 at-large bids

Conference Changes Starting in 2026-2027
Alfred State leaves the AMCC for the SUNYAC
Alverno (Women only) leaves the NACC for the C2C
Asuza Pacific joins the SCIAC (full D3 member 2028-29 academic year)
Luther leaves the ARC for the MWC
Maryville leaves the CCS for the SAA
Marywood leaves the AEC for the MAC Freedom
McMurry leaves the SCAC for the ASC
Neumann leaves the AEC for the MAC Commonwealth
New Jersey City leaves the NJAC for the CUNYAC merges into Kean (no NJCU NCAA D3 athletics)
Rosemont (UEC) ceases athletics (merging into Villanova)
St. Francis (PA) joins the PAC (full D3 member 2028-29 academic year)
Schreiner leaves the SCAC for the ASC
SUNY Cobleskill leaves the NAC for the SUNYAC
SUNY Delhi leaves the NAC for the SUNYAC
SUNY New Paltz leaves the SUNYAC for the NJAC
Wesleyan (Ga.) (Women only) leaves the D3 for NAIA
Expecting 42 automatic bids, 22 at-large bids (C2C loses MBB AQ)

Conference Changes Starting in 2027-2028
Concordia (WI) leaves the NACC for the CCIW
Keuka leaves the Empire 8 for the AMCC
Pratt leaves the AEC for the CUNYAC
St. Elizabeth leaves the AEC for the CUNYAC
Expecting 42 automatic bids, 22 at-large bids (C2C remains without MBB AQ)

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on April 09, 2026, 10:34:53 AM

Quote from: ziggy on April 08, 2026, 09:01:28 PMAlverno moving to the C2C saves the WBB AQ but MBB will lose it staring next season until Regent and JWU Charlotte are full D3 members?

There may be an AEC school or two ripe for the picking.  They have to get someone in immediately, though, which might be problematic.

Right. C2C just used up their second year of the grace period on the men's side, so barring an immediate addition who moves over for the '26-'27 year, next MBB season will have one fewer automatic bids and one more at-large bids.

Assuming I am correct on all that, we can add the "Expecting 42 automatic bids, 22 at-large bids" line to the bottom of the '26-'27 rundown. I noticed that part was missing.

I believe it would be the same for '27-'28 (at least until some kind of news breaks that would change that). Regent and JWU Charlotte would be countable as D3 competition but I don't think that is enough to meet the membership minimum for regaining the AQ until the following year when they are full members.

Alverno movingnto the C2C saves the WBB AQ but MBB will lose it staring nextbseason until Regent and JWU Charlotte are full D3 members?

Quote from: pointlem on April 07, 2026, 08:57:04 AMI gather the new Sunday-scheduled DIII championship game was, from the NCAA's perspective, a success? I'm curious: Would some DIII schools that don't schedule Sunday games, like Yeshiva not scheduling games after Friday sundown, be reluctant to play a championship Sunday game (think Chariots of Fire)? If so, would the NCAA accommodate? Would the team forfeit or be replaced? Or...?

There are still probably some Sunday prohibitions out there (isn't BYU always at a Thursday-Saturday site when they make the tournament?) but fewer than there were. I believe in 2010 the women's volleyball championship match was scheduled for a Sunday but was then pushed to Monday when Calvin qualified, and ultimately won, the program's first national title. My understanding is that Calvin would now play on a Sunday in that scenario, or at the very least in a special scenario like the combined championship weekend that just took place.

However, there is still evidence of a documented institutional preference to not play on Sunday and a willingness by the NCAA to accommodate. Just this past fall Calvin women's soccer hosted a Friday-Saturday pod in the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament when all other pods, including at Messiah, were Saturday-Sunday.

I'm not sure we would ever see Calvin CHOOSE to play on a Sunday, and I'm sure they (along with what I assume is a similar stance at Hope) have enough pull in the league that I doubt we start to see MIAA tournament championship games pulled to Sunday, but things have relaxed enough that making a run to a combined championship weekend at the D1 site wouldn't throw a wrench into the NCAA's plans.

