Saturday, April 2, 2016

What if NCAA Division II had all the postseason tournaments Division I has?

A coworker and I were talking about the Stanislaus State women's basketball team the day after they lost the first round of the CCAA (California Collegiate Athletic Association) tournament against CSU-San Bernardino. He said, "And in Division II, there is no NIT, CIT, or anything. It's 'turn in your jersey on Monday.'"  That got me thinking. What if there were all these additional tournaments for NCAA Division II?  First of all, if the qualifying procedures were the same for Division II as they are in Division I, Stanislaus State would automatically qualify for the Division II WNIT as the top team of the CCAA not to make the NCAA tournament. Here is what I have designed for the men's side.

NIT
In division I, regular season conference champions that do not make the NCAA tournament get an automatic bid to the NIT. However, in division II, it is rare that the regular season conference champion does not make the NCAA tournament. In fact, out of 24 conferences in division II, only two regular season chanpions did not make the Division II tournament, and one of them was ineligible, because the school has not been a division II school long enough (yes, division II has that rule, too). Therefore, in my mind, I made some changes for division II NIT. First, I would split the 32 teams in the same regions that the NCAA Division II tournament has, so I have them split in eight regions of four teams each. Also, instead of having just the higher seed host, I would have the top seed host the regions (with one exception). Second, the top team in each conference that did not make the NCAA tournament would get an automatic bid, with the top ranked team in each region not already in a tournament get an at-large bid.  Here is what my NIT would look like:

WEST at Dixie St.
(4) CSU-Monterey Bay @ (1) Dixie St.
(3) Alaska-Anchorage vs. (2) Alaska-Fairbanks (This is my exception. Since they are both Alaska teams, and that state is a long way from the lower 48 states, I would have UAF host that game, and the winner go to St. George, UT to play the winner of the other game.)

SOUTH CENTRAL  at West Texas A&M
(4) Texas A&M International @ (1) West Texas A&M
(3) Cameron vs. (2) Colorado Mesa

CENTRAL at East Central
(4) Northern St. @ (1) East Central
(3) Pittsburg St. vs. (2) Missouri Southern St.

MIDWEST at Findlay
(4) Alderson-Broaddus @ (1) Findlay
(3) Drury vs. (2) Lake Superior St.

EAST at Adelphi
(4) Bloomfield @ (1) Adelphi
(3) Daemen vs. (2) Merrimack

ATLANTIC at Indiana (PA)
(4) Chowan @ (1) Indiana (PA)
(3) Notre Dame (OH) vs. (2) East Stroudsburg

SOUTHEAST at Barton
(4) Young Harris @ (1) Barton
(3) Newberry vs. (2) Augusta St.

SOUTH at Delta St.
(4) Miles @ (1) Delta St.
(3) Lynn vs. (2) Valdosta St.

Vegas 16
First, for Division II, I'd move it to Reno and put it in the Reno Events Center. The idea of the Vegas 16 was to have 8 teams from the power conferences and 8 teams from the others. I don't know what the power conferences are in Division II, but I used the top 7 ranked conferences as the power conferences and took the top 8 ranked in each section for my team selection. Here would-be my bracket

How I would make Reno 16
Power Conferences
CCAA
LSC
PAC WEST
GLIAC
HC
NSIC
PSAC

Tournament
Lindenwood vs. BYU-Hawaii
St. Martin’s vs. Grand Valley St.
Southern Indiana vs. Hillsdale
Chaminade vs. Truman St
Montana St.-Billings vs. Hawaii Pacific
Sonoma St. vs. Quincy
Western Washington vs. San Francisco St.
Point Loma vs. Central Washington

By the way, since the real Vegas 16 couldn't field 16 teams, they should have just made the first day a showcase of division II basketball teams, just my opinion.

CBI
I would make this one work like the real CBI. For the team selection, I just used the top 16 ranked teams. I didn't pay attention to records.

Metro St. @ Dominican (CA)
Cal State-L.A @ Winona St
Shippensburg @ Texas A&M-Commerce
Michigan Tech @ Newman
Mary @ St. Edward’s
Sioux Falls @ Walsh
Upper Iowa @ Hawai'i-Hilo
Texas-Permian Basin @ Northwood

CIT
The one change I would make is to seed the top 8 teams to make sure they don't play each other until the quarterfinals. I would make everything else the same.

Southern Arkansas (GAC) @ (8) Central Oklahoma (MIAA)
Bridgeport (ECC) @ (7) Franklin Pierce (NE-10)
University of the Sciences (CACC) @ Bloomsburg (PSAC)
Trevecca Nazarene (GMAC) @ Carson-Newman (SAC)
Georgia College & State (PBC) @ Emmanuel (CC)
Colorado-Colorado Springs (RMAC) @ (5) Colorado St.-Pueblo (RMAC)
Minnesota-Duluth (NSIC) @ (4) Washburn (MIAA)
Lincoln (MO) (MIAA) @ (2) Rodgers St. (GAC)
Slippery Rock (PSAC) @ Bowie St. (CIAA)
Long Island-Post (ECC) @ Pittsburgh-Johnstown (PSAC)
Edinboro (PSAC) @ West Virginia Wesleyan (MEC)
Charleston (MEC) @ Shepherd  (MEC)
New Mexico Highlands (RMAC) @ (1) Concordia-Irvine (PacWest)
North Alabama (GSC) @ Embry - Riddle (IND)
Oakland City (IND) @ (3) San Marcos St. (CCAA)
Minot St. (NSIC) @ (6) Fresno Pacific (PacWest)