playoff pairings

[fightingsioux4life]

What I want to see is our team standing on the field in Florence, Alabama on December 16th with the NCAA championship trophy. And there's nothing they could do about it.

Screw you, NCAA!!! We'll see you in Grand Forks next Saturday, whether you like it or not!!!

[bincitysioux]

I didn't pay close attention during the selection show because I was so irate, but did anybody notice where #3 Newberry will be playing next week? According to this , Newberry gets a home game.

It'll be fun to watch Sioux Sports Weekly tonight. I'm sure Lennon won't say much, but I'll be Hammer will have a comment or two.

[jimdahl]

I didn't pay close attention during the selection show because I was so irate, but did anybody notice where #3 Newberry will be playing next week? According to this , Newberry gets a home game.

Earlier in this thread, I said:

They made a big point of noting how UND was hosting only because of today's ruling. That Newberry is hosting without comment is a little interesting.

[D2Football]

Newberry sent a letter of intent to the NCAA regarding its intent to change its mascot, thus lifting the playoff hosting ban.

[rochsioux]

Earlier in this thread, I said:

Newberry College Reaches Agreement with NCAA

[SiouxFanatic]

I just love getting screwed by the a**holes working with the NCAA . I guess we just have something to prove now by beating Winona State(again) and finally getting a win in Nebraska-Omaha when it REALLY counts. GO SIOUX!!

- Is it possible to get an official reason as to why we would drop a spot in the seeding? Or are we just stuck with plausible explanations?

[mksioux]

The selection committee should be subpoenaed for this spring's trial.

There's no need to wait until trial. UND could immediately subpoena them for a deposition as a regular part of the discovery process.

[bincitysioux]

I just love getting screwed by the a**holes working with the NCAA . I guess we just have something to prove now by beating Winona State(again) and finally getting a win in Nebraska-Omaha when it REALLY counts. GO SIOUX!!

- Is it possible to get an official reason as to why we would drop a spot in the seeding? Or are we just stuck with plausible explanations?

I know South Dakota lodged an official complaint with the NCAA for being left out of the playoffs last year and got some sort of official response. I'd assume Buning will be sitting at the typewriter on Monday.

[DamStrait]

I know South Dakota lodged an official complaint with the NCAA for being left out of the playoffs last year and got some sort of official response. I'd assume Buning will be sitting at the typewriter on Monday.

But USD missing last year was not much of a mystery was it? Wasn't it basically a case of the USD coach not understanding the selection criteria?

[BigGame]

2) Division II strength of schedule

Can only go by last weeks region rankings here, in which case UND is clearly ahead and inproved since last week.

1 check for UND

I agree that UND shouldn't have been bumped out of the #2 spot, but I think UNO does have a tougher D2 schedule based upon them playing NW Missouri at the start of the year.

[choyt3]

Seems that the touchdown the Sioux gave up in perceived garbage time yesterday may have been very costly.

[sultan]

I just heard about the fiasco. My chin dropped. Aren't the people on this committee adults. Aren't adults on these panels supposed to have ethics. So there penalizing our players who did nothing wrong and who worked so hard to earn the number 2 seed. It is very sad. The INTEGRITY of the NCAA apparently left the stadium on the horse at Florida State. You know the horse that carries the white person with the war paint, with the bonnet on his head, and carrying the flaming spear or something like that. You know what I mean. I hope they have a hard time looking in the mirror. They should be ASHAMED. This panel is very hostile and abusive towards student athletes. Shame on you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mn_sioux]

Here are the DII football committee members.... I don't know if they make the final selections but they are responsible for the regional rankings.??....

SOUTHWEST REGION AD Bob Boerigter

Northwest Missouri State University

NORTHEAST REGION AD Greg Bamberger

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

SOUTHWEST REGION AD Jeff Geiser

Adams State College Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference

NORTHWEST REGION AD Kevin Buisman

Minnesota State University Mankato NCC

AD, Director of Athletics Joel W. Erdmann

University of North Alabama Gulf South Conference

SOUTHEAST REGION Assistant Commissioner Jeffrey McLeod

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association

NORTHEAST REGION CCD, Head Football Coach Monte Cater

Shepherd University West Virginia Athletic Conf

Commissioner Butch Raymond

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference

http://web1.ncaa.org/committees/committees...mitteeName=2MFB

Ranking guidlines.

http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/champadmin...;PreviewState=0

[Lefty - UNO Fan]

The D2 football board is down so I thought I'd come on here and discuss this from a UNO fan's perspective. UND got jobbed by the committee. I don't know how else to put it. Pat Behrns was on the NW committee, but I don't believe they allow a member to participate in the discussions of their own team. I know UNO had the head-to-head and SOS advantage as well with non-conference games against NW Missouri and Nebraska-Kearney.

