Holy Cow!
Five teams from both the MIAC and WIAC, only one from the CCIW and no Lakeland.
Quite interesting, but not surprising. Instead of having to choose the WIAC or the MIAC, the NCAA chose both. Awesome. Didn’t think that would happen, but I’m happy it worked out that way.
9 Pool C bids from the Central and Midwest, just like in 2005. Pretty sweet.
There is going to be a lot of moving around of regions. Or will the NCAA have MIAC vs. MIAC and WIAC vs. WIAC in the opening round?
The only givens appear to be St. Thomas hosting Central and Wash U, and Carthage hosting Carroll. After that I have no clue how these regionals will look, but here’s what I came up with.
The West and South regionals will be 7-teamers for sure. I think the Great Lakes will be the other. I have Platteville and St. Benedict crossing regions, with Nazareth (or some other random team within driving distance. I chose Nazareth because it has gone to that region before) being driven to Ohio to fill out the Great Lakes.
Like my prior predictions, these are almost assuredly incorrect. But it’s fun (for me, at least) to try to figure out the madness.
This scenario has Carthage and St. Thomas as the No. 1 seeds and Wittenberg gets a bye in its 7-team regional. If the Central or Midwest region were a 7-teamer, St. Thomas or Carthage would lose its No. 1 seed. At least I couldn’t figure out a way to have them keep their top seeds.
Anyway, this all seems to work. Eau Claire might not be happy, but some WIAC team has to play Carthage in the first round. EC is the logical choice.
Carthage Regional
No. 1 seed Carthage
No. 2 seed Whitewater
No. 3 seed Oshkosh
No. 4 seed La Crosse
No. 5 seed St. Benedict
No. 6 seed Carroll
No. 7 seed Webster
No. 8 seed Eau Claire
St. Thomas Regional
No. 1 seed St. Thomas
No. 2 seed Washington
No. 3 seed Bethel
No. 4 seed Carleton
No. 5 seed Nebraska Wesleyan
No. 6 seed Platteville
No. 7 seed Concordia-Moorhead
No. 8 seed Central
-Ricky Nelson
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