2023 NCAA DIII Championship Tournament

[ARM]

Picking fields by subjective "experts" invites the possibility of favoritism; "You pick my team this year, and I'll pick yours next year when you won't be on the committee."

For an example without going too deep into the past, the PairWise wasn't used by D-I for its shortened Covid 2021 season. Instead, the selection committee had a more subjective way of figuring out who to include/exclude. It was always going to be difficult, because there was almost no competition between leagues, but a committee that had a high Hockey East representation selected 3 HEA teams into a field of 8, when it had only one representative for the 2020 tourney that wasn't. They opted to include two mediocre HEA teams that were one and done, passing over a Penn State team that had a dominant regular season. In hindsight, HEA has only had one representative in the first two years of 11-team fields.

[spwood]

With all due respect, no.

I do not have the time to write a 10,000+ word essay with a billion examples. It was a horror show. I don't want to relive it. And quite frankly, nor does anyone else. It was not just me who was unsatisfied.

I'll second this wholeheartedly. There's a reason we collectively called the selection committee the "smoke-filled room"... We never knew where the smoke was coming from and we never knew what was going to emerge from it. We also had an annual thread that was called "My team got screwed"... it became tongue-in-cheek more recently, but in "the day", we had some heated discussions with legitimate gripes.

And I'm going to speak against bodyup88's suggestion #3. As I've mentioned before, some schools just aren't given the budget to make cross country trips for the weekend. Plattsburgh is more than willing to play whomever comes east (not just to Plattsburgh, but wherever within travel constraints they come). Penalizing teams restricted by their university systems against travel isn't an answer either.

[bodyup88]

And I'm going to speak against bodyup88's suggestion #3. As I've mentioned before, some schools just aren't given the budget to make cross country trips for the weekend. Plattsburgh is more than willing to play whomever comes east (not just to Plattsburgh, but wherever within travel constraints they come). Penalizing teams restricted by their university systems against travel isn't an answer either.[/QUOTE]

Not quite sure where the word Penalizing came from in #3. Reward was used in the original post. At this point I certainly don't see any incentive for anyone to do any inter-region competition. It didn't seem to help River Falls this season.

Well, I've been enlightened by everyone. The system is great as it currently stands. Nothing to see here.

[Russell Jaslow]

Not quite sure where the word Penalizing came from in #3. Reward was used in the original post. At this point I certainly don't see any incentive for anyone to do any inter-region competition. It didn't seem to help River Falls this season.

You're penalizing those teams which can't afford it.

Well, I've been enlightened by everyone. The system is great as it currently stands. Nothing to see here.

Oh come on. Stop. I specifically said a) I like the idea of finding a better mathematical system and b) I appreciated your ideas, because there is always some which can be picked up on and moved forward.

If you want to sulk in the corner, go right ahead.

[SHockey98]

I watched it and it sounds like Gustavus is using the "west vs east" as part of their larger "us vs them" narrative every sports team uses to unify themselves against an other they have to prove wrong. Every team does it even if it sounds absurd. In the height of the 4 straight titles for my alma mater one of the captains dropped a "no one thought we could" type line in an interview or conference and I had to laugh.

The Gustie player talking about showing the west deserves to be there every year, I don't know anyone from the East who thinks the top West schools don't belong. There were a lot of predictions for Amherst yesterday but I chalk that up to the Mammoths not having given up a goal all playoffs and being on home ice than people thinking GAC had no shot because they are in the west region.

I was directly across the rink from the East Coast Bias sign yesterday. I don't get it. If there was a bias against the west region St. Thomas would have been passed over as host in 2019 since it was at Adrian in 2017. St. Thomas got what was due to them and even before that the 2019 bracket was set to guarantee at least two western semifinalists (they ended up with 3).

If its about 4 NESCAC teams being in, that's a function of math since they are using PWR. If they were to eliminate the PWR based system and use the old way we'd actually see real human bias come into play selecting the field.

What's the happy medium? Funding inter-region play from somewhere? Adjusting PWR somehow? Putting a cap on at-large bids per conference?

