Who Is In The Hunt for Men D2 National Playoffs
Who Is In The Hunt for Men D2 National Playoffs
NCR has 18 spots for the Men's D2 college playoffs, and we're here to talk about who might lay claim to those spots.
Yes, indeed it's still quite early and the play-in round is a month away, but that just means that conference that have playoffs are starting to think about all of that now.
Here goes:
Nine conferences will get Round of 16 while 14 other spots are available for the play-in weekend. Three of those play-ins are expected to be conference champions, while 11 of those play-in spots will be conference runners-up or even #3 teams.
Allegheny Conference: IUP. There's very little doubt that.
Gateway Conference: At 3-0 St. Louis University is at the head of the pack, but remember they have a playoff in the conference and you can often get surprises. But the closest SLU in-conference game was 18 points, so, yeah, we have them favored.
Great Midwest: This conference always brings the upsets. But at the moment Northern Iowa is looking quite strong now. In the South Illinois State and Loyola seem to be the teams coming on there. Frankly, we think all three will make the national playoffs, but certainly the two finalists. Our pick right now is Northern Iowa.
High Peaks: Montana State is expected here.
Liberty Conference: There's a playoff here, too, so we could see someone come on in the knockout rounds (we just talked about there here: RPI Plans to Shake Up D2 ... Again) but, really, the upcoming Marist vs Cornell game probably harbingers the eventualy conference champion. We won't predict the winner here, but with the competitiveness of the Liberty, there's a good chance the runner-up will get a play-in.
Mid-Atlantic: Another conference with a playoff and this one as so many teams that it's very difficult to predict. Scranton, Georgetown, Villanova, and (!) up-and-comer UMBC.
NEWCRC: It's funny how we talked about how competitive this conference is, and then this year the league splits rather decidedly into an upper group and a lower group. Vermont at Norwich tells us a lot here, and there's no playoff so it's quite possible that's a de-facto final.
SCRC: Remember, Auburn isn't in this conversation. Memphis and Georgia Tech are still in it but it looks like Memphis.
Southern Conference: It's still very early days in this conference but right now UNC Wilmington heads the pack but Appalachian State could challenge.
Play-Ins:
Cardinals Conference: Virginia probably leads here but (as an aside) the conference and UVA specifically are terrible at communicating what they're doing so it's tough to really know.
Great Lakes: It's too bad the Great Lakes Conference is in a play-in here because they're not any less competitive than, say, the Southern or High Peaks (High Peaks has to be straight into the final 16 because of travel costs). Grand Valley State is having a really good season and deserves a Round of 16 slot without a play-in.
Northern Lights: At the top this is a competitive conference. Mankato or potential North Dakota State or UM-Duluth, are the teams here. We're banking on MSU Mankato.
Non-Conference Winners:
Runners-up in Great Midwest, NEWCRC, Liberty, MARC, and Allegheny we think for sure should have their runners-up in the play-in. So that gives us eight teams in the play-in and we need six more ... OK here goes: GMW #3, Southern #2, MARC #3, NEWCRC #3 and then maybe Liberty #3 or SCRC #2.We don't have anything listed by NCR from Southern California, and there's a big question from that group. So maybe not them. Perhaps the runner-up from Northern Lights if the top of the conference proves close.
