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Assessing The DII Seed Choices

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Assessing The DII Seed Choices

Did USA Rugby do it right after all?

Plenty of DII college rugby fans weren't happy with the choice of at-large teams.

USA Rugby collegiate jefe Rich Cortez said it was a tough choice, and acknowledged to Goff Rugby Report that maybe the MARC deserved a second seed, and perhaps there shouldn't be a #3 team in the playoffs.

But he also said that new conferences, or conferences that were unable to compete last year (Deep South), and new teams should not get extra seeds. Our discussion about this got a little heated, but not disturbingly so. 

"What would you have me do? Give everyone three seeds and we all get in the playoffs?" said Cortez, not unkindly. 

My reply was to suggest that 10 conferences get one seed, and three conferences get two, and you go to a straight Round of 16. Cortez didn't care for that (didn't hate it, either), saying that there's a legitimate argument for some play-in games and asking for some teams to prove themselves.

(An aside, the Tri-State Conference was supposed to be in a play-in, but scheduled the conference final for November 12, making a play-in impossible. That won't happen next year. If the Tri-State finalizes on the weekend of play-ins, that may well mean no playoffs for the Tri-State.)

So let's see if the play-ins were right or fair or good, or what:

 

Giving WIIL 3 Seeds

Worked. #3 UW-Milwaukee beat Northern Lights #2 Minnesota-Duluth (one of the strongest DII programs of this decade), thus proving that the WILL could well be the toughest conference in the nation.

 

Giving Southern Conference 3 Seeds

Didn't work. Or at least, didn't succeed. ECU lost to Cardinals #2 NSCU. 

 

Making Upstate NY Play-In

Proved wrong. SUNY Oswego won in a blowout against Southern Connecticut State, and should have had a straight shot to the Round of 16 in my humble opinion. In addition, Upstate might have deserved to have a 2nd seed, Geneseo in this case, in the playoffs.

 

Making Deep South Play-In

Made sense. Louisiana Tech has struggled the last few years to find games. They lost to Furman, showing that a play-in was the right choice.

 

Making The Midwest Play-In

Reply hazy. IUPUI lost, but lost 24-21 to Illinois State, which is a really, really good team. Seems like it was a bit harsh to ask a conference champion, in this case, play-in. But they did lose.

 

No Wild Card for MARC or Great Lakes

MARC was clearly hurt, and Rowan's success in D1AA should have been seen as an indicator that the MARC is strong, rather than an indication that the conference lost its best team. As for the Great Lakes, I get that the conference hasn't been any great shakes outside of GVSU, but Bethel College almost beat GVSU, and it would have been nice to see Bethel in there.

 

A Reminder

It's not just about seeds and competition, it's about geography. If you think a team in West Virginia deserves a play-in, but the only team they can play is in Colorado, then you've got an issue. So USA Rugby is trying to make it workable for these play-ins to happen.