I would like to see something constructive where the western schools, if they feel as aggrieved as it is suggested, make specific complaints/requests so action can be taken instead of their being bad feelings about it.

The reason each bracket often gets whittled down to only one team from the opposite region of the 1 seed is driven by the travel/budget constraints imposed by the NCAA forcing matchups to be within those limits. The eastern schools are not the enemy here

I agree with the fact that the eastern schools aren’t the enemy. However, they are reaping the benefits currently and aren’t too keen towards wanting changes. I do think the west should travel east BUT vice versa. Pairwise isn’t as complicated as people make it out to be. But there needs to be more inter-conference play between all. Again, there’s no easy answer. But if all east schools wanted some change like almost all west schools do, change would happen. However, as people who follow the NCAA know, change takes a long time. It sucks there’s no unified push to make adjustments right now. Maybe if the west continues to break through, THEN we’ll get change. Probably would have came this upcoming season had the refs not jobbed GAC out of back-to-back at Kenyon.

[WCHornet]

I agree with the fact that the eastern schools aren’t the enemy. However, they are reaping the benefits currently and aren’t too keen towards wanting changes. I do think the west should travel east BUT vice versa. Pairwise isn’t as complicated as people make it out to be. But there needs to be more inter-conference play between all. Again, there’s no easy answer. But if all east schools wanted some change like almost all west schools do, change would happen. However, as people who follow the NCAA know, change takes a long time. It sucks there’s no unified push to make adjustments right now. Maybe if the west continues to break through, THEN we’ll get change. Probably would have came this upcoming season had the refs not jobbed GAC out of back-to-back at Kenyon.

One thing to look at, of the previous 11 final 4 sites,4 were in the west. Eastern teams won all 4 of them.

[bodyup88]

There have been been 20 NCAA D3 final fours. 16 of those 20 have been held in the east. Again, the west accounts for 1/3 of all D3 teams

[WCHornet]

There have been been 20 NCAA D3 final fours. 16 of those 20 have been held in the east. Again, the west accounts for 1/3 of all D3 teams

And from the beginning it was to always be at the arena of the top remaining seed. They tweaked it in later years so one at least one out of 4 years would be west.

[4and20]

I was directly across the rink from the East Coast Bias sign yesterday. I don't get it. If there was a bias against the west region St. Thomas would have been passed over as host in 2019 since it was at Adrian in 2017. St. Thomas got what was due to them and even before that the 2019 bracket was set to guarantee at least two western semifinalists (they ended up with 3).

I would like to see something constructive where the western schools, if they feel as aggrieved as it is suggested, make specific complaints/requests so action can be taken instead of their being bad feelings about it.

The reason each bracket often gets whittled down to only one team from the opposite region of the 1 seed is driven by the travel/budget constraints imposed by the NCAA forcing matchups to be within those limits. The eastern schools are not the enemy here

Here is a real or perceived example of something that western fans might have bad feelings about. And not to take anything away from Emily McNamara but of the 23 Coach of the year award winners 12 have been coaches of the winning school along with 5 more having been coaches of the runner up schools. Only 2 award winners have been from West schools and 1 of those was a runner up school. Now I don't know who selects(votes) for the AHCA Coach of the year award (is the committee evenly split between East and West?) but I find it very disappointing that Mike Carroll has not received this award ever much less either of the last two seasons. What else does the guy need to do?

[Russell Jaslow]

Here is a real or perceived example of something that western fans might have bad feelings about. And not to take anything away from Emily McNamara but of the 23 Coach of the year award winners 12 have been coaches of the winning school along with 5 more having been coaches of the runner up schools. Only 2 award winners have been from West schools and 1 of those was a runner up school. Now I don't know who selects(votes) for the AHCA Coach of the year award (is the committee evenly split between East and West?) but I find it very disappointing that Mike Carroll has not received this award ever much less either of the last two seasons. What else does the guy need to do?

I have come to the conclusion that the coach of the year award across all of college hockey encompasses the laziest voting. For the reason you state. It's just another award for a championship instead of some actual thought into who did the best coaching job.