2026 NCAA Tournament

[Greek Tragedy]

https://d3datacast.com/npi/

Amusing that Pool A is no longer Pool A, but AQ now and Pool C is now called At-Large.

[Patrick Coleman]

Yes, the pools were abolished before last season, even.

[Greek Tragedy]

Wow. Really? I guess I missed that too. Just though it was amusing when I saw the change on d3datacast NPI site.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

The amount of AQs decided by one possession today is staggering.


Hood beat York (PA) in 2OT

Penn St-Harrisburg beat Cairn by 1
Neumann beat Gwynedd Mercy by 1
MUW beat Webster by 1
Bethany Lutheran beat Minn-Morris by 1
Aurora beat Marian by 1

TCNJ beat Montclair St by 2
Keuka beat Brockport by 3
UW-La Crosse beat UW-Whitewater by 3
Rhodes beat Trinity (TX) by 3

Still almost a dozen more games left tonight.

[ronk]

The amount of AQs decided by one possession today is staggering.


Hood beat York (PA) in 2OT

Penn St-Harrisburg beat Cairn by 1
Neumann beat Gwynedd Mercy by 1
MUW beat Webster by 1
Bethany Lutheran beat Minn-Morris by 1
Aurora beat Marian by 1

TCNJ beat Montclair St by 2
Keuka beat Brockport by 3
UW-La Crosse beat UW-Whitewater by 3
Rhodes beat Trinity (TX) by 3

Still almost a dozen more games left tonight.

 That's the way it should be.

[CNU85]

The amount of AQs decided by one possession today is staggering.


Hood beat York (PA) in 2OT

Penn St-Harrisburg beat Cairn by 1
Neumann beat Gwynedd Mercy by 1
MUW beat Webster by 1
Bethany Lutheran beat Minn-Morris by 1
Aurora beat Marian by 1

TCNJ beat Montclair St by 2
Keuka beat Brockport by 3
UW-La Crosse beat UW-Whitewater by 3
Rhodes beat Trinity (TX) by 3

Still almost a dozen more games left tonight.

 That's the way it should be.

One could only wish. To quote a friend, CNU was beaten "like a rented mule"

[ziggy]

Big day tomorrow! The scenarios are starting to look quite clear with one day left.

We'll go live on our YouTube channel at 1 pm ET on Sunday to talk through where things stand and what needs to happen for those on the bubble and others jockeying for Top 8/Top 16 seeds.

Here is the stream link, we'd love to have you stop by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sGNNoyvbrw

[ziggy]

The automatic qualifiers
The at-large bids
The Top 8 protected seeds
The Top 16
It's all set.

Join us as we reveal the #d3hoops field, top seeds, first four/next four out and see how it could all fit together in a mock bracket.
https://youtu.be/QaWIbSCLQfE

[bbfan44]

The only good thing about having so many AQ teams among the 64 is that many kids, including bench warmers on top seed teams, will be able to tell their grandchildren that they played in an NCAA Tournament game or two.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Here was my attempt to put pods together. Everyone is the correct seed in their pod (1-16 hosts 49-64, 17-32 plays 33-48). I didn't check if 1st round matchups had played however.
I started with the three most isolated hosts (Emory, St Thomas, Redlands) and built those pods then started in the upper midwest area because trying to fill those pods would be tricky. Then I finished with the east coast pods. Ended up with just 2 flights the first round I believe.

1 Trinity (CT) hosts 64 Keuka; 30 WPI plays 34 Johns Hopkins
16 Redlands hosts 51 Maine-Farmington*; 27 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps plays 41 Whitworth*
8 Wesleyan hosts 58 Lehman; 24 New York University plays 42 Western Connecticut
9 Tufts hosts 57 Penn State-Harrisburg; 21 Babson plays 46 St. Joseph's (Maine)

4 Mary Washington hosts 60 Neumann; 29 TCNJ plays 33 Amherst
13 UW-La Crosse hosts 49 Hope; 19 UW-Whitewater plays 43 Loras
5 Chicago hosts 54 Heidelberg; 32 John Carroll plays 35 Otterbein
12 Gustavus Adolphus hosts 63 Bethany Lutheran; 20 UW-Stevens Point plays 39 Grinnell

2 Emory hosts 61 MUW; 22 Roanoke plays 37 Rhodes
15 Montclair State hosts 50 Vassar; 17 Hood plays 48 Susquehanna
7 Endicott hosts 59 Worcester State; 28 Bates plays 40 Gettysburg
10 Illinois Wesleyan hosts 53 Penn State-Behrend; 31 UW-Platteville plays 44 Washington & Jefferson

3 St. Thomas (TX) hosts 62 Belhaven; 26 Trinity (TX) plays 36 Mary Hardin-Baylor
14 Washington U. hosts 52 Transylvania; 18 Mount Union plays 47 Aurora
6 Randolph-Macon hosts 56 N.C. Wesleyan; 25 Franklin and Marshall plays 38 Cortland
11 Christopher Newport hosts 55 Stevens; 23 Catholic plays 45 Yeshiva

[Greek Tragedy]

Is the selection/bracket show on NCAA.com? I didn't see anything listed.

[ziggy]

Is the selection/bracket show on NCAA.com? I didn't see anything listed.

They always do such a bad job of making it easy to find exactly what the url or right page will be. They really should dual-post the video to NCAA.com and YouTube. Easy to set it up as a premier so that people can't jump ahead.

[KnightSlappy]

d3hoops.com has a post up now containing what should be the direct link (it might show up as Access Denied until show time, but I think that's right):

https://d3hoops.com/playoffs/men/2026/selection-day

[D3BBALL]

First complaint, how do they put Trinity and Tufts and Wesleyan all in the same bracket. The announcer just said, it's good that Tufts and Wesleyan can't meet until elite 8, that is wrong they will meet in sweet 16 and then a potential Trinity vs Tufts/Weslyan in elite 8, makes no sense at all.

[BaboNation]

No favors to my guys placing them with the overall #1 pod @ Trinity.

Mathematically the 2nd round seeds, assuming chalk, would total around 33.  I realize they can't even things out as well as D1, but Trinity (1) and Babson (21) = 22.  And I realize the math for the first round comes out in Babson's favor with St. Joseph's (ME), who will be a handful now that they've got players back.

But how can you justify Catholic (23) not going to Trinity and Babson going to Tufts instead?  Is it mileage?