2026 Conference Tournament and NCAA Selection Thread

[Ejay]

They don't get great crowds in Collegeville. Being a long drive from the Twin Cities doesn't help. But there seems to be push to build more support ... the playoff show was streamed on the video board. That, of course, was at Clemens.

Soccer is across the road and right next to the inflatable dome. Can be breezy there but the pitch is well cared for. Basic metal bleachers in a complex that also has baseball and tennis.

Willing to provide tips to anyone traveling. DM me.

Back in the day played at St. John's in mid-October. It was windy, cold and snowy. Miserable experience, especially after a 3 hour flight.

[Gregory Sager]

This will depend somewhat on results, but I'm betting the Tufts/St. Olaf/St. John's/Chicago (not saying those particular teams will advance, just to be clear which region I am referring to) sweet sixteen/elite eight will be held at one of the Midwest sites. Likely Chicago or St. Olaf assuming one of them advance.

That seems obvious, since it's essentially a sectional that contains one northeastern pod matched with three pods that are not only midwestern, but almost completely consist of schools located west of the Indiana-Illinois state line. There's a 700-mile-plus gap between the westernmost schools in the Tufts pod and the easternmost schools in the three midwestern pods.

The NCAA is not going to fly three midwestern teams to the northeast. They'll fly one northeastern team to the midwest.

Right, I think what's notable about it is that Tufts is the top seed in that sectional, but likely won't have an opportunity to host the 3rd/4th rounds based on the structure of the bracket and budget limitations.

There was a similar situation in 2024 with I believe Amherst where they were the top seed in the sectional and were sent to Eau Claire for the sweet sixteen/elite eight. Some folks on here seemed quite surprised by it at the time, and I think learned the lesson that when it comes to D3 soccer the budget will trump seeding.

Yeah, I also thought that it was kind of strange. Then again, it's hard to feel sorry for any NESCAC team for being potentially shafted in the second weekend in a year in which exactly half of the opening weekend's hosting privileges throughout the entire bracket belong to that league's teams.

I mean, it's one thing for a single league to have one-eighth of the entire bracket of 64 teams. But to host eight of the 16 pod sites as well? It's clear that the bigger concern for the committee when constructing this year's bracket wasn't how to deal with the Texans and the West Coasters; it was how to line up half of the bracket to play on a NESCAC pitch this coming weekend.

[stlawus]

This will depend somewhat on results, but I'm betting the Tufts/St. Olaf/St. John's/Chicago (not saying those particular teams will advance, just to be clear which region I am referring to) sweet sixteen/elite eight will be held at one of the Midwest sites. Likely Chicago or St. Olaf assuming one of them advance.

That seems obvious, since it's essentially a sectional that contains one northeastern pod matched with three pods that are not only midwestern, but almost completely consist of schools located west of the Indiana-Illinois state line. There's a 700-mile-plus gap between the westernmost schools in the Tufts pod and the easternmost schools in the three midwestern pods.

The NCAA is not going to fly three midwestern teams to the northeast. They'll fly one northeastern team to the midwest.

Right, I think what's notable about it is that Tufts is the top seed in that sectional, but likely won't have an opportunity to host the 3rd/4th rounds based on the structure of the bracket and budget limitations.

There was a similar situation in 2024 with I believe Amherst where they were the top seed in the sectional and were sent to Eau Claire for the sweet sixteen/elite eight. Some folks on here seemed quite surprised by it at the time, and I think learned the lesson that when it comes to D3 soccer the budget will trump seeding.

Yeah, I also thought that it was kind of strange. Then again, it's hard to feel sorry for any NESCAC team for being potentially shafted in the second weekend in a year in which exactly half of the opening weekend's hosting privileges throughout the entire bracket belong to that league's teams.

I mean, it's one thing for a single league to have one-eighth of the entire bracket of 64 teams. But to host eight of the 16 pod sites as well? It's clear that the bigger concern for the committee when constructing this year's bracket wasn't how to deal with the Texans and the West Coasters; it was how to line up half of the bracket to play on a NESCAC pitch this coming weekend.

And thus we come back to NPI. Since the top 8 seeds are protected that means the bracket has to be set up such that all top 8 seeds have to be able to have the chance to play each other in the elite 8. And top 8 seeds are hosts by default barring scheduling conflicts.

[Ron Boerger]

There was a similar situation in 2024 with I believe Amherst where they were the top seed in the sectional and were sent to Eau Claire for the sweet sixteen/elite eight. Some folks on here seemed quite surprised by it at the time, and I think learned the lesson that when it comes to D3 soccer the budget will trump seeding.

This is a lesson teams on the West Coast and in Texas learned many years ago.  Welcome to our world.

[Gregory Sager]

This will depend somewhat on results, but I'm betting the Tufts/St. Olaf/St. John's/Chicago (not saying those particular teams will advance, just to be clear which region I am referring to) sweet sixteen/elite eight will be held at one of the Midwest sites. Likely Chicago or St. Olaf assuming one of them advance.

That seems obvious, since it's essentially a sectional that contains one northeastern pod matched with three pods that are not only midwestern, but almost completely consist of schools located west of the Indiana-Illinois state line. There's a 700-mile-plus gap between the westernmost schools in the Tufts pod and the easternmost schools in the three midwestern pods.

The NCAA is not going to fly three midwestern teams to the northeast. They'll fly one northeastern team to the midwest.

Right, I think what's notable about it is that Tufts is the top seed in that sectional, but likely won't have an opportunity to host the 3rd/4th rounds based on the structure of the bracket and budget limitations.

There was a similar situation in 2024 with I believe Amherst where they were the top seed in the sectional and were sent to Eau Claire for the sweet sixteen/elite eight. Some folks on here seemed quite surprised by it at the time, and I think learned the lesson that when it comes to D3 soccer the budget will trump seeding.

Yeah, I also thought that it was kind of strange. Then again, it's hard to feel sorry for any NESCAC team for being potentially shafted in the second weekend in a year in which exactly half of the opening weekend's hosting privileges throughout the entire bracket belong to that league's teams.

I mean, it's one thing for a single league to have one-eighth of the entire bracket of 64 teams. But to host eight of the 16 pod sites as well? It's clear that the bigger concern for the committee when constructing this year's bracket wasn't how to deal with the Texans and the West Coasters; it was how to line up half of the bracket to play on a NESCAC pitch this coming weekend.

And thus we come back to NPI. Since the top 8 seeds are protected that means the bracket has to be set up such that all top 8 seeds have to be able to have the chance to play each other in the elite 8. And top 8 seeds are hosts by default barring scheduling conflicts.

Yes, I know the reason why the NESCAC has eight of the 16 hosting sites. That doesn't make me feel even a tiny bit bad about the possibility that the Jumbos will have to get on a plane to O'Hare or MSP weekend after next.

[repete]

Yeah, was all set for the jokes about the Missionaries' position in the playoffs.