However, UND earned the #2 seed. They only lost 1 game and it was on the road against a good team by one point. UNO lost 2 road games badly. I don't understand it, but I'll take it. The Mavericks are much tougher at home.

The one thing I have read on the D2football.com boards is that the regional rankings don't mean anything in the playoff selections except to determine if earned access applies and who hosts the 2 semifinal games. The NW committee was made up of reps from the conferences and not the NCAA itself. I don't think it was retribution, but probably the SOS and head-to-head and perhaps the UNI game not being given any weight.

Look forward to seeing you in Omaha. UNO had 2 weeks to get ready for the Sioux last time and I'm sure that the Mavericks will put that time to good use again. After October 14th I said that UND missed it's last chance to end that terrible streak in Omaha, but I was wrong...thankfully.

[UND92,96]

The D2 football board is down so I thought I'd come on here and discuss this from a UNO fan's perspective. UND got jobbed by the committee. I don't know how else to put it. Pat Behrns was on the NW committee, but I don't believe they allow a member to participate in the discussions of their own team. I know UNO had the head-to-head and SOS advantage as well with non-conference games against NW Missouri and Nebraska-Kearney.

However, UND earned the #2 seed. They only lost 1 game and it was on the road against a good team by one point. UNO lost 2 road games badly. I don't understand it, but I'll take it. The Mavericks are much tougher at home.

The one thing I have read on the D2football.com boards is that the regional rankings don't mean anything in the playoff selections except to determine if earned access applies and who hosts the 2 semifinal games. The NW committee was made up of reps from the conferences and not the NCAA itself. I don't think it was retribution, but probably the SOS and head-to-head and perhaps the UNI game not being given any weight.

Look forward to seeing you in Omaha. UNO had 2 weeks to get ready for the Sioux last time and I'm sure that the Mavericks will put that time to good use again. After October 14th I said that UND missed it's last chance to end that terrible streak in Omaha, but I was wrong...thankfully.

I really don't believe this was the work of the regional committee, because the differing rankings from last week compared to the seeds now only serves to make them look bad. Had they simply had UNO ranked ahead of UND last week, there wouldn't be anywhere near the complaining now, because few people would have expected (maybe hoped, but not expected) UND to leapfrog UNO even after beating USD. It's one thing if fans are the only ones who were blindsided by this, but it appears from interviews yesterday that even coaches Lennon and Behrns expected UND to be 2 and UNO to be 3. All signs point to the regional committee being overruled, which has happened before, and likely will happen again.

What makes this even more irritating is that apparently UND either needed to go undefeated against dII competition to get a top-2 seed, or else lose to somebody worse than UNO so that head-to-head wasn't such a big problem. In either case, it's difficult to swallow that a one-point loss on the road against the co-NCC champion should have relegated UND to a 3 seed.

[GeauxSioux]

Pensacola is hosting the 2006 Division II National Sports Festival this weekend. Just to thumb my nose at the pinheads of the NCAA, I'll be attending some of the events wearing one of my favorite Sioux sweatshirts. Green sweatshirt with the word SIOUX in 6-inch letters.

[rochsioux]

Let's look at each of the four regions and how the prior weeks regional rankings played out for the 1/2 seeds:

Northeast:

1. Shepherd defeated unranked West Virginia State

Received #1 seed.

2. Bloomsburg defeated unranked Cheyney

Received #2 seed.

Southwest:

1. Northwest Missouri defeated unranked Southwest Babtist

Received #1 seed.

2. Chadron State defeated unranked Adams State

Received #2 seed.

Southeast:

1. Newberry lost to #9 Presbyterian

Received #3 seed

2. North Alabama defeated unranked West Alabama

Received #2 seed

3. NC Central defeated #4 Elizabeth City

Received #1 seed

Northwest:

1. Grand Valley defeated unranked Northern Michigan

Received #1 seed

2. North Dakota SIOUX defeated #3 South Dakota

Received #3 seed

3. South Dakota lost to #2 North Dakota

Received #5 seed

4. UNO defeated #12 Central Washington

Received #2 seed.

So, in every region except for the SIOUX, if a #1 or #2 seed won they received a bye.

The only top 2 ranked team to lose was Newberry which was then dropped to the #3 seed.

With Newberry losing, NC Central (at #3) leapfrogged the #2 seed North Alabama, who also won. North Alabama beat an unranked team while NC Central beat the #4 seed. This seamed to be enough to put them ahead of North Alabama.

