Division III Teams: D1 or D3 Regionals?

If you’re a Division III team, you have quite the choice to make this year for Regionals. Most of you will probably qualify at least for the DIII regionals, but many of you will have the option of accepting a bid to face D1 competition. This is going to create quite the stir for the DI crowd, as they will be waiting on your decision to see if they can qualify.

First, here’s how the process works, and I’ll use the Atlantic Coast Conference as an example. Below is the ranking from the previous week, which will be updated today.

12 (0)	Virginia	1805 (47)	AC	VA	8 – 7
33 (1)	Virginia Tech	1544 (45)	AC	VA	19 – 5
41 (1)	North Carolina-Wilmington	1476 (34)	AC	CAR	10 – 15
49 (2)	Delaware	1412 (58)	AC	COL	11 – 8
56 (3)	James Madison	1378 (53)	AC	VA	8 – 5
67 (6)	North Carolina	1315 (46)	AC	CAR	13 – 11
75 (5)	East Carolina	1276 (68)	AC	CAR	11 – 6
78 (7)	Towson	1259 (64)	AC	COL	13 – 9
97 (1)	Georgetown	1195 (79)	AC	COL	10 – 9
101 (n/a)	George Washington	1183 (n/a)	AC	COL	4 – 4
108 (15)	Clemson	1173 (41)	AC	CAR	12 – 10
114 (9)	North Carolina State	1163 (62)	AC	CAR	5 – 15
120 (13)	Maryland	1139 (42)	AC	COL	15 – 17
126 (22)	South Carolina	1116 (14)	AC	CAR	17 – 11
131 (23)	William & Mary	1105 (14)	AC	VA	12 – 7
147 (6)	Duke	1054 (105)	AC	CAR	10 – 9
150 (16)	Wake Forest	1043 (48)	AC	CAR-III	8 – 13

There are 5 open division conferences with automatic bids. CAR, CAR-III, VA, NAC-III, COL. Thus, the top ranked teams from each of those conferences are taken off the list.

CAR- UNCW

CAR-III-Wake Forest

VA-Virginia

COL-Delaware

NAC_III-Richmond

Now, we calculate the conference strength bids, which is the average ranking of the top four teams in each conference. There will be three conference strength bids since there are at least four conferences. We can easily tell here that the 3 D1 Conferences will be getting the bids. Thus, we represent those bids with the highest ranked teams left.

CAR-UNC

VA-Virginia Tech

COL-Towson

Now we have 8 team strength bids to consider. Taking everyone else already accounted for off the list we get…

56 (3)	James Madison	1378 (53)	AC	VA	8 – 5
75 (5)	East Carolina	1276 (68)	AC	CAR	11 – 6
97 (1)	Georgetown	1195 (79)	AC	COL	10 – 9
101 (n/a)	George Washington	1183 (n/a)	AC	COL	4 – 4
108 (15)	Clemson	1173 (41)	AC	CAR	12 – 10
114 (9)	North Carolina State	1163 (62)	AC	CAR	5 – 15
120 (13)	Maryland	1139 (42)	AC	COL	15 – 17
126 (22)	South Carolina	1116 (14)	AC	CAR	17 – 11
131 (23)	William & Mary	1105 (14)	AC	VA	12 – 7
147 (6)	Duke	1054 (105)	AC	CAR	10 – 9

We simply then take the next 9 teams on the ranking list and apply those bids to their respective conferences…

1. VA-James Madison
2. CAR-East Carolina
3. COL-Georgetown
4. COL-George Washington
5. CAR-Clemson
6. CAR-NCState
7. COL-Maryland
8. CAR-South Carolina

This gives us the bid allocation below, with the 16 available bids represented by the team who got them.

VA-3	CAR-6	COL-5	NAC-III-1	CAR-III-1
UVA	UNCW	Delaware	Richmond	Wake Forest
VT	UNC	Towson
JMU	ECU	Georgetown
	Clemson	George Washington
	NCSU
	USC

This leaves W&M as the odd D-I team out, with automatic bids going to Richmond and Wake Forest. However, with W&M being the next team in line to receive a strength bid, should Richmond or Wake Forest decline their D-I bid, we get the conference wait-list to be like this.

131 (23)

William & Mary

1105 (14)

AC

VA

12 – 7

147 (6)	Duke	1054 (105)	AC	CAR	10 – 9
178 (24)	Davidson	936 (36)	AC	CAR-III	8 – 5
184 (22)	Elon	920 (55)	AC	CAR-III	9 – 10
194 (4)	American	884 (125)	AC	COL	5 – 4
219 (38)	Charleston	807 (20)	AC	CAR	6 – 10
230 (n/a)	Johns Hopkins	781 (n/a)	AC	COL	3 – 2
233 (n/a)	Appalachian State	763 (n/a)	AC	CAR	7 – 1
244 (48)	Salisbury	728 (3)	AC	COL	4 – 3

I’m going to assume that a DI team would never turn down a bid to DI regionals. So if Richmond or Wake Forest turn down their DI Bids, it goes to the conference next in line for a strength bid.

1. W&M-VA 4th Place finishing team would get the bid
2. Duke-CAR 7th Place finishing Team
3. Davidson-CAR-III 2nd Place Finishing Team
4. Elon-CAR-III-3rd Place Finishing Team
5. American-COL-6th Place Finishing Team

Thus if all the DIII teams turn down their bids, you’d see the VA and CAR conferences get a 4th and 7th team into regionals.

Now becomes the question, what regionals competition does a DIII team choose? There are definitely DIII teams across the country who have a great shot at making it to DI nationals. If I think I have a good chance at making it to DI nationals, I’m going to take that chance. Lets be honest here for the DIII teams in the AC region, they aren’t highly ranked, and aren’t going to beat the top D-1 ranked teams to get in.

However, they do have a chance to make DIII nationals in Buffalo, NY. This would extend the season, and give them a chance on the national stage. Wake Forest, Elon, Davidson, Richmond would all be competitive against each other, and I’m sure it’d be pretty exciting to say that they went to Nationals.

Now I want your take, if you’re a D-III team, tell me what you guys are planning on doing should you have that opportunity. I’d love to hear feedback on this, and any questions on how bids would work out. I’ve been studying those USAU rules on this for about a year now, so hopefully I’m right.