In this day and age, some of these guys will be able to find more than just their education paid for.

Northern Michigan transfer PG Jonny Ingalls committed to Calvin.

https://x.com/i/status/2040148216205766978

This leaves the AEC with just four schools for 27-28?

If we are to believe the UEC-AEC "it's not a merger" announcement, seems to me we will see some UEC schools move over to balance membership numbers to retain two AQs between the partner (is that what we call it?) conferences.

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on March 24, 2026, 07:03:16 PMCleveland is listed as a sophomore, but he has freshman eligibility since he played JV last year. Funk was unstoppable in the Elite 8 game.  They would probably be Top 3 next year if Cleveland returned. They are also getting last year's freshman of the year and preseason AA Josh Fridman back from injury.

Slight correction: Cleveland did not play basketball at all as a freshman at IWU. He was not, and never would have been, a JV player. He went to the school as a regular student.

Here is a rundown of where the transfer portal officially stood for the MIAA as of this past weekend.

Antonio Hatcher, Olivet - JV this past season, went into the portal last week.
Jalen Overway, Calvin (grad) - Everyone knows the deal here, officially went into the portal last week. His entry notes he is not interested in D2.
Chadwick Martin, Adrian - JV? Was listed on the roster but wasn't one of the 20 listed with a roster number. entered portal in January.
Jake Slezinger, Adrian (grad) - Didn't play this season after appearing in 19 games over the previous three seasons. Entered portal in January.
Alex Pirrotta, Hope - JV '24-'25 but was not on a roster this past season. His portal entry date was October 21.

The Mitten Prep Hoops Class of 2026 rankings was mentioned on here a few pages back so I went through to put together a summary for the MIAA.

Obviously an incomplete look at recruiting classes since this is limited to prospects in Michigan, not to mention how recruit rankings can be a crapshoot even at the higher levels, but interesting nonetheless.

Ordered by total number of recruits on the list with each individual ranking shown.

Calvin - 7 (39, 42, 54, 79, 84, 156, 190)
Trine - 4 (59, 76, 99, 102)
Kalamazoo - 3 (32, 73, 100)
Alma - 2 (87, 121)
Albion - 2 (104, 188)
Hope - 1 (126)
Adrian - 0
Olivet - 0

Generally speaking it seems like the top 10 are all D1, the next 20 are all D2. 30-50 is where some D3, NAIA and JUCO start mixing in. Outside about the Top 50 is where the D1/D2s drop off and there are more gaps/non-commits, whether those are guys who may be recruits in other sports, have decided to not play in college, or are maybe hoping for something other than what they have been offered or are otherwise undecided.

Also of interest: Cornerstone shut out on this list so far. My how things have changed in the last decade or so.

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on March 09, 2026, 12:02:26 PMIt seems there were more upsets in years past. 15 out of 16 seems really high. You are obviously right, hosting means you're supposed to be favored, so it's no surprise the winning % is usually pretty high for hosts. Well deserved too. 

You are right about fewer upsets, and it wasn't just among hosts.

This last weekend saw favorites out-perform expectation according to D3 Datacast efficiency ratings win probabilities by about 2.5 wins each day. This was a flip from the first weekend last year when underdogs out-performed by about 3.5 wins each day.

Interesting that while upsets were down this year, it brings things pretty well in line with expectations over a two year span.

We all just need to get some beers, or whatever your beverage of choice may be, together in Fort Wayne. I think we can all agree on that!

Hot take: any consideration of conference affiliation when forming a bracket shouldn't apply for teams that have only played once during the season. If you're only going to play once in the regular season and not meet up in the conference tournament, there isn't much functional difference between those teams and two teams that play a non-conference game.

There are teams in separate conferences that have played more games against each other than Wesleyan and Tufts have this season. Why should it matter that Wesleyan and Tufts are in the same conference then?

(sorry, I'm still scarred by the year my team faced their rival five times in one season, ending in the second round of the NCAA tournament.)

Ok, I swear I'm done now.