The reverse happened to the SIOUX. The SIOUX beat the #3 seed and get DROPPED from #2 to #3.

There is absolutely no integrity in this process. No one can convince me that the seeding for the SIOUX was not a direct result of the lawsuit and the injunction. The NC$$ is a corrupt, monopolistic organization and I wish nothing but the worst for Brand and co. I hope the judge is paying attention as this seems to be a willful act of defiance and thumbing their nose at the court (i.e, if we can't deny them homefield we will do everything in our power to limit the possibility of a home game and screw them as much as possible). It would have been too blatent, even for the NC$$ to give the SIOUX a #5 or #6 seed to totally deny all home games.

[Lefty - UNO Fan]

All these arguments make sense if the regional rankings and the playoff selections are made by the same people on the same criteria. Clearly they are not.

[Diggler]

All these arguments make sense if the regional rankings and the playoff selections are made by the same people on the same criteria. Clearly they are not.

Clearly they aren't even made by people but rather by monkeys who's heads shoved up each other's arses.

[SiouxMeNow]

arse? I had NO IDEA you were british Diggler If you have to find a good side to this (and it's tough) it should be a MAJOR motivating factor for Dale and the boys to go whereever the NC$$ sends them and KICK SOME ARSE*!!

(* - BTW - Being British isn't so bad...John Cleese in Fawlty Towers? one of the BEST SITCOMS EVER!! )

(BTW2 - Chipper contest is ON on the GV Board...enter it! Shipping stuff to Michigan is killing me!)

[mksioux]

Here is the story on the selection by the Herald. As expected, it's PC cliches from Lennon. There is no suggestion by Lennon or the reporter that dropping to #3 was retribution for the lawsuit/injunction. I suppose it doesn't do any good for Lennon to dwell on it, but I hoped the reporter might have at least raised the possibility and maybe tried to get an explanation from a committee member.

[UND92,96]

Here's the article from the Omaha paper. It has a bit more speculation as to what the reasoning of the committee(s) was for having UNO leapfrog UND.

"As (Saturday) was unveiled, and knowing a little about that committee and what they had been doing in recent weeks, I thought that if we could get next to (North Dakota) we might have a chance because of our head-to-head," UNO coach Pat Behrns said.

Luckily for UNO, USD wasn't "next to" them in the rankings. In kind of a strange way, USD's loss to Mankato may have actually hurt UND, even though it would have resulted in a three-way tie for the conference title instead of a two-way tie.

[jimdahl]

The Herald added this insight:

A key element in the regional selection committee's ranking apparently centers on in-region records. Omaha has only one in-region loss, that coming against South Dakota. Omaha's other loss came out of region against Division II power Northwest Missouri. UND's only loss in 10 games was its in-region setback against Omaha. That may have tipped the scales in favor of Omaha.

If the probability of the in-region selection criteria is true, the question exists why Omaha wasn't ranked ahead of UND before Sunday's final poll.

I still think UND should be ahead of UNO, but I also still don't buy the conspiracy theory. I just think the regional poll people considered UND ahead of Omaha, whereas the national people thought it was close enough that they broke the "tie" with the head-to-head.

Either way, as Dale Lennon said,

“There is absolutely nothing you can do about it,” said UND coach Dale Lennon. “It's like a ballgame. It's a call that went against you. You just go on.”

[jimdahl]

A little more from the Herald. As many of us expected:

The regional committee seeded UND second; the national committee overruled it, said Kevin Buisman, the regional chairman.

And:

“The nickname had nothing to do with the process,” Buisman said. “It was no factor at all. There was nothing personal and no agendas.” Buisman was polite in giving the rationale for the overturn, which he supported. Some of his explanation made sense; most of it didn't. The most mind-numbing was that Omaha received more credit for getting drubbed 31-0 by Northwest Missouri State than UND did for defeating Division I-AA Northern Iowa.

Unfortunately, I remember this being true. After a couple years of the punishment for playing I-AA's being removed, and after UND scheduled UNI, I remember the rules changing (again) last Spring such that defeating a I-AA was once again worse than losing to a good D-II. That would have, of course, been incorporated in the weekly regional rankings as well, but it's one more way that the two teams could have appeared closer than we expected.

[Bison Dan]

The Herald added this insight:

I still think UND should be ahead of UNO, but I also still don't buy the conspiracy theory. I just think the regional poll people considered UND ahead of Omaha, whereas the national people thought it was close enough that they broke the "tie" with the head-to-head.

Either way, as Dale Lennon said,